EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 207 



3. Catalog series, which contains primary inventories of NODC holdings. 



The three mosl recent publications are: 



"Inventory of Worldwide HT Data." 



"Inventory Oceanographic Data, North Atlantic Ocean." 



"Oeeanographic Vessels of the World" — this in collaboration with the IGY 

 World Data Center A, ai Texas A. & M. 



In addition to the series described, the center also issues a -'onthlv newsletter 

 which has a current distribution list of approximately 400. This was originally 

 intended only as a house organ for distribution to the Board and to a limited 

 number of those agencies specifically interested in NODC activities. However, 

 the occasional inclusion of items of general oceanographic interest brought such 

 a favorable response from reviewers that its scope has now been broadened 

 permanently to include an increased number of such items. This response has 

 simply pointed out that there has been a long-felt need for a general across-the- 

 board oceanographic news publication. 



It has also become apparent that the NODC is a convenient outlet for oceano- 

 graphic publications, such as operating and instruction manuals and the like, 

 •and whose use cuts across agency lines. This obviates the necessity for each 

 agency to publish and distribute its own instruction manuals. 



Additional publications will be issued under the byline of the World Data 

 Center A as a part of the data publication to which the United States is committed, 

 and which is contributed to by all participants of the IGC. 



QUALITY CONTROL OF OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA 



No discussion of the present and future role of NODC would be complete 

 w'thout some discussion of the part it plays in monitoring the quality and 

 adequacy of the national oceanographic data gathering effort. The data center 

 holds a unique position midway in the circuit between the data gathering mecha- 

 nisms and programs on the one hand, and the research and operational interests 

 which these observational programs were designed to support on the other hand. 

 This unique strategic position that it holds rather emphatically spells out the 

 role it must play in the evaluation of the accuracy and adequacy, not only of 

 instrumentation and observational procedures, but perhaps of the conduct of the 

 survey programs themselves. The present organizational structure of the data 

 center contains a branch whose staff is identified solely with the important area 

 of quality control. 



RESEARCH AND TECHNIQUE DEVELOPMENT 



A number of research investigations are now underway to improve our service 

 to oceanographers and to improve the quality of the data. Among the more 

 important of these investigations is our work on the development of holding-recall 

 systems for biological and geological-geophysical data. These two areas in 

 oceanographic data processing have long been beglected and the staggering mass 

 of data accumulated over the past years, and currently being accumulated, makes 

 it exceedingly urgent that systems be devised for the processing and recall of these 

 data. 



Thus far the NODC has made significant advances in a holding-recall system 

 for geological and geophysical data. We have begun a pilot project to evaluate 

 the keyword (UNITERM) system for indexing documents on bottom sediments 

 and gravity. Upon completion of the pilot program, Dr. Harris B. Stewart, Jr., 

 chairman of our ad hoc committee for geology and geophysics, will convene his 

 committee to consider the feasibility of the system and submit recommendations 

 to the Interagency Advisory Board. 



Within the past month and a half we have been fortunate to add to our staff a 

 Ph. D. in biology who will assist us in the development of a corollary system for 

 holding and recall of biological data. As with the geological-geophysical system, 

 the biological holding-recall system is being developed in concert with the oceano- 

 graphic community. The community has already provided our biologist with a 

 good point of departure in a report of our ad hoc committee on biological data 

 processing. The biological program will be coordinated closely with the geo- 

 logical-geophysical program so that all NODC systems will be compatible. 



