1. The SCAR Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management (SC-ADM) New directions in Antarctic data management Taco de Bruin – NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research Contact information: Taco.de.Bruin@nioz.nl SCADM: http://www.scadm.scar.org SCAR: http://www.scar.org The Antarctic Master Directory (AMD) is a global inventory of Antarctic and Southern Ocean data set descriptions, with the following characteristics: online, searchable data base of Antarctic data set descriptions data set descriptions are in the Directory Interchange Format (DIF) contains over 5000 data set descriptions and is the largest directory of Antarctic data set descriptions Data sets range from a few (but unique!) observations at a particular time and place to millions of observations over many years and large areas hosted by NASAs Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) SC-ADM Terms of Reference: To promote long-term preservation and accessibility of scientific data relating to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in sustainable repositories To assist in establishing Antarctic scientific data management policies, priorities and best practices To support the establishment and ongoing work of National Antarctic Data Centres, in accordance with ATCM XXII Resolution 4.1 (1998) To encourage submission of scientific metadata and data to the Antarctic Data Management System To further improve and populate the AMD and provide guidance to the AMD host To provide linkages to other relevant data management systems and thereby enhance the ADMS In partnership with SC-AGI to work with SCAR SSGs, COMNAP and the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat to identify and develop fundamental scientific datasets of value to the Antarctic Community Background photo by courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/ORA Advanced search capabilities The AMD offers advanced search capabilities, combining free-text, keywords, spatial and temporal searches into one query History and organisation In 1997, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programmes (COMNAP) established the Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management (JCADM) to coordinate the development of the Antarctic Data Management System Note that the Southern Ocean is considered to be part of Antarctica On Jan. 1, 2009 JCADM became the SCAR Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management (SC-ADM) Members of SC-ADM are the managers of the National Antarctic Data Centres or a relevant national contact if a NADC has not yet been established SCAR Data and Information Strategy: SCAR is developing a new data strategy to define the future of the Antarctic Data Management System. Key to the strategy is to build on the activities of existing operational data management networks. The strategy is currently in the consultation phase, so please contact us with recommendations as to how the strategy should address the areas of data management which you are interested in. For more information, please go to the SC-ADM website at www. scadm.scar.org