The LTER Information Management Committee (IMC) conducted its annual meeting on September 13, 2009, during the Annual Scientists Meeting at Estes Park, CO. The committee chair's position rotates every three years, and so the current co-chairs Corinna Gries (CAP) and Nicole Kaplan (SGS) handed leadership to Margaret O'Brien (SBC) and Don Henshaw (AND), whose terms will expire in 2012.
The membership of Information Managers executive subcommittee (IM-Exec) also changed, with two members, John Campbell (HBR) and Todd Ackerman (NWT), rotating off. That subcommittee is charged with planning and implementing LTER Executive Board and National Science Foundation decisions among the IMC. The current membership of IM-Exec is Emery Boose (HFR, 2012), Suzanne Remillard (AND, 2011), Corinna Gries (NTL, 2011), Sven Bohm (KBS, 2010), Hap Garritt (PIE, 2010). Gries also serves as our liaison to the LTER Executive Board.
The IMC also experienced some turnover in the last year. Most notable was Barbara Benson, who retired as the information manager at NTL and was replaced by Gries (who moved over from CAP). Other new members of the IMC include John Chamblee (CWT), Hope Humphries (NWT) and Sue Welch (MCM), who replaced Barrie Collins, Todd Ackerman, and Chris Gardner, respectively. We welcome our new collaborators, and wish our outgoing members the best of luck in their new endeavors.
The IMC is taking on new challenges in the coming years that will enhance data use and interoperability, both within and beyond LTER. Our "units dictionary" will launch its web services early in 2010, and parts of our "controlled vocabulary" are already in place for dynamic searches of the network data catalog. A new dataset quality group has been formed to establish metrics and guidelines for use of data described by Ecological Metadata Language.
Furthermore, the recent infusion of stimulus funds into the LTER Network Office means that we can now proceed with plans to integrate databases at our central office and deliver content to sites for their individual needs. Overall, the IMC continues to be a very active group within LTER, in their local scientific domains, and in the informatics community at large.