SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES OF DATA RESCUE AND PRESERVATION AT THE ALASKA DIVISION OF GEOLOGIC & GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS

The Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) was a major participant in the federally funded Minerals Data and Information Rescue in Alaska (MDIRA) Program. MDIRA was a seven-year program funded through special appropriations to the U.S Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Primary goals of the program were to recover and archive legacy publications, data, and geologic materials and to develop information delivery systems for maintaining, updating, and making Alaska geologic and mineral-resource information publicly available. The recovered information, including mining claim status, mineral localities, geochemistry, geologic maps, and publications, is delivered through the Internet portal http://AKGeology.info.

The MDIRA program enabled DGGS to document and preserve geologic information in several ways. DGGS was responsible for scanning publications with Alaska content by the USGS and DGGS and creating an internet-accessible repository for the scanned documents. DGGS also created databases including a geologic map index, a geochronologic database, and a geochemical database and is making these databases available online. DGGS also recovered and documented GIS data used to produce geologic and thematic maps prior to 2001 and made those data available online. To support these activities, DGGS adopted appropriate new data standards, designed an institutional geologic database, developed a database-driven website for efficient information delivery, and upgraded the agency data infrastructure. Although the program was minerals related, DGGS designed its data archival and management systems to accommodate other types of geologic data as well.

MDIRA highlighted several factors that ensure success of similar future programs. These factors include (1) adopting data standards that are independent of proprietary software and hardware, (2) ensuring cooperation among agencies with formal agreements and documentation, (3) keeping design of databases and applications simple yet flexible, (4) building small data components while ensuring interconnection of related datasets, (5) preparing for agency closure and turnover of key personnel, and (6) establishing public outreach, education, and training as a key ingredient of the program.