OSTI History
Accelerating Science Discovery: From the '40s to the Future
OSTI has long been committed to ensuring citizens have appropriate access to their government’s research results. OSTI is dedicated to the principle that, to advance science, research must be shared. OSTI works to accelerate the sharing of knowledge to speed discovery.
- Statutory Authorities
- Directors (1947–Present)
- Organization Timeline (1947–Present)
- Photo Gallery (1947-Present)
- 60th Anniversary Brochure (364-KB PDF)
- Historical Posters
- 60th Celebration Held
- 60th Press Release
- "The Oak Ridge Technical Information Center – A Trailblazer in Federal Documentation," by William McGill Vaden
- "A Moment in Time," by Melvin S. Day, describes the early days at OSTI. [exit federal site]
- Detailed History
- Video: Sharing Scientific Knowledge, Then and Now
- Video: Accelerating Science Discovery: From the '40s to the Future
1940s Established to Meet the Needs of the Nation
- 1946
- Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (P.L. 79-585) created the Atomic Energy Commission to foster the peaceful uses of atomic energy; and set up an Industrial Information Branch to facilitate the transfer of scientific and technical information to the private sector
- 1947
- Technical Information Division, precursor of OSTI, established to manage information pursuant to the Manhattan Project and to maintain the growing collection
- 1947
- Abstracts of Declassified Documents published to meet needs of researchers
- 1948
- World famous Nuclear Science Abstracts periodical introduced
1950s Expanded to Meet the Needs of the World
- 1950
- AEC Publication Exchange Program began, broadening the coverage of NSA
- 1950
- AEC Depository Library system established to make AEC report literature available to the U.S. Public
- 1951
- TID coordinated distribution of technical training films on radioisotopes, the beginning of a large film distribution program
- 1952
- Document miniaturization (microcard/microfiche) began as an approved archive method and an inexpensive way to deliver full-text scientific and technical information
- 1954
- Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (P.L. 83-703) amended the AEC Act of 1946 and directed AEC to disseminate unclassified STI related to atomic energy; to promote progress and encourage public understanding; and empowered AEC to classify, for reasons of national security, restricted data and to control its dissemination
- 1954
- Atoms for Peace program established for sharing of nuclear information for peaceful uses
- 1954
- TID authorized to make shipments to approved international locations, and recipients asked to provide similar technical materials produced in their countries
- 1956
- Creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world’s foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology
- 1957
- Technical Progress Reviews debuted
- 1957
- TID moved to current location from the Oak Ridge Operations Administration Building
- 1958
- AEC highlighted the unique features of its technical information dissemination program at the 2nd United Nations Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva
- 1959
- Photo mechanical method introduced for NSA indexes
1960s Supporting the Nation’s Science Education Endeavor
- 1960
- Domestic and international events resulted in the amount of Scientific and Technical Information announced doubling each five years
- 1961
- Termination of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program resulted in wide-scale declassification and subsequent announcement of reports
- 1961
- Technical Information Division (TID) begins collaboration with the domestic depository library program
- 1962
- TID becomes Division of Technical Information Extension (DTIE)
- 1962
- U.S. and foreign country Atoms-for-Peace libraries maintained by DTIE through shipments of most recently received and announced reports, in hardcopy or microcard
- 1962
- First booklets of the series “Understanding the Atom” published, written to simplify and improve the answering of inquiries of nuclear topics
- 1962
- American Institute of Physics collaborated with DTIE to enhance coverage of physics material in Nuclear Science Abstracts
- 1962
- DTIE supported the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Domestic Exhibits Program and served as principal service point for supplying information and educational materials on uses of the atom both for its energy potential and its promise in medicine
- 1963
- The AEC’s domestic program expanded to a number of host countries and DTIE supported foreign exhibits program through selection of scientific materials, shipping, and staffing
- 1963
- Production of microfiche commenced, replacing routine production of microcards for distribution
- 1963
- DTIE pioneered development of new techniques to automate mailing of educational literature packets
- 1963
- Weinberg Report issued by the White House, documenting the value of technical information as an integral part of science and finding that the transfer of information is an inseparable part of research and development
- 1964
- DTIE provided support and scientific materials for the Third Geneva Conference and the New York World’s Fair
- 1967
- Computer processing of information began, electronic information stored to enable rapid searching of bibliographic information
- 1968
- DTIE continued to maintain broad acquisitions program for NSA with a total of 316 foreign exchange agreements in 44 countries
- 1969
- International Nuclear Information System created under the International Atomic Energy Agency
- 1969
- Work began on new instructional series for elementary school science, “The World of the Atom”
1970s Beyond Nuclear Energy to Support All Forms of Energy
- 1970
- New educational poster innovation launched, aimed at the elementary and junior high school level
- 1970
- Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) used Scientific and Technical Information databases to demonstrate feasibility of accessing large databases worldwide by means of electronic communication
- 1970
- Electronic access to citations via RECON retrieval system implemented
- 1972
- Division of Technical Information Extension becomes Technical Information Center (TIC)
- 1973
- Technical information program broadened to include not only nuclear energy, but all forms of energy sources such as fossil, geothermal, and renewable
- 1973
- Interagency agreement with the National Technical Information Service signed to cover the sale of AEC reports
- 1974
- President Gerald Ford signed the Energy Reorganization Act, thereby abolishing the AEC and establishing the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA)
- 1974
- Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-438) provided for developing, collecting, distributing, and making scientific and technical information available for distribution
- 1974
- International Energy Agency (IEA) founded by U.S. and other member countries of the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development
- 1974
- TIC became U.S. focal point for fulfilling cooperative information exchange mechanisms made under agreements with the IEA Coal Research Service and the IEA Biomass Information Service
- 1974
- Energy Database initiated
- 1974
- Magnetic tapes became routine medium for the transfer and exchange of technical information
- 1975
- TIC fulfilled official and public requests for materials, and manages broad public education program covering the range of Agency’s energy research responsibilities
- 1975
- TIC managed the ERDA centralized motion picture film library and loan service, serving schools, colleges, universities, industry, professional societies, and the general public
- 1975
- Agency-wide technical information meetings initiated
- 1976
- ERDA Research Abstracts developed to provide an announcement outlet for R&D results from all ERDA projects, non-nuclear as well as nuclear
- 1976
- Nuclear Science Abstracts discontinued and replaced with Atomindex international announcement product, with TIC contributing U.S. input
- 1977
- President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Energy
- 1977
- Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-91) stated that the Energy Secretary shall establish and maintain a central source of information on all energy resources and technology for disseminating information resulting from R&D programs
- 1977
- TIC responded to citizens’ information needs during “energy crisis” to support President Carter’s National Energy Plan
- 1979
- Research in Progress system established on behalf of the Department and becomes contributing source to Federal RIP
1980s Forging Partnerships on the Information Front
- 1980
- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Databank signed for the exchange of computer codes
- 1981
- Bilateral MOUs began with other countries to exchange non-nuclear information
- 1981
- Department of Energy Panel on International Scientific and Technical Information (STI) concluded that foreign STI should be aggressively acquired and disseminated, and all foreign information should be routed through TIC to ensure maximum availability and usage
- 1981
- Economic analysis issued, known as the King Study, which concluded that centralized DOE information program saved the Department billions of dollars by avoiding duplication and increasing productivity
- 1983
- First DOE directive dedicated exclusively to STI management issued, expanding Technical Information Center's (TIC) responsibilities within the Department
- 1984
- TIC became Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) and assumes programmatic responsibility for Department’s Technical Information Management Program (TIMP)
- 1985
- CENDI chartered via MOU among Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Defense, and NASA, establishing an interagency group focused on federal STI programs
- 1985
- OSTI provided over 150 DOE and contractor libraries and over 260 GPO depository libraries with collections of DOE reports in microfiche form
- 1985
- Bilateral exchange agreements in place with eight industrialized countries: Denmark, France, Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom
- 1986
- Use of RECON ended with OSTI’s implementation of BASIS text information retrieval software
- 1987
- Scientific and Technical Information Coordinating Group chartered to address DOE’s cross-cutting STI issues
- 1987
- Energy Technology Data Exchange created under IEA; program includes 11 participating countries
- 1987
- OSTI named U.S. Delegate and Operating Agent for the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Data Exchange agreement
1990s An Era of Profound and Rapid Change
- 1991
- Energy Science and Technology Software Center established at OSTI
- 1992
- OSTI created system to manage Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, a new technology transfer mechanism
- 1994
- OSTI created and unveiled the first Department of Energy Home Page
- 1995
- In response to Secretarial initiative, OSTI hosted OpenNet database to provide references to all documents declassified and made publicly available after 10/1/94
- 1995
- Reports Bibliographic Database developed in partnership with Government Printing Office
- 1996
- OSTI continued to provide the U.S. Liason Officer and the U.S. Nuclear STI input to the International Atomic Energy’s International Nuclear Information System, the world’s leading information system on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy
- 1997
- EnergyFiles unveiled at Inforum ‘97, providing a virtual library of energy science and technology
- 1997
- R&D Project Summaries posted online, providing an important management resource for DOE R&D activities
- 1997
- Microfiche production and operation of on-site printing plant ends
- 1997
- Scientific and Technical Information Program Strategic Plan issued, promoting increase in mutually beneficial collaboration with STIP partners at laboratories and Operations Offices
- 1997
- DOE Information Bridge made available to DOE and DOE contractors, providing electronic full-text access to technical reports
- 1998
- Online report submission capability initiated via E-Link
- 1998
- Information Bridge made available to public, launching a new day in public access to Scientific and Technical Information
- 1998
- OSTI implemented routine author notification process, announcing availability of full-text via Information Bridge
- 1999
- Launch of ETDEWeb provided information from member countries and world-wide information in nuclear, coal, and global climate change areas
- 1999
- R&D Accomplishments launched to provide central forum for information about the outcomes of past R&D and to highlight remarkable advances in science
- 1999
- EnergyFiles EnergyPortal Search available, breaking new ground in distributed deep-web searching
- 1999
- PubSCIENCE launched with assistance of Secretary Richardson, representing a collaborative effort between OSTI and the scientific publishing community
2000s Meeting the needs for Scientific and Technical Information
- 2000
- PrePRINT Network made available
- 2000
- OSTI convened Physical Sciences Workshop, chaired by Dr. Alvin W. Trivelpiece
- 2000
- GrayLIT Network broke ground as world’s most comprehensive portal to full-text technical reports
- 2000
- Former current awareness publications transformed into Subject Portals, subject specific web sites pertaining to key areas of research and development (R&D)
- 2001
- Workshop conducted to explore means for improving public access to science information of Federal Agencies, resulting in formation of Science.gov Alliance
- 2001
- Energy Citations Database made available to provide access to Department of Energy (DOE) publicly available citations from 1940s forward
- 2002
- Data harvesting initiated to increase comprehensiveness of Scientific and Technical Information (STI) while reducing the reporting burden for Departmental labs
- 2002
- Science.gov, launched, is FirstGov’s designated science portal
- 2003
- PrePRINT Network, renamed E-print Network, was expanded and designed to facilitate peer exchange and scientific advancement
- 2003
- DOE co-hosted a conference commemorating fiftieth anniversary of President Eisenhower’s "Atoms for Peace" speech, where OSTI exhibited a range of information emanating from the Atoms for Peace initiative
- 2003
- To commemorate Science.gov, Science.gov Way became the official name of the road adjacent to OSTI, the first known .gov road; 1 Science.gov Way became the official address of OSTI
- 2004
- Reference linking offered to DOE report authors
- 2004
- First "digital data" meeting convened by OSTI to explore web access to scientific datasets
- 2004
- OSTI partnered with popular search engines to make all DOE-sponsored R&D searchable by title, improving accessibility, use, and visibility of DOE’s STI
- 2004
- Relevancy ranking of Federal STI search results introduced in Science.gov
- 2004
- Customized delivery options of DOE metadata introduced to libraries and others
- 2005
- Science Research Connection (SRC) launched as a special access collection for DOE-only users
- 2005
- Energy Policy Act called out OSTI by name as office to ensure access to DOE research results
- 2005
- Single-query access to science conference papers and proceedings introduced
- 2006
- OSTI makes DOE content more discoverable via Google and other large search engines
- 2007
- Accelerating Science workshop convened at National Academy of Sciences
- 2007
- Launched DOE Science Accelerator, the first one-stop search of key DOE Databases
- 2007
- Launched WorldWideScience.org, the first one-stop search of international scientific databases
- 2007
- OSTI celebrates 60th anniversary with community-wide events
- 2007
- Launched DOepatents, DOE's central collection of patent information
- 2007
- Launched OSTIblog
- 2007
- OSTI partners with CrossRef to assign Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to an initial 86,000 technical reports
- 2008
- DOIs are added to output products as a new metadata element
- 2008
- Launched DOE Data Explorer, an information tool to find scientific research data
- 2008
- OSTI Facebook page launched
- 2009
- OSTI Twitter account launched
- 2009
- OSTI YouTube channel established
- 2009
- OSTI begins offering XML data services
2010 and Beyond: Advancing Public Access to Scientific Publications and Digital Research Data
- 2010
- OSTI makes major DOE contribution to new Data.gov
- 2010
- Multilingual WorldWideScience.org launched in partnership with Microsoft Translator, searching scientific databases in ten languages
- 2010
- DOE Open Government Plan 1.0 highlights several OSTI products
- 2010
- DOE O 241.1B, a revised STI management directive issued, recognizing new forms of STI (datasets, videos, etc.)
- 2011
- OSTI becomes DataCite member
- 2011
- Science.gov debuts image search
- 2011
- ScienceCinema is launched, making scientific videos highlighting DOE-sponsored R&D available and introducing audio indexing
- 2011
- OSTI.gov, Science.gov, and WorldWideScience.org go mobile
- 2011
- Multimedia is added to the WorldWideScience.org
- 2011
- OSTI assigns first DOI as DataCite member
- 2011
- OSTI initiates partnership with journal publishers for journal citation metadata; this expands later to partnership with CHORUS (in 2014)
- 2012
- OSTI is an original participant in CrossRef’s FundRef pilot funder identification project
- 2012
- OSTI.gov Newsletter is launched
- 2013
- National Library of EnergyBeta is launched
- 2013
- SciTech Connect is launched, consolidating contents of the Energy Citations Database and Information Bridge
- 2013
- OSTI joins ORCID to help link authors and their research results
- 2014
- DOE Public Access Plan is issued, covering scientific publications and digital research data
- 2014
- The DOE Public Access Gateway (PAGESBeta) is launched, OSTI’s product for providing access to journal article resulting from DOE funding
- 2014
- DOE and CHORUS formalize their partnership to advance public access to DOE-affiliated scholarly publications, as a complement to DOE labs' and grantees' deposits of accepted manuscripts into DOE PAGESBeta
- 2014
- Secretary of Energy issues memorandum on public access to the results of DOE-funded scientific research
- 2014
- OSTI partnered with the National Science Foundation (NSF Public Access Repository) and the Department of Defense (DoD Public Access Search) in their efforts to implement public access solutions
- 2015
- DOE adds public access as an objective in national labs’ annual performance evaluation and management plans
- 2015
- New OSTI strategic plan issued, calling for refocusing/rebalancing to advance public access
- 2015
- Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee establishes a “Scientific and Technical Information Subcommittee,” which reviews OSTI products and services and makes recommendations for serving a “modern science environment”
- 2015
- OSTI conducts pilot usability test of DOE PAGESBeta
- 2016
- DOE Data ID Service microsite is launched
- 2016
- OSTI creates tutorials to help users make the most of DOE PAGESBeta
- 2016
- OSTI holds four lab-based workshops to inform new strategies for serving the modern science environment
- 2016
- OSTI begins reinventing its software center; scientific and technical software made available in SciTech Connect
- 2016
- OSTI and Office of Science share in Secretary of Energy Achievement Award for progress in advancing public access to DOE R&D results