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At Work Across the Nation
in Information Systems and
Administrative Support

Mission

The Information Systems Division provides support and services to the Director of the USGS, to major programs in each division of the USGS, the Department of the Interior, and to other government agencies on information technology and automated data processing (ADP). The Division operates the USGS mainframe computer located in Reston, Va., and Technology Information Centers and minicomputers in ADP service centers nationwide.

The Division assists users in acquiring ADP and telecommunications hardware, software, and services; coordinates and improves information systems through systems analysis and design; provides user education and assistance; and conducts research into better ways to use computer technology to solve mission-related problems. The Division manages and operates voice, data, and video communications for the USGS, including DOINET, the data communications network of the Department of the Interior, from which gateways provide access to other national networks and supercomputer systems.

The Administrative Division provides administrative direction and coordination in support of the scientific and technical programs of the USGS. This support includes policy guidance and program direction and provides leadership and authority for various administrative management and technical support functions, including personnel, manpower utilization, finance, administrative management systems, management analysis, records management, procurement and contract negotiation, property and facilities management, security, safety, and motor vehicle management.

The Division also manages the development, maintenance, and operation of the financial management system for the entire U.S. Department of the Interior. These functions are carried out at the National Center in Reston, Va., and through Regional Management Offices in Denver, Colo., and Menlo Park, Calif.

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Information Systems Activities

Data Processing and Telecommunications

The

USGS is responsible for the management and operation of a large mainframe-based multiple computer data center in Reston, Va., that provides computational resources to a large interagency customer base located across the United States. This customer base consists of over 8,800 registered users nationwide, who use the data center's computing facilities for purposes such as financial and administrative accounting, tracking of surface-mining activities, and the Automated Minerals Information System, a worldwide data base of mineral deposit information. Customers outside the USGS include the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Mines, and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement at the Department of the Interior and other Federal agencies such as the General Services Administration and the Department of Commerce's

Patent and Trademark Office. The USGS also manages, evaluates, and operates networks and provides technical advice and assistance in communications hardware and software capabilities.

Expanding Data Storage for Future Needs

The

USGS has embarked on a 5-year plan to significantly expand datastorage resources available within the data center. This expansion will address the rapid increases in data-storage requirements associated with computer modeling and scientific visualization activities, digital cartographic data-base functions, and long-term archival needs of the bureau's many earth-science data collections.

A diverse mixture of online, nearline, and archival storage technology is planned. The two traditional methods of data storage-online direct-access magnetic media and offline tape data storage in a library-will be supplemented by an intermediate "near-line" storage technology. This newer technology will offer lower cost storage of large volumes of data, at retrieval speeds somewhere

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For more information about data storage, please contact:

Telephone (703) 648-7128
Internet thuffman@usgs.gov

between immediate access online and manual tape retrieval from the tape library. Starting in 1993 from a file system supporting approximately 800 gigabytes (800 billion units) of archived data on tape and 250 gigabytes of online magnetic disk storage, USGS data storage technology will be expanded to include near-line robot-managed tape and 8-millimeter helical scan tape in 1994. Near-line storage is data stored offline (in this case, on half-inch magnetic tape in an automated robotic device) that is accessible within seconds or minutes rather than the tens of minutes required to manually retrieve tape from a tape library vault. The near-line storage technology will employ advanced robotic technology and

automation techniques to store, manage,

and automatically retrieve data stored on traditional tape cartridge media.

Using robotic tape library technology, a robotic arm with a camera "eye" spins around the interior of a compartment storing up to 6,000 half-inch cartridges until it finds the bar-coded serial number that matches a requested tape. The arm then automatically pulls and mounts the cartridge on a tape reader. This expanded file system will include a mainframe computer UNIX mass-storage and data-base environment with associated robot technology and read-write optical disk by 1997.

Techniques such as data compression and high-quality, rapid-access diskdrive technology will allow the total capacity of this mass-storage system to grow, by 1997, to approximately 100,000 offline archived tapes storing at least 10 terabytes (10 trillion units), near-line robot technology having capacities of 100 terabytes, and online disks providing instant access to 600 gigabytes (600 billion units) of data.

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Tod Huffman

has managed USGS mainframe data center operations since 1990

Data Network Sharing

Rcircuitry, and personnel makes the

ecognizing that sharing equipment,

best use of resources and reduces overall expenses, the USGS has long advocated sharing telecommunications resources within the Department of the Interior. Today, as in the past, communications circuitry constitutes the single most expensive portion of the communications utility. Because the usage patterns of data, voice, and video communications are sporadic and required on demand, services and circuitry can be shared among the bureaus. With award of the

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