Highlights for July 28, 2000
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• Central Region ELT Visits Wildfire Sites. On July 27, the USGS Central Region Fire Science Team will host the Executive Leadership Team during a full-day visit to the site of the recent Buffalo Creek and Hi Meadow wildfires in the foothills west of Denver. Maury Nyquist of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics has been invited to participate in the tour and discussion sessions on such issues as post-fire flooding, water supply, water quality, debris flow hazards, fire mosaics, mapping resources, biological effects, and watershed rehabilitation. (Maury Nyquist, Denver, 303-202-4217)

• Interagency DSS Group Collaborates with Aurora Partnership. On July 17-20, the USGS Center for Biological Informatics (CBI) hosted a jointly sponsored Interagency Group on Decision Support (IGDS) and Aurora Partnership workshop on "Decision Support Capabilities for Future Technology Requirements." The workshop was organized by Maury Nyquist of CBI, with assistance from Ralph Root and Susan Stitt (also of CBI) as facilitators. More than 30 workshop participants representing several Federal agencies, universities, the private sector, NGO's, and consortia also participated in a tour of the USGS Ice Core Lab. The combination of new capabilities and growing demand are generating greater expectations for decision support, as well as identifying new challenges for developers and users alike. Workshop participants outlined a strategy for the next stage of place-based decision support systems development. The IGDS was formed to discuss decision support tools, services, and other issues as they relate to natural resources and the environment. The Aurora Partnership is a collaboration of government, non-government, university, and private sector organizations whose goal is to "stimulate the development and application of the next generation of decision support tools, services and systems for place-based decision making through the collaboration of public and private stakeholders." (Maury Nyquist, Denver, 303-202-4217)
• CBI Establishes DSS Conceptual Model with International Expert. On July 21, staff of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics (Director Mark Fornwall, Mike Mulligan, and Susan Fayad) met in Denver with Paul Densham of University College, London. Densham is a recognized decision support system (DSS) expert with extensive experience in DSS research and design. The group met to discuss short- and long-term DSS development, with Densham assisting CBI in designing several initiatives. Mulligan reviewed CBI's DSS conceptual model, which is based on Densham's work. As a result of discussions, CBI refined its short-term approach, which will implement the conceptual model where possible with current technology, in partnership with scientists addressing natural resources problems. In the long term, CBI will investigate how it can contribute to improving the information components needed to make decision support systems a viable tool for natural resources managers, focusing on data structure and modeling resources. (Susan Fayad, Denver, 303-202-4224)

• Library Consortium Moves Forward. The Consortium Structure Team (CST) is pleased to report a clear mandate from the USGS library community for establishing the USGS Library Consortium (USGS-LC). A call for signatures from USGS libraries on the "Commitment to Membership" agreement will go out the last week in July. The formation of the USGS-LC is the result of an almost year-long process that began at the September 1999 meeting of USGS librarians, when a team was formed to pursue this initiative. At the May 2000 meeting, the CST reported and obtained feedback on its work. Subsequently, consortium foundation documents were sent to all USGS libraries for review with their administration. Responses from the libraries to those documents indicated that a considerable majority of USGS libraries were ready to support and participate in the USGS-LC, indicating to the CST that it is worthwhile to move forward with implementation. The timetable currently sets the first meeting of USGS-LC Steering Committee for early in the new fiscal year. (Susan Fayad, Denver, 303-202-4224)

• Final Reston Center cc:Mail Post Office Decommissioned. John Clark of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics assisted BRD Reston Center in migrating their last user to Lotus Notes. This is the eighth cc:Mail post office to be retired in BRD's participation of the USGS-wide migration to the Lotus Notes messaging system. (John Clark, Denver, 303-202-4244)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.