COMMUNICATING GEOSCIENCE INFORMATION TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC: INNOVATIONS IN DATA-TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY

The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) is developing a system to make geologic databases available to the public. Achieving this objective has required communication and cooperation among the database developers, customer-service personnel who deliver the databases to the public and respond to inquiries, and customers who use the databases. The databases are provided using the Internet and CD-ROM media. It is easy to overestimate the “user-friendliness” of Internet and CD-ROM technology. The KGS experiences in delivering a catalog of publications online, a database of coal borehole records, and digitally vectorized geologic quadrangle data sets by CD-ROM illustrate what the developers of technology transfer can do to make the data and data-transfer techniques as “user-friendly”as possible. All three cases show that proper planning of the technology transfer and careful consideration of the audience is crucial. The potential audience who would benefit from access to and use of the data is often unfamiliar with the data and, in some cases, the data-transfer technique. Therefore, innovative use of data-transfer technology to address the audience in a way that does not overwhelm or confuse them, and properly and clearly explains the data is essential.