P1246341504AEzTN

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Climate Database Modernization Fiscal Year 2007
US Fish Commission Historical Papers Imaging and
Indexing Continuation of L-13A
Proposal submitted by Catherine Marzin
National Marine Sanctuary Program
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Background

• Office of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries,
  aka US Fish Commission, established 1871,
• to investigate causes for the decrease of
  commercial fish and aquatic animals in U.S.
  coastal and inland waters and to recommend
  remedies for their conservation.
• US Fish Commission Papers are held by the
  National Archive, mostly at its College Park
  Campus, and in its satellite centers.
• The records are an extensive collection of
  publications, letters of correspondence, research
  notes, scientific survey expedition logbooks,
  photographs, and published statistics relating to
  commercial fishing.

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Sample US Fish Commission Records

• Fisheries Statistical Bulletins
• Oral Histories
• Letters
• Field notes
• Survey Log Books
• Everything!

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How large is the Collection?

• Challenge US Fish Commission papers are held
  within Record Group 22 US Fish Wildlife
  Service 1868-1995 (bulk 1870-1972)
• NARA- College Park holdings of RG22 3,341.371
  cu ft.
• About 1/3 to 1/2 of which are US Fish Commission
  papers (1000-1500 cu feet)
• Estimating 1 cu feet 3 boxes 3 x 1000pages
• -- lower rough estimate to be digitized 3 M
  pages
• -- higher rough estimate 4.5M pages

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What needs to be done

• Image and Index all documents pertaining to US
  Fish Commission
• Expected product CD ROMs containing digital copy
  of documents (see task Order for format
  requirements)
• Provide additional set of CDs for the Fisheries
  Statistical Bulletins within 22.4.3 Records of
  the Division of Fishery Industry statistical
  Bulletins and tables, 1892-1920 for other Task
  Order Keying data
• Work with NOAA Central National Library for
  access of each document through its online
  catalogue.

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Benefits of the Projects
Benefits

• Ensures better understanding of long term
  factors of change of marine living resources
  based on analysis of documents
• Providing the historical baseline of fisheries
  and other marine living resources management by
  NOAA, including the life in the National Marine
  sanctuaries

• - Improves access to US Fish Commission data by
  making them available on the Web
• - Prevent further deterioration of documents by
  reducing handling of originals
• - Ensures historical fisheries data are
  researched to assess historical biomass and
  diversity of US marine resources
• Provides support documents for historical and
  scientific study of American marine resources
• - Documents NMFS scientific history

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Accessibility

• Documents will be made available via the NOAA
  Library Web site
• httpwww.lib.noaa.gov
• Added to existing documents

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Climate Database Modernization Fiscal Year 2007
US Fish Commission Historical Papers Keying
Continuation of L-14
Directly support NOAAs effort to learn the
history of the marine environment
Proposal submitted by Catherine Marzin National
Marine Sanctuary Program
Big Fish Eat Little Fish, Pieter Bruegel the
Elder (1557)
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What?
Keying data on Fish Commission Statistical
Bulletins
Based on imaging done though previous task
order- Keying data in CD-Rom with images of
Fisheries Statistical Bulletins
Valuable Old Circulars. NARA. Record Group 22.
Fish and Wildlife. Collection of circulars and
statistical bulletins.
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One Bulletin per month per year
For each species caught salted or kept fresh
weight in Lbs and worth in
Middle Bank Fishermen still use this name
when going fishing in Stellwagen Bank!
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Expected Product
From an image
To a spreadsheet
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Why?
To provide a historical fisheries database that
can be readily processed Applying modern
fisheries science methods on quantitative
historical records can change our vision of the
world!
Example results from UNH (Frontiers in
Ecology).
Scotian Shelf Biomass Estimate for Cod in
1852 Based on fisheries data from Beverly MA.
The power of reviewing historical documents
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sanctuaries.noaa.gov
Catherine.Marzin_at_noaa.gov Tel [phone] x257