The NOAA BioData Working Group met four times starting in May 1999. A National Archives and Records Administration representative discussed NARA archiving requirements Summary tables were made of the data sets. See three summary tables on the BioData Web Site. BioData are very complex. There are large numbers of data sets held by NOAA organizations.
Some data sets are very small volume but important to science nevertheless.
There are many different types of biological and chemical data sets such as statistics, laboratory data, data collected at sea, data specific to a geographic location, in situ data, and remotely sensed satellite data. The data are often held by the PI for extended periods of time before being released because of the need for the scientist to have time to prepare reports and journal articles. There is a NOAA Policy covering data sets that is under the control of the NOAA Records Management Officer. This includes e-mail messages. There is little enforcement of the NOAA Policy to ensure data sets within NOAA are provided the stewardship to assure that they will be available for future users.