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NBII: National Biological Information Infrastructure

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The SDFS (Sonoran Desert Field Station), in conjunction with ART (Advanced Resource Technology Group), established a federally funded metadata node serving information about its Geographic Information System (GIS) data sets, as part of the Federal Geographic Data Committee Data Clearinghouse program. This system advertises the existence of data and includes instructions for how to obtain it, but does not facilitate electronic transfer. However, the resources to manually respond to all of the incoming requests for data were not available. The growing and changing list of over 600 data sets made it impractical to create links to all of them from static HTML pages. Further, they wished to track use of the system, and control access to certain sensitive data sets (such as the locations of endangered species) at a user-by-user level. The site uses server-side Java (Java Servlets) to access a comprehensive database of data set and user information. There are no client requirements beyond the web browser. Users can visit the site to find the data they need, or they can “click through” from the metadata file directly to a download link for the data set. The administrator is able to set user privileges which allow or deny access to sensitive data sets. Auxiliary information is available for each data set, including GIF previews, which the user can view before downloading the data set itself. Once the user decides to download a data set, the system automatically exports and zips the requested information. The system is fully functional and in use. Future plans include the integration of this system into the larger context of the Saguaro Digital Library, and provide access to those sources via a user interface customized to the identity and purpose of the visitor. Other initiatives include online viewing of the GIS data sets for previews or for less advanced users who do not require the raw data set for further processing, and a “data harvesting” effort which will build GIS coverage from user input of species sightings.

Sponsors: US Department of Interior, and USGS

Please click HERE for a PowerPoint presentation of this project.

Please click HERE for a demonstration of the system.

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