While there is not a precise, accepted definition of this term, cyberinfrastructure is generally used to describe research environments that support advanced data acquisition, data storage, data management, data integration, data mining, data visualization, and other computing and information processing services distributed over the Internet beyond the scope of a single institution. In scientific usage, cyberinfrastructure connects laboratories, data, computers, and people with the goal of enabling novel scientific theories and knowledge. Cyberinfrastructure includes systems for managing, archiving, preserving, and processing data, including digital libraries, digital archives, and the software and hardware supporting them.