Published: Jan. 5, 2017
Images being preserved by the project.

The University Libraries and  National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), at the University of Colorado Boulder, has won the 2016 International Data Rescue award. The award “was created to improve prospects for preservation and access of research data, particularly of dark data, and share the varied ways that these data are being processed, stored, and used.”

The award was presented in a Town Hall on December 15, 2016, for their project, “Revealing Our Melting Past: Rescuing Historical Snow and Ice Data.” This project is an effort to digitize the Roger G. Barry Archive at the NSIDC. The project was submitted for the award by our own Jack Maness, associate professor and director of sciences at the University Libraries.

“It is incredibly important librarians and archivists work with scientists to preserve, digitize, and provide access to data and materials that predate modern instrumentation and data collection methods. This is particularly important when it comes to snow and ice. Glaciers are very sensitive to climate change, and they are often our best way of understanding it, but they are quickly disappearing,” said Maness. “Our project seeks to ensure records of these glaciers will exist if (and when) the glaciers themselves are long gone. The images are striking, and undeniable, in their portrayal of warming in the earth’s frozen regions. Our hope is this award helps us generate awareness not only of this project, but of other data rescue initiatives as well.”

Read more at EOS.