Highlights for September 19, 1997
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• USGS Scientist Participates in IDP Users Conference; Meets with Vegetation Mapping Partners: On September 8-11, Maury Nyquist, CBI Data and Applications Branch Chief, traveled to Anchorage to attend the Imagery Derived Products (IDP) Users Conference hosted by the Civil Applications Committee. IDPs are "literal" (image-like) and "non-literal" (graphic) information generated from national classified systems. Recently, many unclassified uses have been found for these products. IDPs are available to Government Agencies for official mission-related use when conventional sources are unavailable or are difficult to obtain. While in Anchorage, Nyquist met with the Alaska Science Center director and several staff members about the use of IDPs. Discussions centered around the clearance and facility requirements needed in order to use other national classified sources for biological applications. He also met with NPS Alaska Regional Office staff regarding technical and coordination issues related to extension to Alaska of the ongoing USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program.
  
  
• USGS Scientists Participate in National SDTS Workshop: On September 15-18, Tom Owens (CBI) and Carol Lowenberg (EMTC) attended the National SDTS Implementors Workshop. The Spatial Data Transfer Standard, or SDTS, is a robust way of transferring earth-referenced spatial data between dissimilar computer systems with the potential for no information loss. It is a transfer standard that embraces the philosophy of self-contained transfers; i.e. spatial data, attribute, georeferencing, data quality report, data dictionary, and other supporting metadata are all included in the transfer. The U.S. Geological Survey has taken the lead in converting its digital cartographic data holdings to SDTS format . For the next couple of years, the USGS will offer all SDTS-formatted data free via the Internet. (Tom Owens, Denver, 303/202-4259)
  

• USGS Participates in NSGIC Conference: On September 16, Susan Stitt (CBI) gave a presentation on Metadata Tools to the 7th Annual Conference of the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). Members of the NSGIC include delegations of senior state geographic information systems managers from across the United States as well as geographic information systems (GIS) professionals from local governments and private industry. Representatives from various USGS Divisions were also in attendance. The NSGIC conference, "Rising to the Challenge: Ideas, Solutions, Actions," provided attendees with the opportunity to voice concerns about current GIS system issues and an opportunity to learn about tools. Stitt's presentation focused on the results of the recent Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Tools Survey, which determined the capabilities of specific metadata tools. She also presented information on MetaMaker, the metadata documentation tool developed by the National Biological Information Infrastructure. The FGDC sponsored Stitt's travel for this presentation. (Susan Stitt, Denver, 303/202-4234)
  

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.