"Virtual Dirt" Team Creates a Virtual Gem of a Science and Technology Desktop Library at Department of Energy
A Case Study by Valerie Allen
October 2, 1998 - The United States Department of Energy's Office of
Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), located at Oak Ridge,
Tennessee, has a 50-year tradition of serving customers with
scientific and technical information, using technology, information
science and subject experts to provide information in new and
innovative ways. OSTI employees take a great deal of pride in the
mission and legacy of the organization and in developing new ways to
meet customer needs. As a result, grassroots efforts that result in
new products and services are not unusual at OSTI. Their experience
building a virtual library for Energy employees and customers provides
an interesting case study.
OSTI has stewardship of DOE-sponsored energy-related scientific and
technical information and is leading the effort to collect, add value
to and make the information accessible. As technology has advanced,
the means to achieve this mission have changed significantly, with
options accelerating in recent years. In November 1996 OSTI Manager
Chuck Morgan challenged a cross-organizational OSTI team to explore
building a virtual library on the World Wide Web for energy-related
scientific and technical information. OSTI management put together a
team to address this potential new means of information delivery, the
Virtual Library Design Requirements Team (VLDRT, fondly referred to as
Virtual Dirt) to conceptualize, design and implement a Virtual Library
at the grassroots level.
"Virtual Dirt"Team Members
Karen Spence, Assistant Manager for Program Direction and Information
Access, champion for the overall effort, named Thurman Whitson of her
office as the Project Leader. Karen also tapped employees sharing an
interest in virtual libraries, bringing together varied skills and
perspectives. Four information scientists, Valerie Allen, Mary Du Rea,
Lorrie Johnson and Mary Ellen Haddox formed one-half of the
team. Lorrie Johnson, also holding degrees in biochemistry and
zoology, and Kelly Dunlap, an environmental scientist brought a
scientific perspective to the table, while computer scientists Rita
Hohenbrink and Charlene Luther provided expertise critical to project
development.
The Project
The team conceptualized, designed and implemented this grassroots
project, known as the EnergyFiles Virtual Library project. OSTI Senior
Management supported and guided the project at key points. Since the
concept of a virtual library itself is so new, the team spent initial
meetings debating specifically what it was we were talking about
building. The team conducted interviews with both technical and
non-technical users of scientific and technical information, which
were of value. The team focused on questions as "What do you use your
(traditional) library for?" and "How could the Internet potentially
make your daily work more efficient?" The team asked librarians, "In
the face of budget cuts, what types of information resources are
losing their availability?" We found that the answers to these and
other questions, as well as the daily incoming queries and comments to
the webmasters of established OSTI websites provided valuable insight
into the form and structure of a useful virtual library. Our lengthy
debates on concept proved extremely valuable as well, providing a
strong, consistent focus on a now well-defined vision that has
essentially remained intact throughout the project.
The Prototype
The goal of the EnergyFiles Virtual Library is to provide seamless
electronic access to the vast energy-related scientific and technical
information created through energy research conducted throughout the
Department of Energy complex. At the same time, we wanted to integrate
important related research results and enabling information and tools
from other venues. In essence, the driving vision is to bring
scientific and technical information to the desktop in an intuitive
way. Here's what we did. Team members:
OSTI unveiled EnergyFiles at OSTI's annual information management and
technology conference, InForum in Oak Ridge, on May 1, 1997 less than
6 months after Senior Management issued the original challenge to the
VLDRT team. With links to over 100 information collections and tools,
the EnergyFiles prototype was successful in making previously
dispersed information, often made obscure through decreasing budgets,
web navigational inefficiencies, and general information overload,
available through one location. Over the next month both the
Chattanooga and the Knoxville (Tennessee) Technology Corridor Summits
spotlighted the EnergyFiles Virtual Library.
EnergyFiles Today
After we evaluated user feedback and analyzed what worked and what
didn't, we put a major revision in place approximately one year after
the initial prototype. EnergyFiles today is a vast information
resource of over 400 collections which information scientists and
subject specialists organized into logical energy-related subject
pathways that make using the website easy. While supporting Department
of Energy programmatic missions and interests, EnergyFiles is also
open to industry, academia and the general public, enabling taxpayers
to gain increased access to information generated by their tax
dollars. Here are some of the major site features:
These workspace tools, which make use of developing technologies, give
people who may not otherwise be able to locate or read information the
ability to do so. In addition they support our ongoing efforts to
interactively link library with laboratory in a virtual
environment. Plans for further enhancements within the next fiscal
year include the incorporation of distributed search capabilities to
integrate information located at remote sites.
Fan Mail: EnergyFiles Is Great!
Our site has received positive comments. An unidentified user sent
this comment about EnergyFiles, "Terrific! We put you in Favorites."
From a records manager, "EnergyFiles is great!!! It's like one stop
shopping for information." And from a naval technical information
specialist, "What a nice collection of links!" The well-known
Internet Scout Report newsletter which "highlights useful Internet
sites for discerning Internauts...based on depth of content, author,
information maintenance, and presentation" included EnergyFiles in its
March 20, 1998 edition.
"Virtual Dirt" Team Work Continues
Perhaps as a tribute to the commitment of the VLDRT team, we remain
essentially intact almost 2 years later calling on technical experts,
David Bellis, Jannean Elliott, Tammy Spencer and David Amburn, to
provide additional input and support. The team is still analyzing user
feedback, evaluating the system and planning for new technologies that
will further enhance functionality and usefulness. As a measure of its
success, EnergyFiles will exceed 230,000 accesses this year at the
current rate of usage. EnergyFiles is a publicly available website,
found at http://www.doe.gov/EnergyFiles.
For More Information
For further information, contact Valerie Allen, Product Manager,
Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Department of
Energy at (423) 576-3469 or valerie_allen@ccmail.osti.gov.