THE GLOBAL KARST DIGITAL PORTAL: AN EMERGING COLLABORATORIUM

The National Cave and Karst Research Institute, the University of South Florida, and the University of New Mexico are developing a on-line portal to enhance information access and improve communication within the national and international karst community. The partnership will develop an on-line portal housed at the three institutions and provide free access to a variety of information including journal articles, images, maps, datasets, bibliographies, and gray literature. This holistic undertaking seeks to bring karst research forward in the digital age. In addition, the project will create global connections by including a user-generated submission process for enhancing the diversity of materials available through the portal. We are currently transforming A Guide to Speleological Literature of the English Language 1794-1996 into the portal's first searchable on-line product. In the future, thematic areas, such as cave sediments, conduit flow models, sinkholes, geoengineering, and speleothem records of climate change, are among the many topics to be included in the portal. A key component of this project is the gathering of lesser-known materials, such as masters' theses, technical reports, agency file reports, maps, images, and newsletters. We seek input from the karst community as to what materials are most critical to bring on-line at the outset of the project and on the identification of significant repositories of karst digital data and information. The U.S. Congress has charged NCKRI to centralize and standardize speleological information and to promote national and international cooperation. The international community has expressed a desire for greater information coordination and global accessibility. Thus, this project responds to disciplinary needs by integrating individual scientists into a global network through the karst information portal.