THE NATIONAL GEOLOGIC MAP DATABASE -- RESOURCE FOR MAPPERS AND THE PUBLIC

From its mandate in the Geologic Mapping Act of 1992, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Association of American State Geologists (representing the State geological surveys) have worked together to build the National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB, http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/). The NGMDB is stipulated to be a standardized, "national archive" of geoscience information (maps and reports, both published and unpublished), made available to the public to support decisionmaking, research, and other needs. The website for this resource launched in 1996. Each month, it serves more than 130,000 users, who visit the site more than a quarter-million times.

To support scientists, decisionmakers, and the general public, the NGMDB provides numerous resources including: the U.S. Geologic Names Lexicon (Geolex); the Geoscience Map Catalog; standards and guidelines for compilation and production of geologic maps and databases; and an interactive viewer and downloader for topographic maps (topoView). The NGMDB also is developing new capabilities including a certified Trusted Digital Repository that will manage all geologic map databases published in the new standard schema known as "GeMS" (Geologic Map Schema), a revised back-end database for managing all NGMDB citation content, and two map-based interfaces for browsing and using the publications available through the NGMDB’s Catalog.