DOE Makes R&D Visible and Useful with the DOE Information Bridge
...an Electronic Bridge to the 21st Century

October 2, 1998 - If you are a student, teacher, researcher, or librarian, you'll love a new Department of Energy Web site, the DOE Information Bridge . It captures the knowledge (over 25,000 research reports) created by billions of dollars of federal research information and puts it at your fingertips. You'll find an organized, searchable full-text format, in such areas as physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental cleanup, and other energy-related disciplines. As a result, this wealth of information has become more visible, and therefore, more useful to the scientific community and interested public.

Good-bye Paper and Microfiche
Before the new site opened in April 1998, the vast collection of DOE full-text report literature could be found in federal depository libraries or obtained from other public sources in microfiche and paper. These formats were costly for the government to produce and distribute, costly for the libraries to store and retrieve, and costly and time-consuming for the public to research and obtain. Dr. Walter L. Warnick, Office of Scientific and Technical Information's Director, emphasizes that the "Bridge" has allowed us to raise the visibility of DOE's R&D collection by providing a faster, cheaper, more complete, and more convenient means of accessing and using technical information than any other means, past or present. Energy estimates that approximately 80,000 users will access the DOE Information Bridge and download some 50,000 full text research reports in the first year operation and save themselves two million dollars.

Energy Partnership with the Government Printing Office
Free public access to the DOE Information Bridge was made possible through an innovative Interagency Partnership established between DOE's OSTI and the Government Printing Office's (GPO) Library Programs Service. This joint effort started in 1994.

What's in the Site?
You'll be able to search a growing collection of some 25,000 full text DOE reports dating back to 1996 (representing over 1.4 million pages of scientific literature) - one of the largest such collections on the Internet. Further, you can access, locate, search, retrieve, and download full-text and/or bibliographic information at your desktop in a variety of formats, using multiple search options. You'll have full-text searching of the entire collection, and be able to see search results in graphic formats you select. You can download full-text documents in PDF format. You can limit your search to specific data fields and use Boolean operators to increase search precision.

Depository Librarians Love It
Depository librarians from across the USA warmly received the new web site. They commended the magnitude of the collection, the ease of use, and the rapid development of the system. Others like it too. Recognitions include a Commendation from the GPO Depository Library Council, a citation in the University of Wisconsin's "Scout Report" for science and engineering, a selection as Yahoo "Pick of the Day" and "Pick of the Week", and recognition from Global SchoolNet Foundation.

What's Ahead? A National Electronic Library
Future plans for the DOE Information Bridge web site include the expansion to a remote access capability (Federated Collections) that will allow users to search documents residing both at OSTI and at DOE labs or other facilities with a single query. Ultimately, the web site lays the foundation for the development of a National Library of Energy Science and Technology. This electronic library without walls would be the premier U.S. facility for the collection, preservation and dissemination of the world's scientific and technical energy information.

For More Information
You can get additional information by contacting Don Altom, Project Manager at don.altom@ccmail.osti.gov or at (423) 576-1170 or Kathleen Chambers, Product Manager at kathy.chambers@ccmail.osti.gov or at (423) 576-0487.