Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) have become commonplace for use in tracking and linking to publications. At the American Geological Institute (AGI) DOIs for the full-text of publications are routinely embedded in many of its bibliographic databases including: GeoRef (the primary bibliographic service for the geosciences), the Bibliography on Cold Regions Science and Technology, the Antarctic Bibliography, and the Ocean Drilling Citation Database. When embedded in a bibliographic database, DOIs can be used to create active links to the publication's full-text.

Earth Science Week, celebrated during the second full week of October, was established by the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) in 1998. This premier outreach program has grown over the years to reach more than 50 million people annually through educational materials, events, school activities, media coverage, and the Web. Sixteen years since its inception, Earth Science Week remains the only major continuous national and international outreach campaign dedicated exclusively to promoting public awareness of the vital importance of the geosciences and stewardship of the planet.

Part of the mission of the Education Department of the American Geological Institute (AGI) is to provide professional development opportunities on geoscience topics for K-12 teachers. AGI accomplishes this through a number of programs that include both face-to-face and online offerings. Face-to-face programs include week-long summer institutes for lead teachers from around the U.S. and beyond, as well as shorter programs during the academic year.

Little is known about geology and geography terminal Master's degree programs' curricula, students' career paths and faculty mentoring and advising practices. With the recent reports indicating a great need for more trained geoscientists in the workforce, understanding these aspects about departments is important because they will inform our community about best practices on aligning programs with workforce demand.

Demographic trends within academia, government, and industry indicate that approximately half of the geoscience workforce will be retiring over the next 10-15 years, and a much smaller number of younger geoscience professionals will be ready to step into these positions. Geoscience degree data from the American Geological Institute (AGI) indicate that in 2009, 2,832 undergraduate and 1,683 graduate students earned geoscience degrees. However, only 32 percent of geoscience graduates work in the core profession.