I've been working on two strategic plans for programs and facilities I am directing: GIF and IGIS, and am thinking about what are the key elements in such a plan that communicates clarity, purpose, and mission. The current thinking out there seems to be to think about not just Mission and Vision, but also Core Values. Here is one from ANR that can help me think through my tasks.
ANR Mission, Guiding Principle, and Core Values
Mission
The mission of the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources is to serve California through the creation, development and application of knowledge in agricultural, natural and human resources.
ANR Guiding Principle
ANR’s research and extension programs serve the public good of California through the creation, development and application of knowledge addressing critical issues in agricultural, natural and related human resources, through a system of community-driven research and outreach programs with CE advisors, CE specialists, and AES scientists supporting each other.
ANR Core Values
- The highest standards of ethical behavior, honesty and integrity, with the recognition that the trust and confidence of the public is absolutely essential to our success.
- Academic excellence and maintaining credibility as an objective source of knowledge.
- Scientifically valid research as a foundation for anticipating problems and developing practical solutions.
- Responsiveness to state and local needs in California, and consideration of the global context that shapes these needs.
- Diversity within our organization, equal access to knowledge by all people, and equal opportunity for self-reliance through education.
- Collaboration, teamwork and mutual respect among ourselves, in partnership with other organizations, and in interaction with our clientele.
- Academic freedom, with the recognition that individual freedom goes hand in hand with a high standard of professional responsibility and personal accountability to ANR’s land-grant mission.
Take a look at this awesome VTM reshoot from the folks over at Geographic Resource Solutions (GRS), photographed during a recent mapping project of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Yet another great example and an incredible testament to lasting power of the VTM dataset. This particular photo was taken near the Chaos Crags Jumble in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Thanks to Ken Stumpf and GRS for sharing!
In a similar vein I recently stumbled upon another meshing of historical and contemporary photographs. The project features reshoots of the Grand Canyon and resulted in a 2012 book titled: Reconstructing the View: The Grand Canyon Photographs of Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe
Published by University of California Press. You can see a few of the photographer’s recent projects on their website. Historical photos are just the best!
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We have been talking recently with the HOLOS project and the IGIS InfoBase project about the need to "rescue" data and to provide frameworks for data synthesis. I present to you a profound example of these needs: the VTM project. We are nearing launch of the new VTM website, in which the maps, plots, and photograph portions of the VTM collection are united and powered by HOLOS, open data, and sharing. The journey from paper collection to digital data has been a long one, with several cases of almost accidental and purposeful destruction. As such it is a cautionary tale about the importance of rescued and shared historical data in ecological and geographical analysis.
I spent this evening reading the oral history conducted in 1985 by Ann Lange of Albert Wieslander. It is called: California Forester: Mapper of Wildland Vegetation and Soils A. E. Wieslander, and it is a fascinating read. In addition to being a real spitfire and having very clear opinions on things (and people), he also tells this tale about the near loss in 1952 of the vegetation maps. Wieslander had made 23 of his vegetation maps available for publication through the University Press, for production and sale at a cost of $1 each. This was meant to supply funds for the rest of the maps to be published. But that didn't work out as planned.
"Not very many of the maps were sold, even though articles were written to give them publicity. I realized fairly soon that we wouldn't be able to publish any more unless we got additional money someplace.” He was "casually told one day that the University Press had written a letter to the station saying that the maps weren't selling very well, and it wanted to return the quadrangles to the station. They didn't want to handle it anymore.” A forest service employee "told the University Press the station didn't want the maps back and authorized it to dump them. I didn't know anything about this until after it was done. There was nothing I could do about it then. Imagine all these beautiful maps. They didn't even take out one as a sample.”
What!! That is so shortsighted… Anyway read on…
Wies (he refers to himself "Wies" in the interviews) then found out that the University Press couldn't understand the dumping of all those maps and alerted Paul Zinke, Forestry Professor here at Berkeley.
"So Zinke went down and got twenty copies of each of the quadrangles.”
“But, we still had all the original field maps, kept at the experiment station. Just before I retired, I talked with Herbert Mason about all the printed maps having been destroyed and about how it was important to preserve the originals. Researchers could use them. He suggested that the Botany Department set up in the Life Sciences Building a plant geography room. And the main feature of this plant geography room would be the vegetation mapping project. So I moved all the files of maps and sample plots over to the Life Sciences Building. Mason went through the material and found at least a third, maybe more, of the original maps were gone.” Apparently, different national forests had been writing to the station requesting certain maps. Since they didn't have any of the printed maps, originals were sent out, with no record kept of what was sent, or to whom.
This explains why the maps have been scattered across the state, and why it has taken so long to pull them (mostly) together again.
"Anyway, I'm glad that was done. It was a very nice publication, and it gave proper credit to the draftsman who did the beautiful job of drafting, and to the project, and to me. Then Critchfield also worked with James Griffen, of the university, and got out another publication on "The Distribution of Trees in California." It was based on the maps and other data we had." When Wies expressed "concern about these maps and Dr. Critchfield said, "I would like to get them deposited in the Bancroft Library." I don't know whether he did it or not, but that's what he told me.”
Thank goodness that they are back on campus in the Marian Koshland Library, and the whole collection (albeit without the herbarium specimens) will be re-united and available for use.
/span>OakMapper Mobile has been updated (version 2.4) to take take advantage of the latest iOS interface design and requirements. It is available for download at the Apple App Store. Existing OakMapper Mobile users are encouraged to update to the latest version.
/span>/span>Advice on writing a clear scientific paper from Virgina Dale, Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Environmental Management since 2001. She says:
- Scientific papers are not mystery novels. It is important to present the key results in the abstract of the manuscript and to have the introduction of the paper make clear both the impetus for the study and what is be presented in the manuscript.
- Authors need to give the greatest attention to the parts of paper most likely to be read. Most people do not read a scientific paper from beginning to end but rather first focus on the title, then the abstract, and next the figures and tables. If the information presented is of interest, then the conclusion will be perused. Only those studies that have particular pertinence to the reader will be read in their entirety.
- Organization of the material is critical. Almost all scientific papers should follow the standard format: introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.
- Authors should check that the methods are complete and that most figures and tables are presented in the results section.
- Each paragraph should start with a strong topic sentence, which presents the main idea and hence is an overview of what is to come. The concluding sentence should summarize the paragraph and provide a logical flow to the next one.
Dale, V. H. 2014. Environmental Management: Past and Future Communications. Environmental Management 54:1–2