Geographic Searches for USGS Publications (Bureau-wide Application)

The purpose of this project is to improve the USGS Publications Warehouse (Pubs Warehouse) so that a person can search for USGS publications by geographic region in addition to existing search criteria; for example, one could search using map zooms or congressional districts. The addition of geographic searches allows users to narrow their search results to specific areas of interest, which reduces the time required to sift through all results outside the area of interest.

In FY 2014, the project team determined that the ScienceBase Footprint Studio would be an appropriate tool for creating the footprints for USGS publications and decided on the technical implementation for information exchange between ScienceBase and Pubs Warehouse. The project team also updated the Pubs Warehouse interface to allow users to search for publications within a geographic area. Additionally, the team updated the backend capabilities of the Pubs Warehouse to accept geospatial footprints related to publications.

In FY 2015, the project team developed workflows for creating and adding polygons in ScienceBase and in the MyPubs Publication Warehouse interface. The Coastal Marine and Geology Program (CMGP) tested the ScienceBase workflow and the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) and the Wisconsin Water Science Center (WIWSC) tested the MyPubs workflow. The workflows were documented in a training module for using the footprint tools.

In FY 2016, the lessons learned from this project will be used to update and migrate the footprint project to an approach that will allow for long-term sustainability.  New development in the Pubs Warehouse will more tightly integrate the Pubs Warehouse and the ScienceBase geospatial dataset, giving users at cost centers who want to add new footprints an easy and effective way to do so.

Principal Investigator : Katherine E Wesenberg
Cooperator/Partner : Frances L Lightsom, Jennifer L Bruce