National Agricultural Library announces launch design concept Web site for the National Digital Library for Agriculture

February 2007

The National Agricultural Library (NAL) is pleased to announce the launch of a design concept Web site - www.nal.usda.gov/ndla - for the National Digital Library for Agriculture (NDLA).

NAL would very much appreciate receiving your comments and suggestions concerning the site, which will be available for the next several months, as NAL continues to work closely with our customers, partners, and stakeholders to collectively develop the National Digital Library for Agriculture. Please visit www.nal.usda.gov/ndla and share your comments with us via the "Contact Us" button.

The design concept Web site was developed to demonstrate the following major NDLA goals:

• To establish the NDLA as a collaborative partnership-based initiative;
• To provide easy and quick searching of databases as well as Websites relevant to agriculture
• To highlight information available from an array of partnering institutions
• To provide access to a wide variety of information types and resources such as Web sites, databases, weather information, genetic data, images and photographs, citation information, statistics, advice, and the full texts of digital publications

Many thanks go to those partnering with NAL in the launch of this National Digital Library for Agriculture design concept site, including the AgNIC Alliance, the Science.gov Alliance, the Digital Library of Georgia, the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC), the Library of Congress, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Agricultural Research Service colleagues responsible for the ARS Image Gallery, GRIN, and other databases. The site search uses the Explorit search technology from Deep Web Technologies, the search technology for www.science.gov.

PETER R. YOUNG
Director
National Agricultural Library