Libre Systems: Making Data and Software More Available Through Re-usable Components
Abstract
With the amount of stored data increasing at an exponential rate, it is becoming increasingly important for scientists and data managers to find effective ways to allow users to discover and use data effectively. Sharing software tools to assist in this effort is also becoming more vital in making this a reality. The National Snow and Ice Data Center's Libre project is solving this by creating a system of components including an aggregator, which will allow users to find data and services matching specified criteria more easily. While making it flexible enough to ingest metadata from various sources is important, it is also important to make the concepts and actual software components available to others who wish to make their data and services more discoverable and accessible. The Libre system is designed to make this a reality, by componentizing the underlying mechanisms and thus allowing the pieces to be shared and reused by those who need them. These components can then be tailored to meet specific needs, allowing the individual data providers to avoid wasteful duplication of effort, and focus more on making their data available to the world. This componentization would also allow the data providers to replace specific pieces with other software if desired, while still preserving the overall functionality of the system. When finished, the various components of the Libre system will be released to the open source community, facilitating the easy inclusion and modification of the system, and allowing users to discover data and services more easily.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMIN23B1446L
- Keywords:
-
- 1900 INFORMATICS;
- 1904 INFORMATICS / Community standards;
- 1916 INFORMATICS / Data and information discovery;
- 1978 INFORMATICS / Software re-use