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Seafloor Mapping Group Publishes First DVD-ROM
As part of an ongoing effort to release data to the public in an
efficient manner, the WHFC Seafloor Mapping Group (SFMG) has published
its first DVD-R print-on-demand product. The DVD-R contains Open File
Report 00-340, Archive of Boomer Subbottom Data Collected during USGS
Cruise SEAX 96004 in the New York Bight Apex, 1 May—9 June 1996. This
DVD-R is authored by Jenna C. Hill, William C. Schwab, and David S.
Foster and is an electronic publication that furthers the initiative
to distribute seismic and sidescan-sonar data archives as print-on-demand
products. They are replicated and distributed to the USGS library system
and forwarded to Denver for sale (we currently have over 200 CD-ROMs in
the system). A DVD-ROM has the capacity of 7 CD-ROMs and will significantly
reduce the production time required in order for the SFMG to publish these
types of data. The WHFC SFMG has developed a standard template for its
archive data that helps facilitate production and distribution of the data.
The template is used on both CD-R and DVD-R media and may be mounted to
the web as needed. The DVD-R release was staged after three months of
in-house evaluation of media and DVD players. As a result of the tests,
some new DVD drives were ordered to provide appropriate capabilities at
critical sites (i.e., Center Chief, library, etc.).
Recently, DVD data publications have become available (Landview III
- USA/DVD, the Nations Data on DVD)
as many agencies begin to collaborate on large GIS data publications.
USA/DVD was released last year (~7 Gbytes), with Landview III as the
viewer and is available from SIGCAT 2000 (Jerry McFaul, Reston). Jerry
is also working with EPA, NOAA, and Census on a new release with expanded
capabilities and additional data. What this all points to is the importance
of all sites to take DVD seriously and to make sure that some drives are
available for data retrieval.
The USGS publications group has purchased DVD-R drives for each
center (Dave Traudt, East; Jim Hoffman, Central; and Mike Diggles,
West) for testing and evaluation. National Mapping is purchasing a
Rimage DVD-R robotic mastering system. SFMG has plans to add additional
DVD-R systems this next fiscal year to augment the data archive process.
However, these units do not entirely replace CD-R. They merely augment
the process of building our optical archive on a media that is handled
on compatible readers (CD-R and DVD-R may be read on the same drives!).
We have plans to utilize this technology both at sea and in the lab
during future mapping efforts.
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October 2000
in this issue:
Florida Bay Red Grouper
Divers at Turners Falls
Long Island Sound
cover story:
Boston Harbor Clean-Up
Sea Floor Mapping DVD-ROM
Santa Cruz Shark Festival
Natural Systems Restoration
Mapping Tools for Fisheries
Alaska Geologic Mapping
Coral Reef Task Force
Gulf of Mexico Sediments
Viking Celebration
Iceland Lecture
Congratulations
Visitors
October Publications List
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U. S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
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