Highlights for July 24, 1998
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• Schaefer, Park Service Briefed on Vegetation Mapping Program. On July 31, Maury Nyquist and Tom Owens (both CBI) will brief Mark Schaefer, DOI Deputy Assistant Secretary-Water and Science; Mike Soukup, NPS Associate Director, Natural Resources; and Abby Miller, NPS Natural Resources Program Coordinator on the current issues and trends of the USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program. This cooperative vegetation classification and mapping program is designed to give Park Service managers and scientists unbiased, reliable data and information on their vegetation communities to enable them to monitor, manage, and study these resources. The Center for Biological Informatics administers and directs the scientific activities of the program. (Tom Owens, Denver, 303-202-4259)
  
  
• USGS Scientists Participate in ESA Annual Meetings: On August 2-6, Gary Waggoner and Mike Jennings (both CBI) will participate in a meeting of the Ecological Society of America's (ESA) National Panel on Vegetation Classification in conjunction with the ESA Annual Meetings in Baltimore. Both Waggoner and Jennings will participate in the formal Discussion Session "An Initiative for a Standardized Classification of Vegetation in the United States," as well as the business meeting of the ESA Panel on Vegetation Classification. Harvey Fleet (OBIO) has arranged the symposium "Increasing Access to and Application of Ecological Data in a Distributed Environment," which will include his presentation, "A Proposed Standard for Metadata for Tools of Ecological Analysis"; "Standards for Metadata for Ecological Data" (Jennifer Gaines - OBIO, Susan Stitt - CBI); "Methods and Techniques for Creating Ecological Metadata (Sharon Shin - CBI); and "Clearinghouses for Ecological Metadata" (Linda Leake - EMTC), among others. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303-202-4222)
  
  
• Volunteers for a Changing World: The Center for Biological Informatics is participating in the USGS Volunteer for Science program, a new USGS Human Resources Initiative. Recruitment notices have been placed on the Volunteer Web site <http://www.usgs.gov/volunteer/volunteer.html> through volunteerism champion Susan Wells (Office of Human Resources). (Terry D'Erchia, Denver, 303-202-4264)
  
  

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• USGS Web Site Receives Award: The Frequently Asked Questions Web page concerning the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata standard <http://biology.usgs.gov/fgdc.metadata/faqa.htm>, created and managed by Susan Stitt of CBI, was recently recognized as a "Key Resource" by "Links2Go." The Web page is associated with a series of image map pages that illustrate and facilitate exploration of the structure and content of the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata. The Links2Go Key Resource award is both exclusive and objective, and is based on an analysis of millions of Web pages. Fewer than one page in one thousand are selected for inclusion. (Susan Stitt, Denver, 303-202-4234)
  
• NBII Training Provided at National GAP Conference: On July 23, at the National Gap Analysis Program meeting in Santa Barbara, Sharon Shin (CBI) and Jennifer Gaines (OBIO) will present a demonstration of NBII MetaMaker 2.2, a metadata documentation tool developed by the USGS that enables users to prepare Federal Geographic Data Committee-compliant metadata for biological and geospatial data. They will also discuss the Biological Data Profile of the Content Standard for Geospatial Metadata and the NBII Clearinghouse, which facilitates effective searching and retrieval of biological data and information resources through the Internet. These three components--the NBII Clearinghouse, the biological metadata standard, and MetaMaker software--provide the fundamental components of biological data documentation and retrieval within the National Biological Information Infrastructure. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)
  

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.