Project Status

Recent Accomplishments  |  Currently Funded  |  Proposed  

This page includes information on project direction, sponsorship, procedures, and standards. To include status on your DAHLI-related proposals, collaborations, and projects, please email your summary and status information to Ruth Duerr. To contribute bibliographic information or holdings information, go to Contributors.

Recent Accomplishments

2008 Accomplishments

• NSIDC published IGY Glacier Photographs on the DAHLI web site. William O. Field's IGY Glaciological team took most of these photographs. Also included are a set of panoramic photographs taken by the U.S. Navy.

• New in 2008, NSIDC expanded our DAHLI digitization efforts outside of NSIDC's holdings. We are collaborating with the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C. to digitize their IPY-related holdings. NSIDC will archive the digitized materials and will make these available online (where copyright permits), with the exception that distribution of full-resolution photography will require approval by Carnegie. In that case, only thumbnail and browse imagery will be available online.

• We’d like to thank our volunteer, Donna Hamilton, for her efforts in compiling a list of institutions worldwide with IPY holdings and identifying materials that need to be digitized. Her work is instrumental in moving this project forward.

Users

Several hundred unique users visit the DAHLI web site each month; roughly half of the users are from North America, and the rest are scattered throughout the rest of the world. Several of the documents that are available are quite popular, receiving more than 100 requests each since the beginning of the year. These include:

• IGY General Report Series, No. 6 (1959) – 270 requests
• Recent glacier variations in southern South America (1959) – 225 requests
• IGY General Report Series, No. 5 (1959) – 189 requests
• IGY General Report Series, No. 2 (1958) – 148 requests
• Development of surface morphology on Fletcher's Ice Island (1960) – 136 requests

Moreover, we have begun to receive requests for materials that are not publicly posted due to copyright restrictions, as well as requests to post material that are not yet on our list.

Funding Status

October 2008: NSF has not yet made a decision on the status of the proposal we submitted several years ago. However, thanks to NOAA's Climate Data Modernization Program (CDMP) we continue to receive digitization funding on a yearly basis.

The implications of this funding situation are that several of the activities originally planned are not yet happening. These include:

• We planned to organize an advisory board with representation from the range of disciplines covered by the IPYs to recommend priorities based on scientific impact.Instead, we are concentrating on materials that are readily accessible.
• Quality control of digitized materials and web interface development are impeded due to staffing issues.
• There will be no attempt to bridge the different kinds of search capabilities offered by the library and data center worlds. Instead, the DAHLI simple text web interface will be updated infrequently and bibliographic information will be entered into the IPYPD.
• We are concentrating on digitization activities only, not on data rescue, as we do not have the resources to extract and compile information to create valid, documented science data sets.

Upcoming Activities

• Complete work with Carnegie Institute materials and post to DAHLI site.
• John Hollin, Fellow of INSTAAR and Research Scientist Emeritus of University of Colorado, donated 30 slides taken during his time at Wilkes Station, Antarctica during the IGY. These slides will be digitized and made available through the DAHLI web site.
• Begin digitization of IPY-related materials held by the University of Colorado libraries (some 60 volumes).
• Begin digitization of IPY-related materials held by the NOAA library in Boulder.

If you or your institution have materials that need digitization, or to contribute to the DAHLI bibliography, please see our Contribute Bibliographic and Holdings Information

Currently Funded [top]

Digitization Pilot

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) established plans to conduct a pilot test for digitizing materials. This test will be conducted under the sponsorship of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Data Modernization Program, using their contractor, Lason.The pilot will begin with materials held locally by NSIDC, and if successful, will continue with materials held by the libraries of NOAA's Boulder Labs and other local collections. This pilot allows the participating parties to test and streamline procedures, as well as to work out issues that may arise in such a venture. The pilot will help develop a model for collaboration with outside entities; specifications for bibliographic entries, imaging, keying, and product output; and procedures for materials handling and stewardship. We shipped the first materials, IGY General Reports and IGY Glaciological Reports, to Lason for digitization on 2 May 2006. As of October 2007, 28 reports have been digitized and are available under Find Literature. In addition, some 700 images taken during the IGY were digitized and have been added to NSIDC's Glacier Photograph Collection.

IGY Gold Club

To facilitate coordination and outreach, NSIDC is collaborating with the IGY "Gold" Club program, which is supported by the International Union of Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG). The IGY "Gold" Club identifies and recognizes the exceptional accomplishments of participants from the first IGY (which was the third IPY). IGY Gold Club members are participants in the firsts IGY who have contributed an item of historical significance to the initiative (such as a letter, a recollection, an article, a photograph, etc.), which is made publicly available to historians, librarians, and other people interested in investigating and preserving the history of geophysics. The IGY Gold program will aid DAHLI in the identification and collection of IPY historical resources and will contribute to DAHLI outreach efforts. For example, the IGY Gold program is sponsoring a number of special sessions and reunion gatherings at scientific meetings to encourage original IGY participants to identify and contribute materials of potentially historical value. This collaboration provides an excellent opportunity to advertise the resources provided by DAHLI, as well as to identify new sources of IPY historical information while at the same time increasing utilization of DAHLI's services.

Proposed [top]

NSF IPY DAHLI Proposal

NSIDC submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) IPY call for several elements needed to move DAHLI forward. The proposal included establishing a DAHLI advisory board, comprised of representatives from past and present IPY research fields, and disciplines with an interest in the results of the DAHLI project, such as education, library, archives, and history. The board would prioritize materials for incorporation into the DAHLI system.

The proposal also included establishment and testing of a minimum set of metadata required to populate and search for materials. The proposal supports the creation of an open-source based, language-neutral, web-accessible search engine. The search engine would allow both library- and data center-formatted searches and access to materials from prior IPYs. Inclusion of these two elements begins the process of bridging the gap between the digital library and data center worlds.

Further, NSIDC would provide interfaces that would allow participants to submit bibliographic entries and materials for inclusion in the DAHLI system. With the aim of providing a highly usable system, NSIDC would establish a testing and assessment feedback process. NSIDC would also coordinate and implement methods to mirror the DAHLI system at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) along with at least one other distributed site.

NSIDC’s proposal also calls for the establishment and testing of a minimum set of metadata required to populate and search for materials via both library and data center style searches as well as to optimize materials for educational use.

Review of this proposal is pending (as of October 2007) .