Access to Geosciences – Ways and Means to share and publish collection data

Abstract

Natural history collections are invaluable tools for various questions regarding biodiversity, environmental, and cultural studies. All object metadata thus need to be findable, reachable and interoperable for the scientific community and beyond. This requires a good structuration of data, appropriate exchange formats, and web sites or portals making all necessary information accessible. Collection managers, curators, and scientist from various institutions and nationalities were surveyed in order to understand the importance of open geoscientific collections for the respective holding institution and their daily work. In addition, particular requirements for the publication of geoscientific collection object metadata were gathered in a two-day workshop with international experts working with paleontological, mineralogical, petrological and meteorite collections. The survey and workshop revealed that common data standards are of crucial importance though insufficiently used by most institutions. The extent and type of information necessary for the publication and discussed during the workshop will be considered for domain specific application schema facilitating the publication and exchange of geoscientific object metadata. There is a high demand for comprehensive data portals covering all geoscientific disciplines. Gathered portal requirements will be taken into account when improving the already running GeoCASe aggregator platform.