PAPER AND DIGITAL FILES -- WHAT'S REALLY AT RISK?

Congress mandated the USGS and the Association of American State Geologists to provide a National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB; http://ngmdb.usgs.gov) of standardized, spatial geoscience information. In this partnership, collaboration occurs with the private sector, universities, and geological survey agencies in other countries. The NGMDB is a hybrid – some aspects are centralized and some are distributed, with the map information held by various cooperators (for example, the State geological surveys). Via the NGMDB website, users can browse and query its various databases, and obtain access to the source information wherever it resides. This source information can range from formally published reports and maps, to “gray literature”, to unpublished documents.

Whether this source information is readily accessible and, in the long term remains so, is a critical issue for the geosciences. Accessibility depends on numerous factors including agency strategies and policies for information preservation and management, and the nature of the source information. Given the limited funding available to preserve and to manage, for example, an agency’s publications and unpublished documents, what types of paper and digital files should be given highest priority? During the NGMDB project’s thirteen years of work, we have gained some insight and experience on the subject, especially with regard to the critical issues related to managing information in digital formats.