Ag Data CommonsA new USDA catalog and repository for
agricultural research data
Credit: Phenocam USDA-ARS Hawbecker Farm, PA
Cynthia Parr @cydparrNational Agricultural LibraryUSAIN 2016 25 April 2016
Knowledge Services Division @ NAL• Established November 2012 • Data management support to USDA and its
scientific research communities• Making data discoverable, accessible, and re-
usable• Increasing transparency and return on investment
6 program staff: Biology, engineering, life cycle assessment, bioinformatics, geo-informatics, general informatics, and library sciences
2 technical staff: Java and Drupal5 research fellows: Digital curation, bioinformatics,
and computer science Contract support (7)
Knowledge Services @ NALIn support of scientific research activities and the Open Data Initiative, NAL provides:
1. data repository and workspace services
2. value-added curation services for data discoverability, access, and re-use
3. data management planning and policy
Data Repository and Workspace Services
NAL provides repository infrastructure and data management services at the archiving and preservation stage of the research data life cycle:
• Data acquisition• Single user and community curation• Metadata editing• Data publishing• User-centered interface design• Data visualization• User testing• Automated and semi-automated QA/QC
Value-added Data Curation Services
• Subject matter and informatics expertise add value to curation process• Improved ease of participation for researchers• QA/QC capability to facilitate data re-use
• QA/QC and editorial services• Data fidelity• Metadata completeness and consistency
• Data archiving and preservation• Discovery and search tools
8
Identifiable/Accessible
Understandable
Machine Readable
Reusable/Reproducible
Open Science
A Journey Toward Research Support
ResearchSupport
Mandate Compliance
AG DATA COMMONSSearch &
Knowledge Discovery
Thesaurus &Indexing
Ag Data CommonsRepository
Organization & Curation
Grant Management
Systems
INGESTION DISSEMINATION
PubAg
DatasetSubmission
Analytics & Tools
Data.govAg Data
Commons Catalog
LegendBuildingAdaptingExisting
Distributed Repositories
Forest ServiceGeospatial
StatusPrototype FY 2015• DKAN open source• Drupal modules for basic
CMS functions • Feeds Data.gov• Basic metadata already
supported
Pilot FY 2016• ~35 non-NAL users• Almost 200 datasets (104
harvested)• Links to PubAg • Digital Object Identifiers• Metadata for compliance
checking and re-use• Support for program
collections• Policies and
documentation
Now
15
Metadata + data package
DOILinksThesaurus tags
Idiosyncratic data dictionary
Search, services, compliance
Structured methods metadata
Shared data dictionary
Semantic data dictionary
Assist application launch
Find related data
Integrate/link related data
Three yearsFive years
What does this mean for you?
• Provide feedback to us• Answer reference questions• Refer researchers looking to submit• Connect institutional or domain
repositories
Acknowledgements
Susan McCarthy, Ursula Pieper, Erin Antognoli, Jon Sears, Qing Qu, Jeff Campbell
UMD: Kerry Huller, Adam Kriesberg, Meghna SarinFormer: Jocelyn McNamara, Melissa Lohrey, Don
Gourley, Jaylen NathwaniGovDelivery, Angry Cactus team
See Poster #2 and Poster #8 for more.