restoration, marine protected areas, and coral reef ...

Proceedings of the 14th Biennial Coastal Zone Conference New Orleans, Louisiana July 17 to 21, 2005

RESTORATION, MARINE PROTECTED AREAS, AND CORAL REEF VIRTUAL LIBRARIES: NOAA STYLE Dottie Anderson, U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Central Library Mary Lou Cumberpatch, U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Central Library Kathleen A. Kelly, U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Central Library Keywords: coral reefs, marine protected areas, habitat restoration, virtual libraries INTRODUCTION The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Central Library is a recognized leader in the development and fielding of virtual libraries. Virtual libraries provide online access to specialized collections of information resources. Normally they include bibliographic citations with links to full text documents and other online resources such as video or photos. Virtual Libraries can also serve as gateways to information and resources on science, management and policy for researchers, scientists, resource managers, policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public. Restoration, Marine Protected Areas, and Coral Reefs are examples of three NOAA virtual libraries in such areas. BACKGROUND In June 2000, the NOAA Central Library was approached by the National Ocean Service’s Special Projects office to collaborate on developing a virtual library for the newly created National MPA Center. Following the initial success of the MPA Library, the NOAA Central Library was asked in 2001 to develop a virtual library to support a new Coral Reef Information system within NOAA. Then in 2003, the Library was asked to create a NOAA Restoration Virtual Library. CORAL REEFS The Coral Reef Library is on the CoRIS (Coral Reef Information System) web portal http://www.coris.noaa.gov/. The Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS) web portal is designed to provide consolidated access to NOAA’s coral reef data and information, and to make NOAA the place to go in the federal government for data and information on coral reefs. The Coral Reef Information System Web site (CoRIS) provides the public with a single point of access for coral reef data and information derived from many NOAA programs and projects, especially those that are part of NOAA’s activities on the National Coral Reef Task Force and NOAA’s implementation of the National Action Plan to Conserve Coral Reefs. Representatives from the various NOAA line offices all work together on CoRIS. The site is divided into six sections: Discover NOAA’s data, About Coral Reefs, Professional Exchanges, the Library, NOAA’s coral reef activities, and a glossary of over 3000 technical terms.


Fig. 1 The CoRIS Library The purpose of the CoRIS Library (Fig. 1) is to provide information of interest to scientists and others working with Coral Reefs. While the library focuses mainly on NOAA-related activities and materials, it is also a resource for information by others working in the coral reef community. Resources include web sites devoted to NOAA's coral reef activities and publications and external coral reef Web sites and publications. The CoRIS Library is divided into four collections. “Notable Additions” features information newly added to the Library. “NOAA Coral Reef Web sites” features sites which describe the coral reef activities conducted by the various NOAA line offices. The “Coral Reef Web sites” collection describes national and international organizations involved in coral reef activities and research. The “Publications” collection includes citations from papers and reports published as a result of NOAA or NOAA-sponsored coral reef activities. Publications of non-NOAA programs and activities engaged in coral reef research are also featured. In addition to the ‘CoRIS Library, over 900 coral items can be found in the NOAA Libraries electronic catalog (http://www.lib.noaa.gov/). Coral reef-related items have been given a local entry tag of CoRIS. These items are also searchable from the text search access path on the “Discover NOAA’s Data” section on the CoRIS Library. The CoRIS Text Search allows users to search records by titles, authors, keywords, taxonomic names and more. At present, IT professional are working on a solution for searching both the “CoRIS Library” and the NOAA Library Catalog simultaneously. MARINE PROTECTED AREAS Executive Order 13158 of May 26, 2000 on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) defines MPAs as "any area of the marine environment that has been reserved by Federal, State, territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein." The National MPA Center, established under the authority of the Executive Order, hosts a web site to facilitate access to information on MPAs, in support of the development of a national system of MPAs. NOAA Central


Library works collaboratively with the MPA Center to provide an MPA Virtual Library on the MPA web site (http://www.mpa.gov/) The MPA Virtual Library (Fig. 2) serves as a searchable database of print, electronic, and web-based resources on U.S. and international MPA issues. It is a gateway to information on the science, management and policy issues of marine protected areas. It is used by researchers, scientists, resource managers, policy makers, stakeholders, and the general public. The resources in the MPA Library are organized into four basic collections: 1) Bibliography (books, reports, journal articles, conference proceedings, etc.) 2) Conferences and Workshops (descriptions of and links to MPA conference web sites) 3) Institutions and Organizations (descriptions of functions with useful links to Federal/National, State, Multistate, Academic & Research, Nongovernmental and International sites) 4) Web Sites (descriptions and links to sites/pages offering academic courses, bibliographies, GIS tools, international information, legislation, listservs and online discussions, multimedia, news/newsletters, and projects) The MPA Library is searchable by collection type, author, title, date, or keyword, and also features a browsable set of keywords to facilitate search ideas.

Fig. 2 The Marine Protected Areas Virtual Library


Activities to maintain and improve the MPA Virtual Library include: maintaining a master database and monthly updates; adding citations suggested by MPA staff and other users; downloading available CSA abstracts into ProCite; proofreading/editing older records; adding to or editing the keywords list as needed; coordinating with the MPA webmaster on identifying any issues to be resolved while converting the monthly ProCite update database to the MPA Web site version; and reporting on the number and types of resources added in a monthly report to the MPA Center. Activities to promote or publicize the MPA Virtual Library include: publicizing newly added resources in online newsletters and on a monthly "Notable Additions" webpage; providing records to NOAA Central Library catalogers so bibliographic data can be reused for any items available through the NOAA Library Network; and sending monthly citation alerts to MPA Center staff about new resources added to the Virtual Library which address their special areas of expertise. RESTORATION PORTAL The NOAA Restoration Portal (http://restoration.noaa.gov) is designed as a web portal to information on NOAA's restoration activities and programs, publications, and resource materials. The NOAA Restoration Program’s primary mission is the restoration of coastal, ocean and Great Lakes habitats. The core program is composed of offices from throughout NOAA, including the NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center, NOAA Ocean Service Damage Assessment Center, NOAA Office of Response and Restoration, NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, NOAA Fisheries' Office of Habitat Conservation, and NOAA Office of General Counsel. Designing the portal was a collaborative effort of the NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center, NOAA Ocean Service Special Projects and Office of Response and Restoration, NOAA Central Library, and the NOAA Seattle Regional Library.


Fig 3. NOAA Restoration Portal The portal is organized by four thematic areas (Fig. 3) in addition to having links to NOAA offices. Content is up-to-date since search results for publications, websites, and audio-visual materials are generated dynamically direct from the NOAA Libraries OnLine Catalog (NOAALINC). The NOAALINC database is based on the Unicorn Integrated Library System from SIRSI (http://www.sirsi.com). For the project, library staff customized many aspects of the catalog database and user interface. The library catalog database is restricted to documents relevant to habitat restoration by the addition of a MARC 21 local uniform title, 739, “Restoration document.” A search is limited automatically to those documents. The catalog record for each resource in the database is cataloged using MARC 21 standard. The subject terms are customized to ensure that documents are assigned 1 or more relevant habitat types, as well as 1 or more NOAA Restoration Thematic Areas. When a Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) inadequately describes a habitat type, other controlled vocabulary is utilized, including the Aquatic Science and Fisheries Abstracts Thesaurus, Fish and Wildlife Reference Service Thesaurus, and GeoRef Thesaurus. The user interface to the database, iLink, has been customized to allow searching for habitat type, NOAA restoration theme, and NOAA office, along with title, author, and subject. Primary benefits of drawing on the library catalog database include: 1) new material is constantly added to the library catalog database; 2) each new resource is rigorously described by a professional cataloger; 3) each entry in the database is also included in the worldwide library catalog "WorldCat," ensuring wider dissemination of NOAA restoration resources; 4) duplication of effort is avoided – there is no need to create a separate database of restoration resources; and 5) it ensures that NOAA restoration resources will be permanently archived in the NOAA Libraries. FUTURE What does the future hold? The ideal would be to develop subject-specific Virtual Libraries to support each of NOAA matrix programs. NOAA Central Library has noted this as one of its goals in NOAA’s new program and planning budget system. This will require more staff and resources. Finding focused, relevant information today can be an overwhelming experience because of the number of available resources. Hopefully, this ideal of offering more subject-based virtual libraries as gateways to the resources of NOAA’s cross-cutting programs can one day be accomplished. Dottie Anderson NOAA Central Library 1315 East West Highway, 2nd Floor Silver Spring, MD 20910 Phone: (301)713-2607x140 E-mail: [email protected]
