INQUA Working Group on Data-Handling Methods

Newsletter 13: January 1995

NOTE FROM THE COORDINATOR

In the newsletter this time John Smol and William Last announce a new section to the Journal of Paleolimnology called "Computer applications to paleolimnology." John Keltner describes Mappad, his marvelous new Windows program which allows you to keep track of all your geographically-based data; you will not want to be without this one.

The INQUA File Boutique is now on the World Wide Web with its own home page. INQUA calls for your papers. Peter Schweitzer describes his program Analog which allows you to compare your fossil pollen data to a database of modern surface samples to find the closest analog. Peter Wolfe discusses rarefaction analysis and microfossil count size. Malcolm Clark continues with neat new ways of depth-matching data from different cores using PCSlot. Adam Walanus reminds us that the people who actually produce pollen data have needs not being met by the global databases, and he describes STV, his space-time visualization tool.

David Green and Robert Stocker stress the benefits of SIN and suggest the formation of SINQUA. Alwynne Beaudoin did a list survey of statistics texts, and she shares the results. Dana Naldrett concludes his survey of Internet library resources--this time looking at the Pacific Rim. John Birks provides another useful Bookshelf. There is an anonymous report dealing with editing PostScript files. Another mentions the new PaleoVu browser and visualization program to be released by the World Data Center-A. Glen MacDonald sent in a note on reading really large data files. Roger Sweets announces his Paleolimnology/Diatom home page on the Web. Tom Whitmore and Mark Brenner invite you to join their Paleolimnology Listserver. John Keltner discusses new Webware that await you at the World Data Center-A. And I emphasize the usefulness of synthetic pollen slides.

At the XIIth INQUA meeting in Ottawa, 1987, Dr. Brigitta Ammann, President-elect of the Holocene Commission, established a working group on data handling. The aims of the group as stated in Newsletter 1 were (1) To assemble a mailing list of colleagues who were interested both in receiving and contributing to a flow of useful information on developments in computer and other technology that help us to handle, exchange, analyze and otherwise deal with our data more effectively. (2) We attempt to tap as broad a group of sub-disciplines as possible, to include both physical and biological data categories. (3) We act by producing a simple newsletter once or twice per year that provides a mechanism of communication among all with an interest, including up-to-date bibliographies on literature on data handling, quantitative methods, etc., as well as an inventory of colleagues with particular expertise and willingness to provide information, programmes, etc. (4) We will attempt to keep abreast of new modes of communication, so that our mailing list can include and perhaps eventually make use of such mechanisms as the Bitnet, etc. A small group of colleagues initially agreed to serve as a nucleus of the working group (J.C. Ritchie, John Birks, Louis J. Maher, Rick Battarbee, and Owen K. Davis), and many others have helped over the years. J.C. Ritchie served as coordinator of the newsletter from June, 1988 until January, 1990, at which time Louis Maher assumed that duty.

The Working Groups of INQUA Commissions exist for the four years between Congresses. The INQUA Charter provides a clause allowing a Working Group to be granted one four-year extension. That extension ends with the Berlin INQUA this summer. Volume 13 of the Data-Handling Methods Newsletter is the last of the series. Jim Ritchie and I had the distinct honor of serving as the newsletter's coordinators. I have been enriched by the experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed contacts with kindred spirits from all over the world. In glancing over the newsletters, I am awed by the changes that have taken place in data-handling methods during these few years. programs and data were exchanged on floppy disks then; the Internet now connects us by e-mail, telnet, ftp, Gopher, Mosaic, and all the other new techniques that seem to appear each day. I understand various avenues are being explored to see if the Data-Handling Methods Newsletter can find some other means of existence. I suppose it could continue in a totally electronic form. But I like the idea of having it on paper. Most of us continue our reading in places where computers are not very handy.

We will keep the INQUA File Boutique operational at geology.wisc.edu so that it will continue to be available by anonymous ftp. I will add a file of all the existing e-mail addresses, and there will also be a file with the current mailing list. If you change your e-mail or mail address, send me an e-mail note, and I will up-date the lists. Then they will be current in case the newsletter starts up in another form. And if you have data or programs you want to put in the File Boutique, let me know by e-mail, and we can arrange it.

Louis J. Maher, Jr.
Department of Geology & Geophysics
University of Wisconsin
1215 W. Dayton Street
Madison, WI 53706 USA
Phone: (608) 262-9595 FAX: (608) 262-0693
E-mail: maher@geology.wisc.edu

Remember, if you want to keep your e-mail and regular mail addresses current at the INQUA File Boutique, e-mail any changes to: maher @geology.wisc.edu

PaleoVu BROWSE AND VISUALIZATION

Excerpt from the Paleoclimate Data Record, World Data Center-A for Paleoclimatology Newsletter, vol. 4, n. 1, December 1994

The alpha (test) version of PaleoVu, the Program's browse and visualization software for PC's and Macintosh computers, was released in July 1994. PaleoVu allows users to search for data, map sites and search by map location, graph data, and export data sets for use by other programs. The alpha version has been distributed to a limited number of scientists for testing. The first release for general distribution is scheduled for early 1995. This version will be available for the cost of reproduction (free to data contributors, and free over the Internet.)

Readers should refer to the Paleoclimate Data Record for up-dates on data and program status. PaleoVu is going to be a very useful way of browsing, graphing, and printing interesting datasets. (Ed.)

I have put a complete set of the newsletters at the University of Wisconsin's Geology & Geophysics Library, 1215 West Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706 USA, and an additional set at the library at PAGES (Past Global Changes), Baerenplatz 2, 3018 Bern, Switzerland. If you need an old newsletter and cannot reach me, you might try the library that is closest to you. L. M.

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