DATA CURATION AT LACCORE, THE NATIONAL LACUSTRINE CORE FACILITY

Paleolimnological research encompasses scales ranging from less than a single meter to thousands of meters of core, and an ever-growing array of scientific objectives. LacCore, the National Lacustrine Core Facility, currently archives more than 12,000 meters of core in the physical repository and manages data/metadata for these cores, as well as many additional cores stored at other institutions. In total, these materials derive from >2500 holes at sites distributed worldwide. In addition to core curation, LacCore annually supports an average of 250 projects and 1,100 visitor-days for work on cores. LacCore strives to meet the curatorial needs of this varied community and to make data and metadata easily available to the public, but the constant demands of daily project support make data management an ongoing challenge. The experiences of other core repositories provide a starting point for effective practices, but fundamental differences in community history and the setting and scale of lacustrine projects require substantial expansion of the model. LacCore has established a set of minimum metadata requirements for materials processed at the laboratory, including those not accessioned to the repository, to insure maximum future scientific value for cores and other samples. In order to collect metadata most efficiently, LacCore requires metadata submission as the only “fee” in advance of facility use. Experience has also shown the importance of capturing all data and metadata as they are generated at the facility, rather than relying on subsequent digitization and/or organization. Gathering metadata for archived legacy cores, some of which were collected half a century ago, is phenomenally difficult in comparison, as PIs are unknown or are unable to reconstruct the necessary information. Subsequently, all collected data must be available in meaningful formats for maximum effective data discovery and utilization. Creation and refinement of tools (e.g. online databases) in the absence of funds for IT support for these efforts require skills that are developed slowly by existing staff. Utilization of existing resources is maximized in the interim.