Gateway to the Earth: Opening Natural Science to the World

Gateway to the Earth is a coherent set of interfaces that will allow diverse users to find, get, and use natural science information in ways that are meaningful to them. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is studying its information architecture to provide access by theme, scientific discipline, organization, geography, and time. Gateway to the Earth components include: a Data Bases Search Engine to fully expose all USGS data holdings to searches; an integrated customer communications framework to ensure access methods meet user needs; spatial and thematic indexing of all of USGS's vast information holdings; and a failure-resistant server and network infrastructure so that information will be accessible when it's needed.