Who Uses USGIN?

The United States Geoscience Information Network (USGIN) can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection. Though some USGIN features require the user to create and use a login name*, USGIN does not require a paid subscription. Likewise, USGIN circumvents the need for proprietary software by promoting the use of free-and-open-source alternatives.

USGIN users can be divided into two general categories:

• Data providers, who have data to share
• Data consumers, who want to browse, discover, and access USGIN data

A USGIN data provider can be:

• a graduate student presenting the results of a project via USGIN
• a privately owned institution using USGIN to provide subscription-controlled access to geophysical data collected over several decades
• a major corporation contributing to a global geophysical resource analysis through USGIN

Likewise, a USGIN data consumer can be:

• a student using USGIN data to do research for a paper on nationwide seismic activity
• an energy company browsing USGIN in search of potential areas for geothermal development
• a governmental institution performing multilayered geospatial analysis using data from USGIN

To learn more about the structure of USGIN, see the About USGIN tutorial.

To learn more about USGIN users, continue this tutorial by clicking the links below.

*Users must log in to the USGIN Metadata Wizard to create or edit metadata records, but users can browse these records from the USGIN Metadata Catalog without logging in. Users must also log in to upload files to the USGIN Document Repository, but they may browse and download files stored within the Document Repository without logging in.