Public Lecture: Treasures of the USGS Library

Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 7:00 PM
Title: Treasures of the USGS Library
By Richard Huffine

(PDF of Flyer  824 KB)

Since its creation in 1882, the USGS Library has grown to become the world's largest library dedicated to earth and natural sciences, holding more than 1.5 million volumes and 800,000 maps. Richard Huffine, Director of the USGS Libraries Program, will highlight some of the rarest, most valuable, and significant materials held by the USGS. These include early maps of America, documents that establish the provenance of the Hope Diamond, and documentation of our exploration of the American West by Hayden, King, Powell and Wheeler.

(PDF of Flyer  824 KB)

The Library’s initiative to digitize their collection for online access will make these cultural and historic records available worldwide to anyone at anytime. Join us and learn how the USGS is using history to inform the future directions of USGS research and scholarship.


The lecture, Treasures of the USGS Library, will be given on Wednesday, April 6, 2011, at 7:00 PM by Richard Huffine in the Dallas L. Peck Memorial Auditorium at the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia.  See flyer for details.




(Photo: Title: Historia Mundi (1530).  This 479 year old volume is stored in a specially-made box that protects it from further damage by exposure to light. Photographer: Richard Huffine, U.S. Geological Survey) 

(Note: This article was originally published on the USGS Public Lecture Series web site)

Internet Catches Updated Butterfly and Moth Website

Why should we care about butterflies and moths? Thanks to butterflies, bees, birds, and other animal pollinators, the world's flowering plants are able to reproduce and bear fruit. That very basic capability is at the root of many of the foods we eat. And, not least, pollination adds to the beauty we see around us.

Yet today, there is evidence of alarming pollinator population declines worldwide. Fortunately, science investigators of this crucial issue can use data collected and organized in the Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) database to monitor the health of our butterfly and moth population.

Backed by more than 287,000 verified sighting records and 3,239 images that describe 4,638 species, BAMONA is committed to collecting and providing access to quality-controlled data about butterflies and moths of North America. Dedicated volunteer coordinators, including national and internationally recognized Lepidoptera experts, verify each record. The goal is to fill the needs of scientists and nature observers by bringing verified occurrence and life history data into one accessible location.

To serve its broad range of users even better, BAMONA recently launched its re-tooled website. The site was developed at Montana State University (MSU) under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Network.

BAMONA’s latest innovations are aimed at improving technologies for both data collection and data dissemination. Users can now submit records – which typically include a photograph – via the site’s new user submission form, replacing an outdated submission process that required multiple e-mails with spreadsheet attachments.  As for data dissemination, verified records are now immediately available on the site’s home page. New, interactive Google-based maps enable the display of any verified sighting, including Canadian locations. Visitors can now zoom in or out and click on dots pin-pointing sighting locations on interactive maps, and see the details of each sighting record. All these features were not available previously.

For more information, go to www.butterfliesandmoths.org.

(Photo: The Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis).  Photographer, Bob Moul, 2007.  Courtesy of the BAMONA web site).

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Little River Canyon National Preserve

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Little River Canyon National Preserve has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site. Products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, and flight line index; project report - photointerpretation, GIS operations; accuracy assessment report - accuracy assessment methods and results; field data - graphic of field plots, field plots database, physical descriptive for plots, and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphics of vegetation communities, geodatabase, and plot and AA photos; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Little River Canyon National Preserve. The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for one hundred six park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products.

(Photo:Little River Canyon National Preserve, courtesy of the USGS Vegetation Characterization website.)

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Curecanti National Recreation Area

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Curecanti National Recreation Area has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site.  Curecanti National Recreation Area products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, spatial orthophoto data, and flightline index; project report - photointerpretation key, vegetation descriptions, vegetation key, photos of map class, and accuracy assessment; field data - graphic of field plots, field database, physical descriptive for plots and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphic of vegetation communities and geodatabase; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, and contingency matrix;  metadata, and a link to NPS information about Curecanti National Recreation Area. The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for one hundred four park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products.

(Photo: Curecanti National Recreation Area, courtesy of the Vegetation Characterization Program web site.)

USGS Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) San Diego EcoInformatics Expands MultiTaxa Database

The USGS Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) San Diego EcoInformatics group is continuing to expand the Multi-Taxa database by working with partners outside of the region. Datasets from the Amphibian and Reptile Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) and National Park Service (NPS) are being evaluated for inclusion into the database. The partnership with the San Diego Management and Monitoring Program is continuing as we work toward integrating BIOS and the USGS MTX into their data management practices. For Further Information Contact the USGS San Diego Field Station.

(Photo: Golden-cheeked warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia). (Photo: US Fish & Wildlife Service)

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Kings Mountain National Military Park and Morristown National Historical Park

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Kings Mountain National Military Park and Morristown National Historical Park has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site.  The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for one hundred four park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products.

(Photo: Kings Mountain National Military Park, courtesy of the Vegetation Characterization Program web site.)

New Datasets Available Online at Biogeographic Information and Observation System (BIOS)

Five new datasets have been submitted to the Biogeographic Information and Observation System (BIOS). BIOS is the California Department of Fish and Game hosted infrastructure in the state to provide access from a single location to key biological datasets for habitat conservation planning and other activities by researchers and managers. Four datasets from CalTrans San Diego of vegetation mapping and sensitive species surveys from 2006 were submitted as well as a dataset of Wandering Skipper survey data conducted by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).

(Photo: Screen capture of the BIOS online's California Department of Fish and Game - IMAPS Viewer)