Digital video needs for oceanographic images for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): phase 2

Existing programs within The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for data archiving and access do not address the increasing requirements for managing digital video, imagery, and audio resources. In particular, NOAA´s Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) has a need for an organized digital management system to handle increasing amounts of video, still imagery, and audio resources generated by OE programs and grants. The NOAA Central Library (NCL), in collaboration with NOAA´s Office of OE, embarked on a pilot project in 2002 to explore the possibilities of providing such data for the exploration research community, as well as educators and the general public. The NCL plans to develop a standardized capability for public access to video, image, and audio information from NOAA´s efforts in uncovering and documenting undersea habitats and marine species. Eventually, the goal is to set up a portal from which all OE video/image/audio will be accessible. This paper will discuss the progress of the pilot project during its first year, and present the goals for the next year. It will discuss the research, standardization process (metadata), and implementation phases. It will assess user needs and requirements, developed policies and procedures, and explored various options for a retrieval system for the video/image/audio. It will discuss many of the questions faced in the first phase of the project including: Would the library be the central repository for all of NOAA? How would the video/images/audio material be collected? How would it be accessed? How would it be archived? The ultimate goal of the project is to provide easy access to the rich and varied digital video, images and audio material generated by NOAA´s Office of OE.