2nd Annual Atmospheric Science Librarians International Conference
Dallas, TX   January 13-15, 1999
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Wednesday, JANuary 13, 1999
ASLI Program and Business Meeting

ASLI Roundtable Discussion

ASLI members and attendees will describe their libraries and unique collections.

Roger gave an overview of SUNY-Stony Brook and its Libraries. 1999 is the University’s 40th anniversary, there are 17,000 students. In 1992 there was 1 CD database in 1998 they have over 130 CD’s and 300-400 electronic journals. He discussed changes in configuration of the Libraries (e.g. merging of branch libraries into the main library and concomitant staff changes). The Libraries use print software in order to charge for web and other database prints (though screen dumps from the OPAC are free), they are currently preparing an RFP for a new OPAC and are exploring other options for delivering networked information (thin clients, Opera browser, et. al.) There was also discussion about MASIC’s collection development policy.

Scott provided an overview of the GCMD (http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov/) which began over 10 years ago as an archive for data collected from NASA satellite missions. The archive was originally a dial-in BBS (through early 90’s) and converted to a web based system in 1994. It is an archive of meta-data, not the data sets themselves, though it does provide pointers to the data locations (e.g. the NOAA Server, NASA’s DAAC, unclassified DOD data sets, NSF and NCAR among others). The GCMD uses the DIF meta-data format, which provides summary coverage and enough data to be able to determine usefulness of a data set. (This format can easily be converted to FGDC metadata standard). Scott profiled the four primary search tools that are available in the GCMD: FreeText, which uses keywords; Science Keyword (based on transactions logs appears to be the most commonly used interface) that provides a scientific keyword directory access to the data (e.g. Yahoo!); Guided Search that uses menu-driven authority lists to access the data, (they are currently working on developing definitions to the keywords); and Query Search which is being developed in conjunction with the HCIL (Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland) that shows previews of the holdings based on searches performed. Scott also gave us an overview of the supplemental links on the GCMD site. The GCMD FAQ provides information and links for many commonly received questions, such as what and where is El Niño? (What is the GCMD and how can it help me?) The GCMD Documentation & Software link provides guides and tools for writing meta-data as well as the documentation on the GCMD system.

Jon gave an overview of the history of The Franklin Institute, which will be celebrating it’s 175th Anniversary on February 3. The goal of the Institute is to promote public understanding of and stimulate interest in science. The institute has published the Journal of Franklin Institute since 1826. The TFI library is not open to the public accept by appointment. The library was established in 1824, and grew very quickly. In 1986 it held over 250,000 monographs, 8,300 serials, 60,000 trade catalogs, 3.5 million patents and 18,000 pamphlets. In 1986 the Institute after re-examining it’s mission, decided it would exist as a museum rather than a research institute. At that time the Institute sold off over three-quarters of the library collection (raising over 1.3 million dollars which went into a trust fund for the Institute). Current holdings in the library are 28,000 monographs, 740 serials (235 current), 3,000 pamphlets and 1,000 videos. The library archives and weather center maintain some very unique items such as the first photo of lightning, some comprehensive holdings of Philadelphia weather, historical meteorological texts such as Espy’s 1837 “Hints to observers of meteorology”, an orrery for determining seasons, and Admiral Byrd’s mercury barometer. The Institute is the official weather station for Philadelphia. The Institute offers many exhibits both on and off line. Web exhibits include Weather on the Web, Liquid Air Shows, Ben’s Experiments (they served over 40 million files in 1998 from the TFI site, www.fi.edu). The museum also has a Traveling Science show which was viewed by over 450,000 people last year; a Commonwealth Excellence Science Teacher Association; a summer Discovery Camp; and a camp-in program in which students get the opportunity to spend the night in the museum. Future exhibits that they are working on include weather balloon launches, digitizing Philadelphia weather observations for 1872-1998 and publishing a book about Philadelphia weather (available in early 2000)

Ira gave an overview of the programs offered by the AMS for teachers of K-12, and for students in those grades (www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/). The intent of the AMS with these programs is to train teachers as professional colleagues, so that teachers can go out and train their peers. Programs are focused at the state level. The teacher trainers identified at the state level are trained at AMS then go back to their home state and provide peer training sessions. Project ATMOSPHERE (1991-) was the first “train the trainers” program. Training was initially done at NWS offices. The trainers become resource people for the state. MAURY Project is similar to ATMOSPHERE but focuses on oceanography. DATA STREME Project (1995-) (www.ametsoc.org/dstreme/index.html) is a distance learning graduate course in atmospheric sciences for teachers. Training is provided by LIT (Local Implementation Teams) which provide 3-8 training sessions per semester. The project provides real-time weather exercises with answer keys and includes a list of recommended/refereed of web sites for teachers (www.ametsoc.org/dstreme/junction/). There are plans for an online introductory course to be marketed to community colleges in the Fall of 1999

Discussed a WMO survey of the participation of men and women in meteorology and related fields conducted in 1996. The survey was distributed to representatives of all WMO member nations, and had a 51 percent response rate. Report on the survey has been published under the title, “Report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Questionnaire Survey on the Participation of Women and Men in the Activities of WMO in the Fields of Meteorology, Operational Hydrology and Related Geophysical Sciences.” Results were also presented at the International Expert Meeting on Participation of Women in Meteorology and Hydrology in Bangkok, Thailand December 16-19, 1997. Information about the report and presentations can be found at WMO ; NSSL , and NOAA History.

Evaluated trends in literature published about the El Niño phenomena based on a caparison of title and subject fields in Web of Science and Inspec. Journal of Climate had the highest number of ENSO publications (impact factor of 7 13.3 percent of all pubs in JOC were related to ENSO); there was a plottable correlation between ENSO events and increased publication about the phenomena; almost half of all published ENSO articles appear in AMS publications; eighty percent of the ENSO articles are published by multiple authors and 15 percent include international collaborations. There have been over 40 ENSO cartoons indexed in the literature.

Distance Education Technology and Its Application in Library Consortia
Dr. Michael Churton, Florida State University (tentative)

This video conference session provided and introduction to video conferencing technology. Primary elements include video device (one-way and two-way) to broadcast courseware; computer; audio; and video conference connection. At USF this technology is being used in distance education courses for a clientele which is primarily returning adult students. Access to the service is controlled (once students enroll) by id number and proxy. Several techniques are available including web-based, satellite video and audio broadcast and interactive videoconferencing–which we got to try. Drs. Churton and Rejniak walked us through explanations of all the technological components used in interactive video conferencing including video screens, the control panel, audio equipment, the types of delivery (e.g. ISDN lines or microwave broadcast). They also discussed some of the reasons why images look broken up, and/or blurry such as the number of frames broadcast per second, and the size and type of cable connections. A detailed look at Picturetel Concord 4500 component parts include: CODEC (the digital/analog coder and decoder); keypad/control panel; limelight voice-focused camera; document camera; microphone; monitor; LAMB button; laptop and backup pieces. They stressed that is important to ascertain the needs of the users (in their
case students and faculty) then choose the equipment and delivery method, rather than focusing on the technology. They also discussed some instructional design criteria for video conferencing such as using large enough point size, student vs. teacher centered, use of simple and high contrast text. And that teachers should be comfortable with the technology, if they aren’t comfortable teaching and/or not comfortable with the technology this will be broadcast and enhanced when using video technology. Special thanks to AMS, NASA and USF for their support in making this session possible.

Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Wishard

Thursday, JANuary 14, 1999
ASLI program Continued

American Meteorological Society
Dr. Keith Seitter; AMS Electronic journals and other projects

Dr. Keith Seitter, Deputy Executive Director, American Meteorological Society; AMS Electronic Journals & other projects (Author Provided Text)

The AMS Journals roster: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Journal of the Atmospheric Science; Journal of Applied Meteorology; Monthly Weather Review; Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology; Weather and Forecasting; Journal of Climate; Earth Interactions
Coming in 2000: Journal of Hydrometeorology

Journal Pricing Print
Our price per page for the 1998 volume year averaged $0.13/page. This has been going down over the past few years as the journals have continued to grow at a much greater rate than we were willing to increase prices. Our costs have continued to go up, however, so we need to get our price per page a little more in line with other nonprofit publishers (but we will try to stay on the low side of the scale).

Journal Pricing ONLINE
We do not make excess revenue on the print version that can be used to subsidize the online production costs. Thus, we have to charge what we believe to be a fair price for online access and hope that we eventually get enough online subscribers to cover our costs. We continue with the three tier approach that allows institutions to join in at a very low incremental increase over print.

Institutional Subscriptions for the Journals Online
Each journal can be subscribed to in print-only, online-only, or both. Online pricing has three tiers based on the number of workstations covered: “Department Level” (1-100 workstations), “Small institution Level” (101-500 workstations), “Large institution Level” (>500 workstations) In the initial offering, the 1997 volume year was provided with 1998 subscription. Now, each volume year must be purchased separately ( including “back issue” volume)

Institutional Subscription Example (1999 prices):
Journal of Climate is a “typical” AMS journal (monthly, approx. 3400 pp/yr). – The print-only price is $395 (Corporate member:$296) – At “department level” )<100 Ws), online-only is $355, print plus online is $425. (Corporate member: $266 and $319, resp.) - At "full institution level" (>500 Ws), online-only is $475, print plus online is $545. (corporate member $356 and $409, resp.)

Aggregators
AMS has licensed our content to two aggregators: Ovid and OCLC. Ovid has not yet posted AMS journal content, but hopes to have it in place by the end of 1999. OCLC is just about ready to provide AMS content, with back files starting with the January 1997 issues. In both cases, the price to libraries will be greater than purchasing subscriptions directly from the AMS, but both aggregators offer a common interface for a large number of journals and the ability to search across their entire database.

Consortia
The AMS hope to avoid dealing directly with consortia in licensing access to the journals online because of the resources required for negotiating license arrangements acceptable to both sides. We are hoping that we can steer all consortia to Ovid or OCLC ( and other aggregators we may license with in the future). In principle, this is efficient for the consortia since they can negotiate for many journals at once rather than dealing with a bunch of smaller publishers, like AMS, individually. In many cases, the consortia deal would be cost effective for libraries that have been getting AMS journals since the consortia price per institution may be lower than the list price.

Earth Interactions – http://EarthInteractions.org
This fully electronic and fully peer-reviewed journal is intended to serve the earth system sciences. It is published jointly by the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, and Association of American Geographers. The first article was posted in January 1997. The AGU is supposed to be working the institutional subscriptions for EI.

Henry demonstrated Accu-School K-12 Explorations in Meteorology and the AP Photo archive, located at www.accuweather.com This product is available on a subscription basis, and contains weather photos and other items of general interest.

Update on Various NCDC Products and Services
Thomas Ross, NOAA, NODC, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC

NODC in Asheville, NC just published a new Products and Services Guide January 1999, available from the National Climatic Data Center www.ncdc.noaa.gov Tom also distributed copies of a map produced by the National Geographic Society entitled Natural Hazards of North America. The map first appeared in the May 1998 issue of National Geographic and was a collaborative effort of over 50 scientists from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. NCDC helped in this project. Copies of “Severe Weather Climatology and Event Information Available Using the National Climatic Data Center’s World Wide Web Site” by Thomas F. Ross and J. Neal Lott were available.

Colin discussed the Major Reference Works Group of Academic Press and the two current major reference works in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences currently underway. The Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences, eds. John Steele, Steve Thorpe, and Karl Turekian. 5-6 volumes Publication Date August 2001 Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences, eds. Jim Holton, Judy Curry, and John Pyle. 5-6 volumes Publication Date August 2001 Colin distributed copies of the Aims and Scope of the publications, and discussed the Editorial advisory board for these publications.

Judy Mathews presented the “Why’s” writers feel motivated to publish: to share knowledge, to have something to say, to achieve fame, glory and money, or to make new contacts. She suggested that a good way to begin publishing, would be to volunteer to review books for a publication. This not only provides writing experience, but can lead to other things. Judy distributed an Archive List of the Libraries Unlimited Series, Reference Sources in Science and Technology, and discussed publishing opportunities with them.

Larry discussed the time lag to indexing vs. publication, and journals covered in the MEGA database. Larry requested comments on MEGA from the audience. It was suggested that the database should provide usage statistics to the online version of MEGA. He suggested we contact Carol Regan for statistics. Requests were made for an on an online thesaurus.

The WMO Technical Library and its Homepage: Current Status and Future Developments
Anna Banchieri, WMO Library, Geneva, Switzerland

The WMO Technical Library is one of the major sources of meteorological and hydrological information worldwide. With its specialized collection in print as well as online, the Library serves a vast community of researchers, in addition to the WMO staff members, by providing references and making in-depth searches in fields related to meteorology. A good service of interlibrary loans and photocopying supports users in their research. Last year over 2,000 documents were received by the Library, more than 1,000 enquiries were satisfactorily answered, and over 1,000 publications were loaned to readers. In 1977, the WMO Technical Library launched its own HomePage to provide a central access to its collection to the public at large, directly from their desktops. This HomePage, besides being a gateway, through numerous external links, to the documentation of the other organizations which are active in the field of meteorology and related topics, offers complete bibliographical access to all WMO publications, as well as to the Library’s general collection. Options are provided to access WMO technical documents, as well as the online periodicals and newspapers to which the Library subscribes, and all the CD-Roms available in the Library, and, in the near future, through LAN or WAN. A list of new acquisitions, arranged in broad categories, is also posted monthly on the server. Users can request copies of the technical documents, which are distributed free of charge, or photocopies of WMO publications for sale and other titles available in the Library through a quick-answer system of e-mail. Publications and articles are usually delivered by mail, but in special urgent cases, can be sent by fax. An online catalogue has recently been added to the HomePage options. This catalogue, which is still being set up, is fully searchable by keywords, authors’ and corporate bodies; names, year of publication, and any other element appearing in the publication. Supported by PERL programming language, the query can easily be formulated as a part of the title or as keywords matched by the use of boolean operators. A temporary file, created by the search engine, allows users to browse the records in alphabetical order and select by clicking on them. Whenever available, links to the full-text online version have been provided. The WMO Technical Library Homepage was designed as the beginning of a virtual library (maybe in 3D), where WMO documentation can have full-text online access. The creation of CD-Roms, for use in countries which still have a slow Internet connection, is also foreseen as part of this project.

What is the ‘true’ journal?
As the print journals move into the world of being disseminated both in print and online, it becomes natural to envision a time when the online version of the journal has enhanced content compared to the print version. For example: datasets, computer code, color figures in place of black and white and animations. Earth Interactions is already providing this sort of enhanced content. The first step toward this for our print journals is the CD-ROM supplements published with the June JCLI and WAF issues. These were truly supplements, however, and not considered part of the journal archive. As soon as the print and online version of the journal begin to diverge “by even a little bit” we are faced with the question: Which version is the “true” journal, and what constitutes the “journal archive”?

What are other societies doing?
Some societies have already declared their electronic database to be the official journal, thus allowing for the print version to be merely a subset of the full journal. It is not clear that any of them have adequately addressed the archive issue. Peter Boyce of the American Astronomical Society wrote the following in response to an e-mail in which I asked him how AAS is handling the transition from the paper journal as the archive to the electronic database as the archive:
“I guess the best answer to give you is that we are not making the transition. We are leaving that in the hands and minds of the community. It is the community which has been telling us, “It is OK if the paper version of their study is wrong. Just fix the on-line version, since that is the important one anyway.” So, we are not designating which of the versions is the ‘official’ archive just yet, at least not publicly.” (10/27/98)

Where is the AMS on this issue?
The AMS has chosen to explore this issue further before taking the step of declaring the electronic database to be the ‘true’ journal. The AMS as acknowledged, however, that such a step seems inevitable for some point in the near future (< 5 years). There are several reasons to wait, some philosophical, some practical. For example: 1) the archive question needs to be resolved, 2) figure resolution is an issue, and 3) peer review is an issue. .... Peer Review If "non-printable content" (datasets, animations, etc.) are integrally part of the journal content, they must also be part of the material undergoing peer review. We face that now with Earth Interactions and while we know how to do it, the peer-review process becomes more difficult when this material is included, especially if you are trying to manage it from all the volunteer scientific editor offices scattered across the country. Figure Resolution High-resolution imagery is critical to our science, and great effort is taken to deliver high quality figures in our print journals. At the resolution used for printing the journals, a single figure may be a 50 megabyte (or larger) file. For the journals online, we degrade the resolution so that the figures delivered with the text can be transmitted over the available Internet bandwidth with reasonable speed. The high resolution images used to print the journals are not currently stored in the journals online database. Thus, at this point in time, the electronic database is not capable of replacing the print in its fullest form because the figures are not available at the full print resolution. The Archive Question For print journals, the fact that many libraries around the world maintain redundant collections ensures a stable, safe, and long-lasting archive. The journals online are delivered from a complex SGML database that is continually being updated, upgraded, and maintained. Libraries cannot be expected to maintain their own copy of the database. Mirror sites and backups with off-site storage provide safety from catastrophic loss, but all of this remains fully under the control of the publisher (AMS). Publishers are not used to thinking in terms of being the sole archive for their publications, and librarians are not comfortable trusting the publishers to do this well ( even longstanding, stable, nonprofit societies like the AMS). We really need to work together to determine how this will be done! So What do we do? Some of the options (there are probably others): 1. Contain the divergence between print and online by only allowing non-printable material to be delivered on physical media (CD-ROM, DVD, etc.) with the print issues so that the library can retain its archival role (with the increased burden of migrating content to new media as needed). 2. Let print and online diverge, but formally declare the archive journal to be the sum of the two, with libraries responsible for maintaining archives of the print ( and the electronic to the extent practical and possible) and publishers being responsible for all electronic content (including migrating forward to ensure continued usability into the future). 3. Make sure the electronic database stores full content (including high res imagery (storage is cheap)) and declare the electronic database to be the archive. Publisher is fully responsible for maintaining the database, even though libraries would naturally have most of the content if the publisher failed for some reason. ( In practice, this really reduces to #2 except that the database would, in principle, serve to reproduce the full journal contents.) 4. Distributed library consortia archive sites holding the database in #3 in addition to the publisher. (Who pays for this?) The community needs to continue a dialog on these issues so that wise decisions are made.

In response to changing social and economic conditions, instant communications, emerging technology, and decreasing resources for libraries, there is a need for librarians to use collaborative methods, strategies, and technologies to solve common problems or produce common products. For effective collaborations, librarians must identify goals and expected outcomes and express an interest in collaborating with those who share them. With the emergence of new collaborative tools, together with older technology, librarians have an opportunity to put together teams to foster productive relationships and reach goals and expected outcomes in a most satisfactory manner. The paper will focus on some of the available collaborative technologies, and advantages of collaboration.

The Coastal Data and Information Center at the University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography Library
Eleanor Uhlinger, Pell Marine Science Library, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI

Producers of coastal data and information are looking for new ways to distribute their products to potential users. Scientist analyze and summarize raw data and then provide access to the information through published reports, which librarians traditionally gather, organize and facilitate in the use of these reports by consumers. However, the Internet and World Wide Web now allow users sitting in a government planner’s office a classroom, or at home, anywhere in the world, to seek and manipulate resources.

The University of Rhode Island is creating a ‘digital center’ to facilitate electronic access to the data and information that is ever more critical for marine and coastal research and management. The project’s key components are described below.

l. The Distributed Oceanographic Data System (DODS), is a client-server system that allows scientific researchers who work with large datasets, such as satellite data or oceanographic observations, to access and query remote data files across the Internet. DODS brings data back to the user to manipulate locally in any of a number of analysis packages. This is a joint project between researchers at URI Graduate School of Oceanography and MIT Department of Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Science. (http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/dods).

2. The National Sea Grant Depository (NSGD), created in 1970, is an archive and lending library that houses the only complete collection of Sea-Grant funded work. The collection of more than 72,000 documents covers a wide variety of marine subjects, including: oceanography, marine education, coastal hazards, coastal zone management, marine recreation and ocean engineering. Statistics were presented about the characteristics of the NSGD collection; use of the collection; and to demonstrate the uniqueness of the NSGD database in that Sea Grant documents are not well represented 9nor easily identifiable as Sea Grant-funded) in OCLC or scientific databases.

In an effort to provide more scientific “content” accessible via the Internet, a large number of the non-commercial and non-reprint materials in the collection are being digitized. The policies and procedures for the project were described and summarized: copyright permissions have been obtained; documents are being scanned at a low resolution (150-200 dpi) without OCR and saved as Adobe Acrobat PDF images (because of copyright issues); and images are linked into an existing Z39.50-compatible NSGD database. (http://nsgd.gso.uri.edu)

This presentation focuses on three atmospheric science websites that are available through the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Co. The first is an interactive training module on remote sensing using satellites (http://www.comet.ucar.edu/nsflab). This site was developed by the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET) in collaboration with the Program for Advancement of Geoscience Education (PAGE) and the Desert Research Institute of the University of Nevada-Reno. The module is designed for introductory undergraduate-level classes in atmospheric and related sciences, and is aimed for non-science majors. It uses a rich body of graphics and imagery animations in which satellite meteorology is used to explore atmospheric phenomena, with hurricane systems providing the focus for investigation. There are brief content synopses of remote sensing, satellite image interpretation, and hurricane features, and an interactive exploratory environment, the “Hurricane Marix”, which provides learners with the opportunity to investigate several different hurricanes over time. The second website is the meteorology education and training (METED) site (https://www.meted.ucar.edu). This site, administered by COMET, has numerous education and training resources from the three National Weather Service Training Centers. There are interactive Web-based modules on a variety of topics, including hydrometeorology, convection, aviation weather, numerical weather prediction, and integrated sensing systems. In addition, this site provides access to on-line residence course materials, case study data, and access to other meteorology and hydrology educational links. The third website is the PAGE site http://www.page.ucar.edu). This site is relatively new, but will soon become an important education and training resource for the university geoscience community.

Dr. Pasch provided an overview of the responsibilities of the National Hurricane Center/Tropical Prediction Center. Its products include the Tropical Weather Outlook and the Tropical Package of Weather Information. He also gave a slide presentation of the features of hurricanes.

Respectfully submitted,
Susan A. Tarbell

Friday, JANuary 15, 1999
ASLI Business meeting and ASLI Field Trip