The United States Geological Survey has just unveiled plans for a ‘National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program’. The implementation plan was delivered to Congress on October 16. The Program will inventory, archive, preserve and catalog geological, geophysical and engineering data, maps, well logs, and samples.
National Digital Catalog
Information in the geological and geophysical database will be accessible through the Internet-based National Digital Catalog, allowing users to quickly identify what is available and where it is located. The Program will ‘provide consistent standards’ and its storage facilities and collections will be managed by the USGS and maintained by agencies within the Department of the Interior (DOI) and State geological surveys.
$30 million per year
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 Sec 2011 made State Agencies responsible for the preservation of geological data and allowed States to acquire data from federal property. The Program is a central metadata catalog which will be separate from data holders. The project is slated for $30 million per year. More on the Program from http://energy.usgs.gov.
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