Highlights for October 20, 2000
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• NBII Web Site Undergoes Usability Testing. Janice Little and Mike Frame of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics joined 15 volunteers to test the usability of the NBII Web Site. The volunteers represent scientists, educators, bureaucrats and other members of the general population. The results of these tests will aid the NBII Web Managers in providing improved access to biological data and an overall better experience for visitors to the site. (Mike Frame, Reston, 703-648-4164)
• CBI’s New DSS Web Site Up. The Informatics Team of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics (CBI) has a new Decision Support (DSS) web page up and running on the web at (http://biology.usgs.gov/cbi/informatics/dss/). It contains information including CBI's current and future DSS plans as well as links in the DSS and analytical tools arena. It also points to the BRD DSS page and will soon link to the tools page of the NBII. It has been set up to encourage feedback from those interested in DSS to insure an content update loop. (Mike Mulligan, Denver 303-202-4242)
• CBI to Implement Internet Based Serving of GAP Data. The USGS Center for Biological Informatics (CBI) will consult with ESRI's (Boulder, CO) Dave Fosdeck on October 23, 2000. Dave will advise CBI on its implementation of ESRI ArcIMS (Internet Map Service). This implementation is the first step in establishing centralized Internet based data serving of GAP data from CBI. Currently, GAP data from 13 states has been collected and is available on a CD server at CBI. The ArcIMS product should provide web based access to this data and more as data from all GAP projects are assembled here. (Mike Mulligan, Denver 303-202-4242)

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• Florida Digital Library Metadata Training and Outcome. Sharon Shin of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics provided a workshop on the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s (FGDC) Biological Data Profile on October 13-14, 2000 at the invitation of the Southeast Environmental Research Center and Florida International University’s Florida Digital Library. The training focused on creating biological and geospatial metadata without obvious spatial referencing, a requirement in the project's place-based funding. Participants represented state water agencies, USGS Water Division, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Florida International University Library. Sharon will be acting as a metadata consultant and assisting the project participants in creating compliant and robust metadata in the coming months.

  An outcome of the Florida Digital Library workshop is the commitment by Roy Sonenshein, South Florida Information Access Database Manager (USGS) to host a workshop in January 2001 for representatives from of the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN). Cheryl Solomon, NASA-Global Change Master Directory and NBII contractor, has offered to participate as a Spanish-speaking metadata trainer. The workshop will be a two-day computer-based training workshop covering the FGDCs Biological Data Profile and associated metadata and clearinghouse subjects. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)

• NBII Awarded FGDC Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) Grant. Sharon Shin, USGS Center for Biological Informatics (CBI), submitted a proposal to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) 2000-Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) and was awarded a grant to develop International Standards Organization (ISO) metadata training materials and manage the FGDC training cadre. FGDC workshops will be hosted across the country by volunteer trainers, most of who participated in last year's FGDC and CBI sponsored "Train-the-Metadata-Trainer Workshop". This year's grant involves coordinating with other ISO training materials grant recipients and creating an introductory ISO training module and a shoreline metadata extension module. Sharon will administer the grant and provide training guidance and materials and logistical management for the workshops. Additionally, Sharon will host a workshop in Denver early next year to develop a series of training modules for the complete ISO metadata standard. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)
• NBII Metadata Training for Environment Canada Librarians. Sharon Shin of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics has been invited by Environment Canada Librarians (Ottawa and Toronto) to provide workshops on the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s (FGDC) Biological Data Profile. Shin will present the two one-day computer-based training workshops November 7-10, 2000. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.