DATA RESCUE FOR YOUR OWN LEGACY RESEARCH

Collection of digital data has become increasingly common in geoscience research and enables analysis, sharing, archiving, and reuse of data. Development of digital data systems such as StraboSpot standardize field and laboratory data collection and make it widely available. As critical as these trends are for current and future research, they do not address the issue of legacy research projects with data and research materials available only in non-digital format. Efforts by state and national agencies are addressing rescue and accessibility of critically important legacy research data. But what can and should individual researchers do about their own legacy projects? There is no one right answer to this question. The strategy we used focused on making research data as useful as possible for immediate reuse. Our legacy projects include several 1970s and early 1980s research projects in SW Colorado. The aim of the data rescue effort is to transfer all data, maps, samples, and thin sections to Fort Lewis College, where a new faculty member plans to use the collection to jump-start research projects with her students. Data rescue is especially important, because much of the original research area has recently been designated a no-sampling area.

We downloaded legacy 7.5' topographic maps from the USGS National Map website and created a map in ArcGIS Pro, which allowed us to develop a digital archive using the same topo map base on which the mapping was originally done. We had no lat/lon data for field stations, so we added stations manually by inspection, matching labeled pinhole locations on the original paper field maps with identical spots on the legacy topos in ArcGIS Pro. We added scans of 35 mm slides and field notes associated with each station as attachments to station points in the ArcGIS Pro database. We also took high quality digital photos of all field samples, prepared a searchable Lightroom catalog, and added lower resolution versions of the sample photos as attachments to stations in the geodatabase. With digitized the station locations, plus photos attached in the database, other products can be created that are particularly useful in the field, including shapefiles and kmz files that not only have station locations but also have sample photos and notes for use in the field with apps such as Google Earth or Avenza maps.