Documents — Information Management

PDF of the 2010 Information Managers Committee meeting website.

2010 IM Committee Report to the EB

2009 IM Committee Meeting Report

Spring 2009 Information Management Committee Report

EML Best Practices Document from 2004 – the original document never archived has been slightly modified to fix hyperlinks and fix minor typographic errors.

PDF of the 2008 Information Managers Committee meeting website.

The theme of this issue is Updating Legacy Websites, and several feature articles describe recent upgrades to LTER web sites and supporting technology. Linda Powell describes a major redesign of the FCE web site, Wade Sheldon describes the development of a web-based document and imagery archive at GCE, Hung Nguyen and Corinna Gries describe a novel approach to enhancing the effectiveness of metadata keyword searching in the CAP data catalog, and James Connors and Mason Kortz describe Application Program Interfaces designed by PAL and CCE to support web development projects.

IMEXEC VTC Meeting Notes – August 2007

IMEXEC VTC Meeting Notes – September 2007

IMEXEC VTC Meeting Notes – October 2007

IMEXEC VTC Meeting Notes – December 2007

IMEXEC VTC Meeting Notes – November 2007

2007 IM Committee Meeting Website Archive

This issue features an article on career development in the field of Information Management by Karen Baker, a longtime LTER Information Manager who also conducts theoretical research in this field. We also hear critical opinions on the pros and cons and progress of networking in LTER, and learn of the status of a new and welcomed network project. The Editorial section has been renamed Commentary in order to capture the experience of community participants and to suggest that observations and opinions presented are open to dialogue.

This RFC#3 from Network Information System Group at LNO regarding the implementation of the LTER Network data access policy. (2007)

Featured in this issue: Welcome to the Spring 2007 issue of Databits! Twenty-two authors or coauthors submitted articles for this issue, which is a testament to the committment of Information Managers to sharing information. The articles represent the diversity of interests within the LTER IM community and highlight a number of current topics. Most notably, there is a discussion about proposed changes in the organizational structure of the IM committee that would better integrate the GIS working group and the Technology Committee.

Report of the annual LTER Information Managers Meeting on September 18-20, 2006 in Estes Park, Colorado.

Featured in this issue: This issue of Databits follows the September, 2006 LTER Information Managers’ Meeting in Estes Park, Colorado. The IM meeting was held in conjunction with the LTER All Scientists’ Meeting and included a number of Information Managers from around the world. In recent years, there has been an emphasis on establishing relationships among members of the International LTER community. This issue of Databits reflects this initiative with contributions from several ILTER participants.

Summary of Information Managers Committee (IMC) activities since LTER CC meeting at VCR, September 2005. Prepared by IMExec 8 May 2006.

Featured in this issue: Welcome to a robust issue of the Spring 2006 DataBits’!!! We had many submittals this issue and the articles really show the diversity of this group. We hope you have as much fun reading this issue as we did putting it together. As many of the LTER sites have EML documents being generated, the focus of the IM community has shifted from generating EML to working with EML. There is a series of four articles in this issue of DataBits’ that explore multiple approaches with differing timeframes that IM’s are developing that will lead to better data discovery within EML.

Reference document for formal reviews of LTER sites. April 12, 2005. Created by LTER Information Managers Committee

James Brunt, Peter McCartney, Stuart Gage, and Don Henshaw, October 2004, in a response to a request from the LTER Network Information System Advisory Committee; Text amended April 13, 2005 to reflect approval of recommendations by the LTER CC.

The annual LTER Information Managers Meeting was held August 4-7, 2005 in Montreal, Canada and was attended by representatives from 25 of the 26 sites, members of the IT group from the LTER Network Office, and IT partners ( link to participant list). The agenda included updates on current projects (items 2-6 below), working group discussions (7-13), and election of new IMExec members (14), as well as a video conference with Henry Gholz and Liz Blood at NSF. Submitted by Wade Sheldon

Featured in this issue: After most of the LTER sites have produced their Ecological Metadata Language (EML) packages up to Level 3, the subject still occupies a main line in our agendas. Not only do we want to share our methods to achieve this task with other communities, but we want to study the lessons that have we learned in the process.

LTER Information Managers Report to the Coordinating Committee Prepared by IMExec 10 September 2005

PDF Version of LTER Network Data Access Policy Revision 3, Data Access Requirements, and General Data Use Agreement Revised by James Brunt, Peter McCartney, Stuart Gage, and Don Henshaw, October 2004, in response to a request from the LTER Network Information System Advisory Committee, approved by the LTER Coordinating Committee April, 2005.

This policy is retained for historical purposes. It has been replaced by 2012 and 2017 revisions to the policy.

LTER Information Managers Report to the Coordinating Committee Prepared by IMExec 29 March 2005 Summary of Information Managers Committee (IMC) activities since LTER CC meeting at BNZ / ARC, August 2004.

Featured in this issue: Following years of efforts in developing a Network Information System (NIS), LTER information managers report on two of its completed components: CLIMDB/HYDRODB and Network All-Site Bibliography. More recently, the LTER sites started the process of exporting their metadata databases into Ecological Metadata Language (EML), a metadata specification developed by the ecology discipline and for the ecology discipline (http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/eml/).

The annual IM meeting was held July 28-31, 2004 in Portland, Oregon and was attended by representatives from 23 of the 26 sites, members of the IT group from the LTER Network Office, and IT partners (link to participant list). The meeting agenda included presentations from recent projects (items 1-2 below), working group discussions (3-8), appointment of a new DataBits editor (9), and election of new IMExec members (10). Special emphasis was given in the meeting to the product-oriented working groups.

Linda Powell describes new IM System tools at FCE LTER. Dan Higgins and Matt Jones explain the Kepler system for scientific workflows. Teresa Valentine introduces the Watershed DB. Also, EML in Latin America and new forest service database.

The LTER Information Managers Report to the Fall 2004 Coordinating Committee meeting at Fairbanks, AK. Prepared by IMExec, 10 August 2004. Summary of activities since LTER CC meeting at SBC, April 2004.

John Porter talks about the latest regarding the National Environmental Observatory Network (NEON) program. Jonathan Walsh shares his experience at the Web Services Workshop (February 2-5, 2004). Karen Baker, Shaun Haber, and Marshall White discuss the Postnuke Portal Software.

Spring 2004 Imformation Management Report to the LTER Coordinating Committee. Prepared by IMExec.

Featured in this issue: Theresa Valentine and Don Henshaw discuss their approach to the marriage of tabular and spatial data at the Andrews LTER. Barrie Collins gives his take on ArcIMS, ESRI, and his management philosophy. We are exposed to adding internet spatial visualization to environmental projects when Peter McCartney discusses three internet map applications produced by The Center for Environmental Studies, Arizona State University. Also in this issue a move towards maximizing the spatial aspect of the LTER Network is taken with a new Network-wide survey.

The 2003 LTER Information Managers meeting took place on September 22, 2003, in Seattle, Washington immediately following the LTER All-Scientists Meeting (ASM). The meeting was attended by representatives from 23 LTER sites and the LTER Network Office, and 8 invited guests from NSF and other programs.

Featured in this issue: Matt Jones explains the grid computing concept and describes a major new grid computing initiative for ecologists; Bill Michener fleshes out the context of that initiative with a sketch of SEEK, a wide-reaching grant for information technology in ecology. Peter Arzberger and others give us an insider’s look at an international grid computing effort for environmental science. Chad Berkley and Peter McCartney bring us up to date on the latest tools for doing ecology on the grid.

Featured in this issue are two articles about wireless technology, a description of a minimalist approach to creating dynamic web pages to display database content, and a discussion about the implementation of ArcIMS by a seasoned ArcIMS user. Other articles describe the innovative GCE Matlab Toolbox and the future of the All-Site Bibliography.

LTER IM Meeting, July 11-13, Sheraton World Resort, Orlando, FL

2002 SCI2002 – 12 papers presented by LTER IMs in two sessions at international conference

Ecological Metadata Language (EML): Augmenting Research Tools and Capabilities, a quick introduction to Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT), a review of software tools for working with Extensible Markup Language (XML), an article on metadata management and what role Morpho and Metacat could play in an overall information management strategy at a LTER site, a review of several Email client applications, and an article about using the LTER LDAP Server.

1. NIS (Network Information System). Since its formation in 1988, the LTER IM (Information Mangers) Committee has worked to facilitate intersite research through the application of new techniques in computer science and the emerging field of ecoinformatics.

This meeting was originally proposed as a post-Snowbird meeting by Baker and Henshaw, but was instead supported by the Network Office as part of the on-going IM mission.

DataBits: An electronic newsletter for Information Managers. Spring 2001 Featured in this issue: A Custom data management system, International LTER Information Management Workshop, The NASA Scientific Data Purchase Program, and Web-based data entry for dummies.

Representatives from all 24 LTER sites attended and actively participated in the 2001 LTER Information Managers Meeting in Madison, WI. Other attendees included James Brunt, David Blankman, Owen Eddins, Troy Maddux, Bill Michener, and John VandeCastle from the Network Office , Judy Cushing and Erik Ordway from the Forest Canopy project, Matt Jones from NCEAS, Dick Olson from the Oakridge National Laboratory, Jens Schumacher from the German Biodiversity project at the University of Jena, and Phyllis Adams from the National Park Service.

LTER Databits – Information Management Newsletter of the LTER Network – Spring 2001- Featured in this issue: A Custom data management system, International LTER Information Management Workshop, The NASA Scientific Data Purchase Program, and Web-based data entry for dummies.

LTER Databits – Information Management Newsletter of the LTER Network – Fall 2000 – Featured in this issue: According to most of the plenary addresses of the 2000 All Scientists Meeting in Snowbird, Utah, ecological researchers must think outside the box. Sociologists, modelers, climatologists, paleoecologists, remote sensing specialists, and science administrators all emphasized the need of ecological scientists to become comfortable with multiple disciplines and define questions that are significant in each of these fields simultaneously.

LTER Databits – Information Management Newsletter of the LTER Network – Spring 2000

Representatives from 20 of the 21 LTER sites attended and actively participated in the 1999 LTER Information Managers Meeting, in Spokane, Washington, August 4-6, 1999. The Cedar Creek LTER was not represented for the second year in a row.

LTER Databits – Information Management Newsletter of the LTER Network – Fall 1999 – Featured in this issue: an overview of the recently funded NSF/KDI Biodiversity partnership plans in addition to a variety of approaches to metadata, conferencing, visualization and training. DataBits continues as a semi-annual electronic publication of the Long Term Ecological Research Network. It is designed to provide a timely, online resource for research information managers and to incorporate rotating co-editorship. Availability is through web browsing as well as hardcopy output.