The IGSN will have
a wide-ranging impact on sample and data management,
especially with respect to sample sharing and
data integration. With the ability to track a
sample through its history, the system will facilitate
our ability to build on previously collected
data on samples as new techniques are developed,
thus solving a long standing major problem in
the geosciences in which samples lose their "identity" as
their names get changed when aliquots are passed
from one investigator to another.
Why do we need the
IGSN?
Sample-based data
reported in the scientific literature or in digital
data systems are always associated with a sample
name. Currently, these names are ambiguous.
Different people often collect samples and
give them identical names (e.g. IC-1
for the first sample
collected on an expedition to Iceland).
Different
people analyzing the same sample often
rename it according to local naming conventions.
The ambiguity of sample names has generated
significant confusion, has made it difficult
to follow the
analytical history of a sample, and to link
disparate data generated at different times
by different
investigators.
The Geoscience community is now taking advantage
of the rapid progress in information technology
to build a digital data and knowledge system
that will allow the sharing and integration of
data across disciplines and borders. For this
reason, it becomes essential, in order to be
able to link disparate data hosted in many different
systems, to create a centralized registry that
provides globally unique sample identifiers.
How will the IGSN
be used?
The IGSN is a serial
number to be used when sample-based data is reported
in publications and listed in digital data systems
so that data can be referenced unambiguously
to the correct sample. The IGSN can be used in
combination with a sample name given by the investigator
or archiving institution, or as the exclusive
sample designation.
Sample names have the advantage to be meaningful
to an investigator: a sample named HAW-8 can
easily be recognized as part of a sample collection
from Hawaii, but this name will be ambiguous.
For example, GEOROC, an on-line database for
rock geochemistry, lists 5 samples with the same
name ‘ML19’ that were collected at
such different locations as Malaita (Solomon
Islands), Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Mount Jefferson,
and Medicine Lake in the Cascades. The use of
the IGSN is necessary to ensure globally unique
identification. Its relation to a sample’s
name can be compared to the relation of a person’s
social security number to the person’s
given name.
How
do I get an IGSN?
Investigators or
curators, as well as institutions, archives,
and museums will be able to register their samples
either individually or in batches by providing
a minimum set of metadata about each sample.
These metadata include sample location (latitude,
longitude, elevation), date of collection, collector,
sample type (e.g. sediment, igneous rock, mineral,
fossil), and given sample name. If these data
are not available, which is the case for many
old samples, sample name and owner will suffice.
SESAR
System Information
The
SESAR system design and implementation details are
described below.
