Good afternoon. It is an honor for me to be invited here today to be part of the CENDI forum at the GovTechNet Conference to talk about the exciting, cutting-edge information activities of the Department of Energy!
[Viewgraph 2 – Information Completes the R&D Cycle]
The Department of Energy is very much in the information business, as scientific and technical Information (STI) is the principal deliverable of the Department's multi-billion dollar research and development (R&D) programs. Information is both an input to and an outcome of R&D, with the researcher as a central provider and user of scientific and technical information derived from research. This information makes the researcher "whole."
The mission of the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) is to collect, preserve, and disseminate STI generated and acquired by DOE programs. We manage a collection of over 1.5 million reports and 5 million electronically accessible bibliographic references, representing the world's largest historic collection of energy-related information. The great bulk of this information was generated by DOE laboratories, contractors, and university researchers going all the way back to the Manhattan Project. Today's new technologies and user demands are making dramatic and revolutionary changes in the way we do this business.
Today, OSTI and the entire DOE complex is challenged with new expectations and resource restrictions. We no longer have the luxury to continue both paper and electronic collection and dissemination.
We have been urging both the DOE organizations that generate and submit research reports and the customers who use DOE information to become increasingly automated as fast as possible, and we are making significant progress. This progress is allowing us to access the huge store of knowledge produced by the Department and deliver it electronically to desktops throughout the country. This information is being made available through a suite of Internet resources. Collectively, we call these resources EnergyFiles: The Virtual Library of Energy Science and Technology. This digital resource is the cornerstone of the Department's ability to develop a Digital National Library of Energy Science and Technology.
There are several existing National Libraries to include the National Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Library, and the National Library of Education. What we are working toward, though similar, is more digital in nature and therefore we are creating our own model.
[Viewgraph 3 - Characteristics of a Digital National Library]
Our objectives for a Digital National Library of Energy Science and Technology include:
[Viewgraph 4 - What is a Digital Library?]
This viewgraph provides my definition of a Digital Library. It is important to note that a mere collection of pointers to databases and information resources does not make a digital national library. Just as the days of library card catalogs made information retrieval possible in the paper world, sophisticated distributed searching capabilities are a requirement for the digital age. This search capability allows the user to access information without having to know which database to access, which information collection to peruse, or the organizational structure of the agency making the information available. And, this search capability must be augmented by the ability to deliver the information retrieved, electronically to the desktop, either directly, through licensing agreements, or through other cooperative arrangements.
Let me tell you about our progress so far.
[Viewgraph 5 - Screen Capture of EnergyFiles Home Page]
We have the cornerstone developed, EnergyFiles: The Virtual Library of Energy Science and Technology. EnergyFiles contains over 450 databases and Web sites of both DOE and worldwide energy information. It is an ever-expanding array of information and enabling technologies driven by user needs. It was featured in the inaugural issue of Access America On-line Magazine (sponsored by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government) and won a Vice President Gore Hammer Award just last month.
[Viewgraph 6 - EnergyFiles Resources]
Several of the resources available through EnergyFiles were developed by OSTI itself:
[Viewgraph 7 - Information Bridge Awards]
Many of these resources are award winners. Just as an example, the Information Bridge (available publicly through a partnership with the Government Printing Office) has received much acclaim. In addition to the items shown on this view graph, the institutional arrangement between DOE and GPO Information Bridge was hailed by Senator John Warner as a model GPO should follow with other Agencies.
The major challenge to the usefulness of a digital virtual library is how to search across heterogeneous databases and Web sites when there is no standardization of data and information resides in multiple forms on a variety of unrelated systems at widely dispersed facilities.
[Viewgraph 8 - Distributed Database Searching Capabilities]
The traditional approach to distributed database searching requires the user to go into a search tool, through a central locator index, and then to the databases that are connected to that index. This model obviously requires the resource-intensive development of a master locator index. The approach that OSTI is using for EnergyFiles is more simplified and less resource intensive. It requires the user to go into a search translator tool, which then queries databases through their own search engines, without having to have a master index.
This distributed database search capability for a subset of the databases in EnergyFiles went on-line April 21, 1999. We think this was the government's first full-text distributed search of databases across multiple agencies. While it might still be the only one in government, this distinction will not last long.
In addition, we are using a distributed Web site searching tool. These two capabilities are making EnergyFiles a very effective and efficient information retrieval system.
[Viewgraph 9 - Distributed Database Searching]
Yesterday, many of you heard a presentation about the future application of the Broadsword search tool to create CENDI's Interagency Digital Library of Science and Engineering. Broadsword has the same type of architecture as the search tool we use in EnergyFiles. While Broadsword is in many ways more sophisticated than the DOE approach, the DOE approach has the advantage that it is up and running now.
Let's look at our two methods of distributed searching. First is distributed database searching. Recognizing the advantages of being able to search across the information of the various Federal agencies and the public's need for better, faster, and more comprehensive information, EnergyFiles has a prototype search option that provides the following:
[Viewgraph 10 - Distributed Web Site Searching]
The second method is distributed searching across heterogeneous Web sites. This search option provides the following:
Next steps are to expand the number of EnergyFiles databases subject to distributed database and Web site searching and to combine the two pronged approach into one so that databases and Web sites can both be searched via a single query. Both of these next steps are currently underway.
[Viewgraph 11 - Digital National Library Model]
Users are demanding full-text, searchable, online. Through cooperative agreements and partnerships, we can:
To play upon a phrase once said of George Washington, our goal is to be first in report literature, first in distributed searching, and first in the hearts of our colleagues.
While OSTI has been in the information business since 1947 on behalf of DOE and its predecessor agencies, the advent of technologies of the Information Age is radically changing the way OSTI and its partners operate. The information enterprises at the national laboratories, which focus on their individual constituencies, are adopting new technologies as well. Through the digital virtual library begun by OSTI and enhanced through the STI partnerships, the labs will be integrally linked together along with OSTI into an information web capable of serving not only individual researchers, but the general public, nationally and internationally.
This capability also positions us to raise the visibility of DOE's R&D activities. Thus, the Department – through OSTI and its STI counterparts at the Labs – is quickly acquiring the key capabilities of a Digital National Library of Energy Science and Technology.
[Viewgraph 12 - Potential for Collaboration]
Now we have an opportunity to pool our resources and expertise and work together in a collaborative environment. I invite you to partner with us in:
