Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Evolution Of The Karst Information Portal, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is a digital library initiative linking scientists, resource managers, and explorers with quality information resources concerning karst, an understudied natural environment that is crucial to the health and well-being of one out of every four people on Earth. Beginning in 2006 as a partnership between the USF Libraries, the National Cave & Karst Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Library, and the Union Internationale de Spéléologie (UIS), KIP has expanded to include databases concerning cave minerals, speleothem dating, and coastal cave surveys. This presentation outlines the evolution of the project and describes ongoing developments …

Cave Mineral Database: A Joint Collaboration Between Geologists, Librarians, And Programmers, Beverly Caggiano, Bogdan P. Onac, Todd A. Chavez

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The Cave Mineral Database (CAMIDA) is a collaborative project of the University of South Florida Libraries, UIS’s Cave Minerals Commission, the Karst Information Portal, “Emil Racoviţă Institute of Speleology (Romania), and the Karst Research Group at University of South Florida (USA). CAMIDA is an open-access collection of geological, mineralogical, crystallographical, and protection/conservation information on all minerals discovered in caves (including lava tubes) around the world. It holds and organizes large amounts of information (including polarizing, scanning, and transmission microscope photos), and makes any item immediately accessible. It also provides links to many other integrated database of Raman spectra, X-ray diffraction …

Superior Karst Management Through Superior Data Management: The Karst Information Portal, E. Spencer Fleury, George H. Veni, Todd A. Chavez, Penelope J. Boston, Diana E. Northup, H. Len Vacher, Pat Seiser

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Effective stewardship of caves and karst areas requires access to and efficient analysis of a diverse range of information. Vital data are scattered throughout specialty mainstream journals, which even for a single project could include fields such as ecology, hydrogeology, contaminant transport, toxicology, engineering geology and law. Additionally, volumes of crucial information often lie in diffi­cult-to-find gray literature. Management recommendations and decisions should be based on assessments of state-of-the-art information, but fall short when im­portant patterns and relationships are overlooked.

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) offers a solution to these problems. Con­ceived in 2005 and launched in June 2007, KIP …

Enhancing Communication And Knowledge Discovery Among Karst Scientists: The Role Of The Karst Information Portal (Kip), George Veni, Diana Northup, Penelope Boston, Todd A. Chavez, Robert Brinkmann, H. Len Vacher, Alexander Klimchouk, Linn Marks-Collins, Johann Van Reenan

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Karst science is an intrinsically multidisciplinary field of study that is poorly indexed and difficult to access. While much of the significant body of international literature is accessible, many important works remain largely unknown or inaccessible. Some of the more difficult and essential documents to access are what is characterized as gray literature, which includes maps, databases, technical reports, graduate theses or dissertations, images, video, and government publications. Also, karst-related documents published in less-accessible languages are hard to access or find. The creation and implementation of the Karst Information Portal (KIP) beginning in 2005 addresses these and other information access …

Introducing The Karst Information Portal, Robert Brinkmann, Todd A. Chavez, George Veni, Penelope Boston

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

This presentation introduces the Karst Information Portal to an international audience.

The Karst Information Portal (Kip): Developing A Network Of Geographic And Geologic Karst Information, Robert Brinkmann, Todd A. Chavez, Alexander Klimchouk, Diana Northup, H. Len Vacher, Penelope Boston, George Veni, Spencer Fleury

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The difficulty of sharing geologic and geographic karst information is well documented. While there is a significant body of internationally accessible literature, important works are largely unknown or inaccessible. Some of the more difficult documents to access include maps, databases, technical reports, graduate theses or dissertations, images, video, and government publications. Also, karst related documents published in lessaccessible languages are hard to access or find—especially those published prior to the information age. In order to address this issue, the Karst Information Portal (KIP) was formed in 2005 and launched in 2007.

KIP is an evolving international community of scientists, information …

Enhancing Communication And Knowledge Discovery Among Karst Biospeleologists: The Role Of The Karst Information Portal (Kip), Diana Northup, Todd A. Chavez, Robert Brinkmann, H. Len Vacher, Linn Marks Collins, Johann Van Reenan, Penelope Boston, George Veni

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Speleology is an intrinsically multidisciplinary field of study that draws upon a substantial grey literature (for exapmle, agency research reports) that is poorly indexed, difficult to access, and generated in many different languages. The creation and implementation of the Karst Information Portal (KIP) beginning in 2005 addresses these and other information access and management problems by focusing on providing a global portal that will provide a gateway to the Web for karst information and services. Digital versions of many karst resources will be available through KIP. Databases, datasets, bibliographies, images, grey literature, and the like. that have been created by …

The Karst Information Portal: A Virtual Tool To Facilitate Research And Collaboration In Paleontological Speleology, George Veni, Todd A. Chavez, Penelope Boston, Diana Northup, H. Len Vacher

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

Data access, management, and evaluation challenge the progress of speleology. Crucial information is both scattered throughout specialty mainstream journals and buried in the gray literature. The karst-information problem is exacerbated in paleontological speleology due to overlaps into other disciplines, such as geology, biology, paleoclimatology, and hydrology. Important patterns and relationships can easily be overlooked, especially when no geographic or cultural connections are known between archeological sites. The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is a solution to these paleontological research problems. Conceived in 2005 and launched in June 2007, KIP developed as a partnership between the International Union of Speleology, National Cave …

Human Dimensions Research And The Karst Information Portal, Todd A. Chavez, Patricia E. Seiser

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

In the natural resources disciplines, human dimensions research aims to understand the role of human interactions in the various biological, physical, and social components of ecosystems. Successfully applying this knowledge to decisions affecting environmental processes and their societal outcomes depends on collaborations among interrelated disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences, humanities, communication sciences, and related interdisciplinary studies. Success is also based on access to reliable sources of scientific and technical information. Some of the difficulties in stewardship of karst and cave ecosystems arise from the limited availability of information concerning human-karst relationships.

The Karst Information Portal (KIP) is an …

A Snapshot Of The Body Of Karst Literature, Sarah E. Fratesi, Lee Florea, Todd A. Chavez, H. Len Vacher

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The pace of research in cave and karst science is increasing. The inherent multidisciplinary nature of the field exacerbates the need for globalized communication. The field, however, is served by a literature that is dispersed across far-flung topical journals, government publications, and club newsletters. As part of an inter-institutional project to globalize karst information (KIP, the Karst Information Portal), the USF Library undertook a structured battery of literature searches to map the domain of karst literature. The administrators of the KIP will use these data to design strategies to aggregate and evaluate the representation of information within the KIP.

The …

The Global Karst Digital Portal: An Emerging Collaboratorium, Robert Brinkmann, Todd A. Chavez, Louise Hose, Diana Northup

Academic Resources Faculty and Staff Publications

The National Cave and Karst Research Institute, the University of South Florida, and the University of New Mexico have developed a network portal to enhance information access and improved communication within the national and international karst community. The partnership developed an on-line digital portal with free access to a variety of information. This holistic undertaking seeks to bring karst research forward in the digital age. In addition, the project creates global connections by including a user-generated submission process for enhancing the diversity of materials available through the portal. We are currently transforming A Guide to Speleological Literature of the English …