Developing a Cross-Organizational Search and Discovery System at the National Center for Atmospheric Research

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and its management organization, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), operate numerous data facilities and services. In late 2017, the NCAR Digital Asset Services Hub (DASH) Search was opened for public use as an integrated front door for discovery and access of digital assets provided by the various NCAR laboratories and UCAR science divisions. The DASH Search allows searching and browsing for datasets, software, models, and publications produced by NCAR and UCAR staff. The goal of the DASH Search is to enable our community members to find and use our resources as quickly and easily as possible. It provides one place to search through NCAR’s data facilities, which together encompass resources related to atmospheric, oceanic, solar, and other sciences.

The DASH Search is a system that encompasses a large variety of resources, levels of archival support, and metadata diversity across NCAR, which created technical challenges beyond a standard search and order tool. This presentation will discuss the process used to develop the DASH Search. We will discuss the common metadata framework produced for the DASH Search, the technology evaluation and development steps, the insights gained from coordinating development across a large organization, and the first year of the system’s public use. The goal of the presentation is to inform community efforts to develop cross-cutting search and discovery services.