InSAR
Interferometric
Synthetic Aperture
Radar

GIOD
Globally Interconnected Object Databases

LIGO
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory)

XSIL
Extensible Scientific Interchange Language

Scientific Data Archives

Many scientific endeavors produce large quantities of heterogeneous data that is to be analyzed by loose, distributed collaborations. There is a call for federally-funded data to make itself useful through its availability to those who are not experts in the meaning of the data. Scientific data, in contrast to text or image data, is often useless without sophisticated, customized data-mining and knowledge extraction tools. Given these three conditions, there is an urgent need for software infrastructures to create, maintain, evolve, and federate these active digital libraries of scientific data; infrastructures that consider the newcomer learning to use the system as well as the seasoned professional.

CACR is involved in several projects that examine approaches to such active digital libraries:

	Digital Puglia
	Digital Sky
	InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar)
	GIOD (Globally Interconnected Object Databases)
	LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory)

CACR hosted the first Interfaces to Scientific Data Archives workshop in Pasadena in March 1998. The objective of this workshop was to examine approaches to such active digital libraries through case-studies and tools. The interaction of these illustrates needs for standards and abstraction, identifies similarities, focuses on real-life problems, and thus curbs the excesses of theory. Using small-group discussion, we identified solutions, consensus, and challenges in creating and maintaining active digital libraries of scientific data, for ensuring that the archive is flexible and extensible, that it is as easy as possible to learn how to use, and so that different groups can use each other's development work instead of repeating it. The full report from the workshop is available from the web site below, with findings, recommendations, descriptions of case-studies and tools, and a survey of scientific data archives.