Letter from Alasdair McKay to David Prior ( October, 1992 )
Dr. D. Prior,
Bedford Institute. 06 Oct 92
.
Dear Dr. Prior,
On name1's suggestion I called
name2 and name3 today
to check on AGC's contacts
with Russia and received some pointers from them which will I hope be
helpful during my visit there over the next two weeks. While I
was speaking to name2, we discussed briefly (on a
different topic) the possibility that AGC might be a good repository for
geophysical data which remains at the Nova Scotia Research
Foundation. That provincial agency ceased all geophysical work as
of April this year and is no longer politically in a position to
use or take care of the information. What remains there is of a
miscellaneous nature, but includes a small archive of marine
seismic profiling data from bays and estuaries of the Maritimes
some of which may now be of significance as baseline studies for
environmental purposes. There is also a gravity data base which
will interest name4 and miscellaneous well-log and
small-scale land seismic data. I might be interested in carrying
out an appropriately-funded project for the orderly transfer of
this material. In addition to purely "librarian" type of work,
this would involve a certain amount of "legal" investigatory work
to establish ownership of data whose collection had been paid
for by third parties. An associated but different project might
be to produce some maps and a report on Chedabucto Bay surficial
geology, based on publicly-owned but previously-unworked data
within this set. This latter project might be suitable for
consideration under the "EMR" research agreements scheme (due in
early Nov. this year I think). If organized in that way, I would
expect no financial benefit, but might thereby be able to
generate work for another local geologist (name5?) or
for a graduate student project at, perhaps Dalhousie.
.
On the data-archive topic I am slightly anxious that possible
moves to "commercialise" BIO will lead to a situation where AGC
would end up in a position where it would begin charging for
access to data sets, and as the seemingly inevitable long-term
consequence of such moves, ending up (after a long drawn out
round of "private sector" heckling) in the same sorry state as
NSRF itself. If this seems likely, then it may be better to seek
out a more secure, even if less relevant agency, such as the
Public Archives of Nova Scotia, as a repository. I look forwrd to
having your reactions to these matters on my return.
.
Yours sincerely,
.
Alasdair McKay
Copies to:
Dr. R Haworth, Director General, EMR., The Hon. Tom MacInnes,
Dr. K. Howells, NSRFC, Chief Archivist, PANS.
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