OSTI Is Re-Focusing and Re-Balancing Its Operations – And Refreshing Its Home Page – to Advance Public Accessby Dr. Jeffrey Salmon 03 Mar, 2014 in Products and Content
Let’s call it creative destruction, borrowing from a popular term in economics. The idea is that the very essence of capitalism is the destruction of old structures and the building of new ones that inevitably face the same pressures as the structures they replaced.  It’s the reason the buggy whip industry fell on hard times. The information management business of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) is in constant flux too, where the next big thing can soon become the next big flop. OSTI cannot be immune to these disruptive forces, nor would we wish it to be. Here, I would like to focus on just one of many disruptive forces in the information management and information technology worlds compelling OSTI to change, the push for greater public access to federally-funded R&D results. Frankly, it’s a disruptive force we welcome. Increasingly the legislative and executive branches of government have emphasized public access to federally-funded scholarly publications (i.e., journal articles and accepted manuscripts) and digital datasets. OSTI will lead the implementation of public access to scholarly publications for DOE, just as the organization has offered public access to other forms of scientific and technical information (STI) emanating from DOE and its predecessor agencies for the past 67 years. To this end, OSTI is re-focusing and re-balancing its resources, operations, and priorities. For OSTI, this means looking first and foremost at the STI produced by DOE and serving DOE R&D interests. OSTI is working to be as comprehensive as possible in its processes to collect, preserve/curate, and disseminate all forms of STI from DOE. This means that the DOE Scientific and Technical Information Program, or STIP, is of paramount importance. STIP is a robust and effective collaboration across the DOE... Related Topics: .EDUconnections, Adopt-A-Doc, DOE Green Energy, DOE STI, journal literature, National Library of Energy (NLE) - Beta, osti, OSTI Homepage, Science Accelerator, Science Conference Proceedings, ScienceLab, SciTech Connect
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Department of Energy’s SunShot Projectsby Tonya Chadwell 28 Mar, 2013 in Products and Content
The SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. As part of the initiative, the Department announced seven data-driven projects that will bring to light new opportunities to lower costs and advance solar energy deployment in the U.S.A. Former Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, “Through powerful analytical tools developed by our nation’s top universities and national labs, we can gain unparalleled insight into solar deployment that will help lower the cost of solar power and create new businesses and jobs.” The Energy Department is investing funds in these projects to assist with these new discoveries to improve solar cell efficiency and reduce costs. - Edited excerpts from Energy Department Announces New SunShot Projects to Harness the Power of Big Data
DOE Green Energy site, offers more information on the SunShot Initiative Additional Resources: Related Topics: Chu, diffusion, DOE Green Energy, energy, green energy, power, solar, SunShot Read more... |
Preservation Week 2012, April 22-28by Kate Bannan 24 Apr, 2012 in Science Communications
Preservation Week was created in 2010 because there are over 630 million items in collecting institutions such as libraries that require immediate attention and care. Preserving books, articles and other important information is no easy task because as many as 80% of these institutions have no paid staff dedicated to carry out these activities, and 22% operate without any collections care personnel. Complicating matters, it is estimated that 2.6 billion items are not protected by an emergency plan, which means these resources are in jeopardy should a disaster strike. One way to protect and preserve these resources, as well as make them more readily available to a wider audience, is digital preservation. Digital preservation is active management of digital content. Some items are created in a digital format, but many (and all older documents) have to be converted from their original physical format into a digital format. This takes time and can be costly to do, so many collections remain in non-digital formats. OSTI is the office that develops and maintains efficient, state-of-the-art tools for access and delivery of research results from the entire Department of Energy. OSTI fulfills Department of Energy responsibilities related to the collection, preservation and dissemination of scientific and technical information emanating from the agency’s R&D activities and makes the information globally available in real time, via multiple formats, in ten languages, mobile – at no cost to the user. OSTI is dedicated to the principle that to advance science, research must be shared. For more than 60 years, OSTI has been a pioneer and lead in open government,and has a proven track record in the delivery of groundbreaking information, tools and services. OSTI’s most recent contributions to... Related Topics: digitization, DOE Green Energy, preservation, Science.gov, ScienceCinema, ScienceEducation.gov Read more... |
Join OSTI for Earth Week 2012by Kate Bannan 16 Apr, 2012 in Science Communications
April 22, 2012 is the 42nd celebration of Earth Day, a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment.  The first Earth Day focused on the United States, but it has grown over the years and is now celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. The U.S. Department of Energy will be celebrating Earth Week April 16-20 in the Forrestal Building and April 23-29 in Germantown. Many of the program offices, including the Office of Scientific and Technical Information(OSTI) will have displays, plus there will be activities such as environmental films, green bag lunches, nature walks and talks, children’s activities, free recycling of personal electronics, a farmers marketand community activity days. The Earth Week activities are sure to be fun, and it is a great opportunity to see how the Department is “Changing Behavior to Reduce DOE’s Carbon Footprint.” While you are enjoying the Earth Week displays and activities, be sure to stop by and see the OSTI exhibit where we will feature DOE Green Energy, your portal to green energy information from thousands of DOE-sponsored research and development projects. DOE Green Energy provides free access to over 34,000 full text technical reports and over 1,300 patents. The DOE Green Energy site organizes this green energy R&D and makes it freely accessible to researchers, scientists, educators, students and the public. DOE Green Energy contains both current research and historical research. You can read about some of the latest research in solar energy, tidal and wave power, energy storage, direct energy conversion, advanced vehicle technologies, wind, bioenergy, hydroelectric energy, geothermaland more via an advanced semantic (... Related Topics: DOE Green Energy, Earth Day, Earth Week Read more... |
Search Technology Developed by DOE Wins NIH Challengeby Kristin Bingham 23 Nov, 2011 in Science Communications
WebLib, a start-up company which won a Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, managed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), has just won a celebrated Challenge.gov contest using technology developed for DOE. To start from the beginning, a DOE Small Business Innovation Research project funded a Phase II application for WebLib to develop a novel search technology called semantic search. Semantic search uses semantic knowledge of concepts and their relationships to produce relevant results, even when those results do not contain the user’s original query terms. The project was managed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) which seeks to accelerate science by accelerating the spread of knowledge. The goal of the project was to speed up literature searches by dramatically increasing the precision and completeness of searches of scientific and technical databases where the great bulk of the results of government R&D reside. To enable the development of semantic search, DOE OSTI provided WebLib with the DOE Green Energy Database to use as a test platform. WebLib made remarkable progress advancing the state of the art in search technology. After just the first year of a two year grant, WebLib delivered its first cut at advanced semantic search technology. The semantic search technology developed by WebLib was tested by OSTI which found that it was a significant advance over previous search technologies. Subsequently, DOE deployed WebLib’s semantic search into the production version of the DOE Green Energy Database.  WebLib’s semantic search technology is so powerful and affordable that OSTI hopes to deploy it on eight more databases. With its successful technology at hand, WebLib drove on and entered the... Related Topics: apps, DOE Green Energy, NLMplus, SBIR/STTR, WebLib Read more... |
Halito!by Erin Dominick Anderson 04 Nov, 2011 in Science Communications
That is Choctaw for hello. My name is Erin Anderson and I am a tribal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. I am an employee of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), where one of my duties is to manage the DOE Green Energy product. November is Native American Heritage Month and it has traditionally been a time set aside to recognize the contributions, sacrifices, cultural and historical legacy of the American Indian and Alaska Native peoples. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has supported efforts of Native American individual scientists and researchers, as well as tribal governments and educational institutions. Much science is being done in areas related to renewable energy, with particular focus on solar and wind power. These greener, more sustainable technologies and energy practices are making headway in Indian Country. TribalCollegesand Universities are one area where you can see this. In fact, you can read on the OSTI .EDUconnections Spotlight on Tribal Colleges and Universities (July 2011) about a unique partnership between DOE National Laboratories, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. This partnership was created because “…[there is] significant need and significant opportunity to develop the energy literacy of future American Indian leaders by providing scientific and technological skills to help their communities manage their lands and develop energy resources.” (Page 1, American Indian Research & Education Initiative, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Economic Impact and Diversity, July 25, 2011). You can see the U.S.... Related Topics: DOE Green Energy, renewable energy, Tribal Energy Program Read more... |
DOE’s Solar Decathlon – Building the Futureby Kate Bannan 26 Sep, 2011 in Science Communications
The Solar Decathlon is being held September 23–October 2, 2011, at the National Mall’s West Potomac Park in Washington, DC. The event is free and open to the public. Related Topics: biomass, collegiate, decathlon, DOE Green Energy, energy, geothermal, green, hydro, power, solar, synthetic fuels, wave, wind Read more... |
Catch up on research info while you waitby Tim Byrne 13 Jun, 2011 in Products and Content Standing in line at the DMV, sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, commuting to work on the bus or train, waiting for a meeting to start, whenever and wherever you get the urge to do a little energy-related research, you can do so now with your mobile phone via OSTI Mobile at m.osti.gov. OSTI Mobile allows you to search technical reports, journal articles, conference papers, data files, multimedia, software, project summaries, patents, and e-prints from a number of OSTI databases, including Energy Citations Database, Information Bridge, ScienceCinema, DOepatents andDOE Green Energy. Search results for a variety of resource types are available, or the results can be limited to specific formats. You can search for videos highlighting scientific research from Department of Energy (DOE) labs and CERN found in ScienceCinema. Innovative patents resulting from DOE-sponsored research appearing in DOEpatents can be found. Choose your search terms to retrieve citations on renewable energy and energy efficiency from DOE Green Energy. Close to 280,000 full-text STI reports are easily accessible, and over 2.4 million energy-related citations are conveniently available whenever and wherever. OSTI Mobile is also helpful if you just want to learn more about OSTI. Navigation buttons guide you to mobile versions of several OSTI sites. OSTI News will give you... Related Topics: DOE Green Energy, DOepatents, Energy Citations Database (ECD), Information Bridge (IB), mobile, OSTI Mobile, OSTI Youtube Channel, ScienceCinema Read more... |
Clean Energy to Out-Innovate the Rest of the Worldby Kate Bannan 12 May, 2011 in Science Communications President Obama recently visited a clean energy company that manufactures hybrid vehicle transmission technology, and spoke about his long term plan to protect consumers against rising oil prices and decrease oil imports while ensuring a cleaner, safer and more secure energy future for our country. The President said that investments in a clean energy economy are the only solution to high gas prices in the long term. The Department of Energy is committed to reducing America's dependence on foreign oil and developing energy efficient technologies for buildings, homes, transportation, power systems and industry. DOE invests in clean energy technologies that strengthen the economy, protect the environment, and reduce dependence on foreign oil. To find out more about what DOE is doing, go to DOE Green Energy, a free resource developed by The Office of Scientific and Technical Information that takes users to green energy information from thousands of DOE-sponsored research and development projects. DOE Green Energy provides free access to over 30,000 full text technical reports and over 2,000 patents. You can read about some of the latest research in advanced vehicle technologies with these highlighted reports from DOE Green Energy:Clean Cities 2011 Vehicle Buyer's Guide;... Related Topics: clean energy, DOE Green Energy, obama Read more... |
Join OSTI for Earth Weekby Kate Bannan 15 Apr, 2011 in Science Communications
Forrestal: April 18-22 Germantown: April 25-29 The U.S. Department of Energy will be celebrating Earth Week April 18-22 in the Forrestal Building and April 25-29 in Germantown. Many of the program offices, including the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) will have displays, plus there will be activities such as environmental films, green bag lunches, speakers, nature walks and talks, tree plantings, Bring Sons and Daughters to Work Day activities, farmers marketand community days. The Earth Week activities are sure to be fun, and to see how the Department is “Changing Behavior to Reduce DOE’s Carbon Footprint.” While you are enjoying the Earth Week displays and activities, be sure to stop by and see OSTI where we will feature DOE Green Energy, your portal to green energy information from thousands of DOE-sponsored research and development projects. DOE Green Energy provides free access to over 30,000 full text technical reports and over 2,000 patents.  You can read about some of the latest research in advanced vehicle technologies with these highlighted reports from DOE Green Energy: Clean Cities 2011 Vehicle Buyer's Guide; Natural gas vehicles: Status, barriers, and opportunities; NREL Showcases Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine Bus;... Related Topics: bioenergy, DOE Green Energy, Earth, geothermal, green energy Read more... |
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