Dear colleagues,

Please consider submitting an abstract to a groundbreaking session  
involving library - data center collaboration at the 2008 American  
Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting during 15-19 December in San  
Francisco (http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/): The Library - Data  
Center Alliance in Earth and Space Sciences

Abstracts to this Session U08 (see below) must be submitted by 10  
September 2008 at:

http://submissions3.agu.org/submission/entrance.asp


Guest presenters tentatively include, among others:

-Jim Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University  
Librarian, Columbia University, New York NY
-Christopher Fox, Director, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder CO


Librarians, please not that AGU has just clarified that registration  
for the annual meeting for librarians will be the same as that for  
high school teachers. For the upcoming annual meeting in San  
Francisco December 15-19, 2008, that rate will be $40 for one day and  
$85 for 2 or more days.


We hope you can join us for this novel session; please contact co- 
conveners Mark Parsons ([log in to unmask]) or Rajendra Bose  
([log in to unmask]) with any questions.

Sincerely,

Mark Parsons
Rajendra Bose


Session U08: The Library - Data Center Alliance in Earth and Space  
Sciences

Conveners: Mark A. Parsons, National Snow and Ice Data Center, and
Rajendra Bose, Columbia University Center for Digital Research and  
Scholarship

Description:  Preserving, sharing, and understanding the diverse and  
growing collection of Earth and space science data and information  
require sustained commitment and diverse expertise. Recent reports  
from national and international scientific organizations increasingly  
emphasize professional and collaborative approaches to managing data  
and information, especially supporting interdisciplinary science. The  
electronic Geophysical Year (eGY) promotes this professional  
development and collaboration. In particular, eGY recognizes the  
conceptual alliance between today's research libraries and scientific  
data centers, and promotes partnerships, collaboration and even  
hybrids of these two types of enterprises to meet the Earth science  
informatics challenge.

Research libraries have a long, sustained, and respected role as  
curators of Earth science information and knowledge. Yet, in recent  
decades, scientific data centers have also played an increasingly  
important role in stewarding Earth science data and information.  
Libraries seek to extend their expertise to manage new forms of  
digital publication, including data. Data centers seek to develop  
sustained, long-term archival systems. It is apparent; the two  
communities should collaborate to achieve their complementary  
objectives.

This session aims to bring together members of both the research  
libraries and the data center communities to survey and compare  
approaches, philosophies, and long-term strategies for dealing with  
the problems of managing digital scientific data collections, and  
invites submissions regarding issues and approaches for archiving,  
serving, and curating such collections. An emphasis on support of  
interdisciplinary science is encouraged.