USING THE INTERNET FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF DATA AND OUT-OF-PRINT PUBLICATIONS AT THE KANSAS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

The Kansas Geological Survey has been distributing data over the WWW since 1995. While early web pages focussed on educational information and news (contact lists, news releases), we have worked to add data from our oil and gas and water-well databases and to add selected out-of-print publications to the web site. Adding raw data to the web site was facilitated through the use of relational databases and a consistent use of the internet as the only interface to the data. Raw data are added in two ways. First, a subset of data is typed in from each well record. The columns to be added were selected based on consultation with KGS scientists. Then, for water wells, the well-completion form is scanned and placed online. Both a high-resolution TIFF (for archival purposes) and a quick-to-load GIF are saved for each form. Oil and gas completion forms are scanned using a similar process for areas of interest. During the school year, one student can complete 600-700 scans a month, keeping up with incoming records. Additional time and student help in the summer allows us to go back through counties, scanning old forms and checking each record. Out-of-print publications that are major geologic works for counties are OCR'd and turned into web pages. Scanning and checking the text takes a student only a few days; typing in tables of data takes longer but is done to add as much of the publication as possible. Large sheets are not done at this time, though Acrobat PDF files might be used in the future. With minimal investments in equipment (less than $1,000 for a PC and scanner) and students, a large number of scans and raw data can be added to a web site. Customers from other population centers in Kansas and from companies across the US can access original data. Using a centralized database to tie together related data for each water or oil and gas well allows researchers to learn everything about a well in one query. Web pages are used exclusively to edit databases as well, so that the only software needed for retrieving or creating data is a web browser.