IABIN Visioning Meeting

Washington, D.C.

October 2008

Mike Frame

Topics for discussion

• What is the IABIN Catalog– Objectives – Role– Status

• Catalog Sustainability • Work plan for this Year• Multi-lingual terminology Catalog Study• IABIN niche

MEETING OBJECTIVES

• Lessons learned in 4 years of implementing the IABIN-GEF Project

• IABIN 2010-2015 – What will IABIN be?

• Define IABIN’s Niche in the Global Bioinformatics Community

• Define IABIN’s mission for 2010-2015

• IABIN Objectives to achieve the new Mission 2010-2015

• Main lines of work to achieve the Objectives

• Funding to implement main lines of work to achieve objectives.

• Review of current Stakeholders Roles and transition to their future roles

Catalog Sustainability

Need to understand what the Catalog “is”

Catalog Consultancy Objective

• Provide an integrated, customized, multi-lingual search tool for IABIN, to be termed “IABIN BioBot”, which will build upon data and information made available through IABIN’s Thematic Networks, the current NBII BioBot, and other sources

Major Products

Product 1: Multilingual IABIN BioBot Search Tool including software code, on-line help, and technical documentation (English only).

Product 2: Integration of the multi-lingual Thesaurus capabilities into the IABIN BioBot.

Product 3: Software code/scripts for delivering relevant, subsetted IABIN BioBot results on Focal Points, Thematic Networks, country and other websites

Multilingual IABIN Catalog

Search box script – facilitates integration

• Documentation• Script functions

– Allows IABIN Catalog to be accessed from partner sites

– Allows for sub setting by country, etc.

• Where/How to downloadhttp://iabin-catalog.nbii.gov/imageserver/plumtree/portal/private/WebHelp/ScriptExample/IABINBioBotSearch.html

Multi-lingual Thesaurus• Scope:

– Translation and thesaurus development of ~12,000 biological/ecological terms

• Goal: – Improve Search Results while exposing multi-lingual

content

• Approach– Staff (consultants being hired):

• Spanish Consultant • Portuguese Consultant

– Deliver IABIN thesaurus to NBII for hosting and incorporation into IABIN Catalog

Search Results Study Improvement

Goals:– Evaluate the effectiveness of adding multi-lingual

term lists to the IABIN Catalog infrastructure – Determine whether or not records can be retrieved

through this approach– Support planning for full IABIN Thesaurus

implementation

Sample Study Results Search Term No Thesaurus With Thesaurus

pollinators 760 824

especies invasivas 3 845

especies invasoras 14 845

especies introducidas 1 985

ecosistemas forestales 0 232

Sustainability Discussions

IABIN TN

Secretariat

Focal Points

Participating Organizations

Partn

ers

Databases

Data

Web sites

CI’s

Staff

Coordinatio

n

Outreach

Fund raising

Representation

Goal

“To be a self-sustaining distributed network which provides open access to high quality, relevant information on biodiversity in the Americas, providing that information in a timely manner to users throughout the public and private sector in the Americas and to other interested parties worldwide.”

Sustainability Discussion• Differing aspects of Sustainability related to

the IABIN Catalog: – Technical sustainability– Economic sustainability

All affected by partner expertise, resources, capabilities, and mission

IABIN Catalog Facts Related to Sustainability

• Catalog needs/requires “content”• Catalog is one method for looking across IABIN Network• Catalog leads users to IABIN data and content + provides

unique content and data• Catalog CI Organization will continue to be involved in IABIN• IABIN Catalog is based on core NBII BioBot infrastructure

+ Annual fees+ Software/Hardware+ Security + Upgrades– IABIN unique instances/functions may not occur without $’s

Recommendations for Catalog

• Fund metadata creator position for IABIN• USGS continue to operate IABIN Catalog• Allocate funding to organizing bi-annual workshops

for IT activities in IABIN• Award yearly TOR to update IABIN Thesaurus • Establish long-term IABIN infrastructure @ USP and

UT for hosting applications

Possible IABIN niche’s • Representation on global biodiversity efforts in Americas • Providing infrastructure (hosting, workshops, tools, etc.) support to

biodiversity initiatives – Through IABIN Regional partners

• Representation on standards activities• Representation of multi-lingual challenges to various groups• Clearinghouse for “all” World Bank/OAS “biological activities” in Americas • Organizer (convener) of Americas biodiversity activities – forum • Technical experts to the regions, countries on proper data management

(i.e. IABIN TNs, Sectr) • Look to establish data archives for related country research activities

Catalog Strengths & Weaknesses

• Strengths:+ Infrastructure+ Organizational commitment + Informatics approaches “cutting edge”+ Coordination of IABIN TWG

- Weaknesses:- Require Content- Content Identification- Limited funding- Need QA/QC

Opportunities & Threats

• Opportunities:+ Further integration+ Potential to include other networks+ Could do more network wide training, capacity building+ Further support IABIN IT TWG

• Threats: – Users can’t find content– “stove-pipes” of information– Additional content beyond existing TNs not included

Additional IABIN Catalog Details

Upcoming Year Tasks• Implementation of multi-lingual (3) Thesaurus • Develop software code to expand user search terms for

– Gazetteer --- Looking to use Geomancer

• Develop software code to expand user search terms for – Scientific names – ITIS, Catalog of Life will be accessed via

web-service

• Provide maintenance and technical support• Continued use of the US GBIF mirror to support IABIN • Citations Database of 150,000 records available • Deploying Catalog Search on TNs site• Use of rss for streaming content • Investigating additional multi-lingual metadata holdings

IABIN Catalog Statisticsthru Oct 26, 2008

“views”

1 4 9 8

7 1 5 01 0 4

5 8 1

3 1 14 0 1

0

2 0 0

4 0 0

6 0 0

8 0 0

1 0 0 0

1 2 0 0

1 4 0 0

1 6 0 0

T o ta l V ie w s

To t a l M a y J u n e J u ly A u g u s t S e p t e m b e r O c t o b e r

(t h ru 1 0 / 2 6 )

M o n th

IA B IN C a ta lo g

Demonstration @ break

• IABIN Catalog Search• On-line Help• Multi-lingual capabilities• Sorting Functions• Automatic Image viewing

References and Contact Information

Questions / Comments / Advice / Opinions

Mike Frame: mike_frame@usgs.gov