U.S. Department of Energy

OSTI - Accelerating Science Information

Dr. Walter L. Warnick, Director
United States Department of Energy
Office of Scientific & Technical Information

Federal Depository Library Conference
Arlington, Virginia
October 21, 2008

OSTI's mission

To advance science and sustain technological creativity by making R&D findings available and useful to DOE researchers and the American people.

OSTI develops a number of databases and search tools, all accessible through the OSTI Home Page (www.osti.gov).

To advance its mission, OSTI produces a number of databases and search tools, all of which are accessible from the OSTI home page. In our time today, we will make a quick run through of the OSTI products that should be of interest to depository librarians.

From STI Sources to Customers ...

This slide shows the flow in information through OSTI, from the sources of the STI to the customers who use the STI.

OSTI ensures access to non-Googleable science

Science progresses as knowledge is shared.

OSTI Corollary: Accelerating the sharing of knowledge accelerates the advancement of science.

Through OSTI products, researchers and the public can access a science page count comparable to, but not duplicative of, Google’s entire science content.

The OSTI resource that is probably the best known to depository librarians is the Information Bridge.

• Initially developed as a joint product of OSTI and GPO to provide depository libraries access to full-text DOE scientific and technical reports.

• Especially popular with depository librarians as it replaced the microfiche reports that had been distributed for many years.

The OSTI resource that is probably the best known to depository librarians is the Information Bridge. This database was initially developed as a joint product of OSTI and GPO to provide depository libraries access to full text DOE scientific and technical reports. The Information Bridge proved to be especially popular with depository librarians as it replaced the microfiche reports that had been distributed for many years.

• Fielded Search provides a very sophisticated search experience.

• Reports fall into the disciplines of physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental sciences, energy technologies, engineering, computer and information science, renewable energy, and other topics of interest related to the DOE mission.

The Information Bridge Advanced Search provides a variety of search fields for a very sophisticated search feature. Keep in mind that energy is not really a scientific discipline. Reports contained in the Information Bridge fall into the disciplines of physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental sciences, energy technologies, engineering, computer and information science, renewable energy, and other topics of interest related to DOE's mission.

Results return links to full text

Content: DOE STI from 1991 forward

Older reports are being digitized and added as funds permit

Most important, every title in the Information Bridge has a link to the full text.

Note the PDF icons on the left of the screen.

The Information Bridge contains the DOE STI from 1991 forward. Additionally, older reports from DOE and DOE’s predecessor agencies the Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Administration are being digitized and added to the Information Bridge as funds permit. Unfortunately, funds do not permit us to move very quickly with this.

A new feature you may be interested in is Document Discussion.

New feature: Document Discussion

• Users now may comment on or engage in discussions on reports.

• The user name will display, but not the email address.

• Comments or discussion will display along with the bibliographic citation.

A new feature you may be interested in is Document Discussion

Users of the Information Bridge now have the ability to comment on or engage in discussions on reports.

The user name will display, but not the email address.

You requested it! MARC Records from Information Bridge Launched June 08

OSTI now provides free MARC records for the reports in Information Bridge. These can be loaded into library catalogs.

This means your patrons will not be required to search a separate database to find energy-related STI

In response to requests from librarians, OSTI is now providing free MARC records for the reports in the Information Bridge that can be loaded into library catalogs.

This means that your patrons will not be required to know they have to search a separate database to find energy related STI.

You requested it! MARC Records

• Libraries have the option of loading over 180,000 records.
• Each record has an 856 field with a URL for the full text.
• Libraries can select specific subject categories for which to download records and also choose the years desired.
• The MARC records are derived from the existing OSTI records. By that, we mean that OSTI did not have catalogers creating each individual MARC record. We created a program to take the information from the existing records used by the Information Bridge and place it in the appropriate MARC field.

You requested it! MARC Records

Here is a sample record from a library that has already begun loading some of the Information Bridge MARC records.

Get to MARC records from our "Library Tools and Special Services" page

• MARC records and OAI links

• Alert Services

• News

• Flyers

• Widgets

To download the MARC records, you can select the Library Tools and Special Services page off the OSTI homepage.

There may be other services on this page that you could find interesting:

• The Alert services provide users with e-mail notification of updates to the OSTI databases in specific areas of interest.
• The News features news and press releases from OSTI, including the OSTIblog and OSTI RSS feeds.
• Flyers takes you to a page containing flyers describing OSTI databases and search tools.
• OSTI even has some widgets you might find helpful.
There is also a FAQ for the new MARC records.

To get to the MARC records, click on MARC.

Click on "Download MARC Records" to go to a page with the various download options.

This page give a little more information on the OSTI MARC records and gives a link to download a small file of sample records.

Clicking on "Download MARC Records" will take you to a page with the different download options.

Here you can select to download records by subject category, by year or by OSTI ID number.
The first two categories are designed to download a lot of records at once. We really encourage this. However, if you want to get a record for a specific title, you can do so by entering the OSTI ID number for the title. The OSTI ID number can be identified by searching the desired title in the Information Bridge.

Questions or comments on MARC Records?

• MARC records@osti.gov
• osti.gov/tools
• Demos of MARC records and more info available at the OSTI booth.

If you have specific questions, concerns or comments abut the OSTI MARC records, you can send an email to MARC records@osti.gov. You also have the option of seeing a demo of our MARC records download screens at the OSTI booth.

Energy Citations Database

Contains over 2.3 million citations
• Nuclear Science Abstracts, 1948-1976
• Energy Research Abstracts, 1976-1995
• Entire Information Bridge

Energy Citations Database is the comprehensive database for STI reports from the AEC, ERDA, and DOE. Energy Citations Database contains over 2.3 million citations, including technical reports, books, conference proceedings and papers, journal articles, patents, software manuals, and thesis and dissertations

To help you know when to use the ECD, here is what it contains:
• ECD contains the contents of Nuclear Science Abstracts covering 1948-1976. NSA provided international coverage of nuclear energy information from the U.S. government, foreign governments, private publishers, associations and universities in all formats, including journal articles.
• ECD contains the contents of Energy Research Abstracts covering 1976 to 1995. ERA was broader in scope than NSA in that it covered all forms of energy, but narrower in coverage in that it included only reports and articles written by DOE employees and DOE contractors.
• ECD contains everything that is in the Information Bridge.

Notice above the title there is a DOI

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI®) System is for identifying content objects in the digital environment.

Many library databases provide access to the full text of journal articles using DOIs.

Here is an example of a ECD record for a journal article. There is no PDF icon for the full text for this article. However, you will notice above the title there is a DOI.

The article is from the Journal of Computational Physics published by Elsevier Science. If your library subscribes to a full text package from Elsevier that includes this title, you will be able to click on the DOI and go to the full text article on the publisher’s site.

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI®) System is for identifying content objects in the digital environment. Many library databases provide access to the full-text of journal articles using DOIs.

OSTI works with an organization called Crossref to register all of the full-text reports in the Information Bridge.

OSTI also searches the Crossref database to identify the journal articles in Energy Citations Database for which DOIs exist.

If your library or organization subscribes to a full-text package from a publisher like Elsevier, you may have access to many of the full-text journal articles indexed by ECD.

Other OSTI Collections

DOE R&D Accomplishments
DOepatents
Research & Development Project Summaries
Energy Science and Technology Software Center

OSTI Federated Search Products

Science Conference Proceedings
E-print Network
Federal R&D Project Summaries
EnergyFiles

Wow!

OSTI has a lot of databases and search tools!

How will I ever remember all of them or know which ones to search?

Science Accelerator is a federated search tool that covers all of the OSTI products that we have just seen.

Federated search drills down to the deep web where scientific databases reside

Federated search systems probe the deep web

OSTI has been a leader in the development of federated searching.

OSTI's databases, like most scientific databases, reside in the deep web which is not searched by web search engines.

Science Accelerator is a federated search covering ten OSTI databases.

• Search all of the databases or select individual databases.
• Search recent R&D results or search legacy R&D dating back to the 1940s.
• Search R&D product descriptions or other science resources.

You can search all of the databases or you can select which ones you search. You can search just the recent R&D results or you can search the older legacy R&D results dating back to the 1940s. You can search R&D product descriptions or other science resources.

• Get results ranked by relevance
• Get immediate results, and an option to view more results as databases complete searching
• View results or opt to go directly to most relevant databases for further exploration

The results are displayed with relevancy ranking. Note the stars next to the titles. The results are also displayed before the search of all the databases is completed. Some databases take longer to search that others. Rather than make you wait to see results until the searching all the databases is complete, Science Accelerator displays partial results right away with relevancy ranking. You can begin reviewing your results right away. When the other databases are finished, you are given the option of adding the additional results. When the search is complete, you can begin review the most relevant results. You also have the option of noting the databases that are providing you the most relevant results and then going directly to that database for a more specific search.

Science.gov

Interface similar to Google

Under the hood, NOT like Google

• USA.gov's portal for science

• Resources represent 97 percent of the federal R&D budget!

Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Library of Congress, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, United States Government Printing Office, and the National Archives and Records Administration

Another OSTI federated search product that you may be familiar with is Science.gov.

The Science.gov Alliance consists of 17 scientific and technical organizations from 13 federal agencies.

Science.gov searches over 36 databases and 1,850 selected websites, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information, including research and development results.

While Science.gov is called USA.gov’s portal for science, it really is an OSTI product. If there is any doubt of this, I offer the next slide.

Science.gov Version 5.0

• Quadrupled the content – now searches 200 million pages of science information
• Offers clustering technology, Wikipedia results and EurekAlert! Science News
• Updated Alerts feature

The new version, Science.gov 5.0 was released September 15. It includes seven additional databases:
Hazardous Substances Databank
Cancer.gov
PubMed Central
TOXLINE
DOepatents
DOE R&D Accomplishments Database
E-print Network

Other new features include:
Clustering: on the left side of the screen you can see clustering of results by subtopics or dates to help you target your search.
Wikipedia: In most cases, your search terms will also bring up an article from Wikipedia can help users better understand what the are searching for.

Eureka Alert: EurekAlert! features news and resources focused on all areas of science, medicine and technology. The terms of your search will bring up current news on your topic.

Mark & send option for emailing results to friends and colleagues.

Science Accelerator covers DOE science.
Science.gov covers U.S. government science
the next logical step ... the world!

How could OSTI possibly top Science.gov?

WorldWideScience.org

• A federation of the leading science portals sponsored by the governments and national institutions of over 50 countries
• A quantity of science (more than 375 million pages from every inhabited continent) comparable to, but not duplicative of, Google's entire science content.
• A breakthrough in content enabled by breakthrough technology

Let me show you WorldWideScience.org, a global science gateway connecting you to national and international scientific databases and portals

One-stop searching of 45 databases and portals from more than 50 countries.

Users have much-needed access to both prominent as well as smaller, less well-known sources of highly valuable science. Science.gov is the U.S. contribution to WorldWideScience.org.

Officials from organizations representing 38 countries gathered in Seoul, Korea to formalize their commitment to sustain and build upon the online gateway to the world’s science information.

The Alliance membership covers six continents and nearly half of the world’s population. China just joined!

This is a photo from the recent WorldWideScience Alliance signing ceremony last June.

Officials from organizations representing 38 countries gathered in Seoul, Korea to formalize their commitment to sustain and build upon the online gateway to the world’s science information.

The Alliance membership covering six continents and nearly half of the world’s population.

What’s New at OSTI?

Types of content included in the DOE Data Explorer:
• Computer Models/Simulations
• Figures/Plots
• Interactive data maps
• Multimedia
• Numeric Files/Datasets
• Scientific images
• Specialized Mix

OSTI's newest product is the DOE Data Explorer was released last June.

The DOE Data Explorer indexes data collections funded in whole or in part by the Department of Energy.

The data collections reside at national laboratories, data centers, user facilities, colleges and universities, or the Web sites of professional organizations, consortiums, corporate institutions, or international organizations.

Types of content included in the DOE Data Explorer:
• Computer Models/Simulations
• Figures/Plots
• Interactive data maps
• Multimedia
• Numeric Files/Datasets
• Scientific images
• Specialized Mix

Questions?

Don’t forget to visit the OSTI booth!

Dr. Walter L. Warnick
Director
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information