August 19, 2005
Oak Ridge, TN – Each year the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) – through its participation in two multilateral R&D information exchange agreements – gains access to approximately 80,000 foreign energy-related research summaries. One agreement is under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris while the other is under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. The IEA information collection, which totals more than 3.5 million items, is made available to U.S. researchers by OSTI, an Office of Science program located in Oak Ridge, TN. This agreement, called the Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE), is managed by OSTI in its role as the Operating Agent. Brian Hitson, the U.S. representative to ETDE and Associate Director of OSTI, was recently elected Chairman of the ETDE Executive Committee.
ETDE is widely recognized for its extensive database and its cost effective and user-friendly way of gathering and delivering electronically stored information on a wide range of energy-related topics. ETDE World Energy Base was recently cited by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) as one of the "Top 100" Science/Technology Government Information Web sites, taking honors in the International category. ACRL, the largest division of the American Library Association, is dedicated to serving the information needs of the higher education community and to improving learning, teaching, and research.
In addition, a recent European Union study recommended that the EU should partner with ETDE to improve information access in Europe. Several enhancements are in store for ETDE by late 2005, including adding access to distributed sources of R&D information, such as the science portal Science.gov, hosted by OSTI. Science.gov is a collaboration of 12 U.S. federal science agencies.
To gain access to the ETDE collection, see www.etde.org/etdeweb.
