Alaska Region Interim Data Management User Guide

AK Region Data Stewardship Team (v.3)

Planning, acquiring, maintaining, sharing, and archiving are all important steps of proper data management. The Alaska Region Data Management User Guide was designed to walk staff through each of these steps, with procedures, documents, and best practices specific to Region 7. Fisheries and Ecological Services, Migratory Bird Management, National Wildlife Refuge System, and the Office of Subsistence Management staff should look to this guide for regional data management support. Supplementing this document are additional region-specific resources, including:

• Alaska Region Metadata Guide, which provides region-specific guidance on how to create archive-quality metadata using mdEditor.

• Trainings with accompanying handouts developed to assist staff with particular data management topics like file organization and tidy tabular data.

• AK Data Forum, a Microsoft Team with a channel dedicated to receiving and answering staff inquiries.

• Alaska Region Data Management SharePoint site, which contains important templates and the latest data management news.

For information related to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) data management, consult the National Data Management Handbook. This document offers information on data management basics as well as a breakdown of data management lifecycle components and related USFWS policies.

Need help? Contact your program's data manager or technician with any questions.

Program	Contact information
Fisheries and Ecological Services	Jonah Withers, Data Manager [e-mail]
Migratory Birds	Tammy Patterson, Data Manager [e-mail]
	Hannah Vincelette, Data Technician [e-mail]
Refuges	Caylen Kelsey, Data Manager [e-mail]
Other	Hilmar Maier, Regional Data Manager [e-mail]

Updated May 2022