LTER NBII Cooperative agreement

1. LTER NBII Cooperative agreement Inigo San Gil1, William K. Michener1, Mark Servilla1, James Brunt1, Mike Frame2, Vivian Hutchison2 The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) entered in 2004 in a five year cooperative agreement with LTER. The NBII-LTER cooperative agreement is the result of efforts championed by W. Michener dating back to 2000. The initial charge was to implement a crosswalk between the Biological Data Profile –the NBII metadata standard- and the Ecological Metadata Language –the LTER metadata standard- as means for data integration. Other outcomes such as sharing of expertise and guidance, technological resources and educational opportunities were outlined. A shared full-time position was created to implement part of the LTER-NBII cooperative agreement goals. Highlights Standardization of about 6,000 LTER legacy metadata documents The LTER reached a first milestone on the network wide metadata standardization last summer. Under the auspices of the LTER-NBII cooperative agreement, all LTER sites are contributing to the central clearinghouse with all or part of their metadata records in the LTER network adopted standard, the Ecological Metadata Language. Here is a graph representing the adoption of EML by LTER sites over time. In blue, we see the LTER sites that contribute to the central catalog with at least one metadata record with enough information to discover the data. In red see the sites that provide metadata documents with rich content, potentially ready for machine-enabled synthesis Seamless integration across organizational standards The development of enhanced crosswalks to convert metadata records from the NBII standard, the Biological Data Profile to EML and vice versa has translated on exposure of the wealth of metadata and data records through the major national metadata clearinghouses. Cooperative agreement benefits Exposing the wealth of LTER data through the major national clearinghouses After standardizing the vast majority of LTER data we provide increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources. The map shows both the NBII nodes orregions in the USmap, as well as theLTER sites, markedby a red star A step closer to network data synthesis Standardized metadata facilitates the integration and synthesis of projects over different LTER sites, including different habitats. Increased compliance on network-wide guidelines Data practices are spread through both organizations, and we take the lessons learnt by both communities. New Technologies and developments Controlled vocabularies, units dictionaries, variable-attribute catalogs, quality control & quality assurance protocols are being developed in working groups. The products mutually benefit both the implementation of LTER cyber-infrastructure plans & NBII’s. Ongoing and Future work A synergistic implementation of LTER’s CI plan Standardized Standardized fdg the integdfgration and synthefgfdgsis dfgfgof projects ogdfgdfgfgg ver different LTER sites, including differendfgfdgdfgt habitats. Metadata editor and entry tool development The NBII co-sponsored metadata entry tools, and content management based information systems.. A snapshot of the integrative metadata tool that is being developed See details on these projectsat http://intranet.lternet.edu/im/Projects Grant Leveraging NBII and LTER co-participate in several funded grant proposals, including dataONE, RCN4GSC and others. A dynamic working community An information managers community from diverse organizations has been established. We need now to communicate effectively with the scientific ecological biological communities to enable the production of global science and dissemination information related to our national biological resources. Trainings, working groups, workshops and meetings are implementations forms of this initiative LTER sites: EML Standardization timeline