Building Global Bridges Across Science Databases

By Cassandra Harper, ASRC Management Services at the Office of Water Resource Center

Building Global Bridges Across Science Databases: June 16, 2008, Seattle Convention Center. In this session, information professionals received an overview of four scientific databases searchable on the Internet: WorldWideScience.org, NTIS and the National Biological Information Infrastructure and the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN)

Photo by Liz Doyle, U.S. EPA Region 10 Library

Walter Warnick discussed the development of WorldWide Science.org and provided an overview of the tool since its June 2007 launch. The Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), an element of the Office of Science within the U.S. Department of Energy developed and maintains WorldWideScience.org. It is modeled after Science.gov as a global gateway to science information. It connects users to national and international scientific databases and portals. The global science gateway initiative began as a partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom. Since then, a multilateral partnership, the WorldWide Science Alliance, has been formed to provide a geographically diverse, long-term governance structure. Currently, 32 resources from 44 countries are searchable through WorldWideScience.org.

According to Warnick, WorldWide Science.org helps researchers locate scientific information which may not be easily accessible from a search on Google or other search engines. Warnick stated that the web is in an early and transformative state and that Google is capitalizing on this early era of Web technology and is hugely successful, powering more than half the world’s searching. Internet users must remember that we are just in the beginning of this transformation. Further technological transformations may very well eclipse today’s search

WorldWideScience.org accelerates scientific discovery and progress by providing one-stop searching of global science sources. In fact, the vast majority of science information is in databases within the deep Web – or the non-Googleable Web – where popular search engines cannot go. WorldWide Science.org utilizes Federated search, which drills down to the deep Web where scientific databases reside. Unlike the Google sitemap protocol solution, federated search places no burden on the database owners.

Photo by Liz Doyle, U.S. EPA Region 10 Library

Ellen Herbst provided an update on NTIS and sources of scientific information around the world, specifically the rise of China as a producer and source of scientific articles. National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It was established 1945 to collect and provide permanent access to nation’s scientific, technical, engineering and business information and to collect related international information and make it available to the public.

According to Herbst, NTIS annually receives over 50,000 new information products. This may include works that are all unclassified and mostly non-copyrighted. There is wide diversity in examples of these information products which may include federally funded work, U. S. government reports, international technical reports, conference proceedings, journal articles, books, and non print/multimedia products. NTIS covers a wide range of scientific subject content and information from government agencies. Over the years it has collected over 2.5 million titles.

Last year NTIS revamped its entire website to ensure that it was compatible with sitemap protocol. Sitemap protocol makes it easier to locate pages within the NTIS site through search engines such as Yahoo and Google. NTIS has big plans for the future, Presently their big push is to make the entire technical reports library and products that have developed from it available online. NTIS plans to BETA test this project for functionality and the underlining IT infrastructure later this year or early 2009. NTIS plans to increase it collection of international information. Herbst discussed the rise of China as a source of science and technical information. She mentioned that information is controlled by the Chinese government and that its expenditures in research and development have grown dramatically in the last few years. Much of the statistics she provided to support this trend came from the National Science Foundation 2007 report: “Asia’s Rising Science and Technology Strength, Comparative Indicators for Asia, the European Union, and the United States.” Interesting to note that China’s R&D spending has grown from14% of the worlds total in 2006 to 18% in 2008. Today in China there are 9,000 journals of which 7, 000 are science and technology related.

Photo by Liz Doyle, U.S. EPA Region 10 Library

Tom Larr discussed the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), a broad collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources. The NBII links diverse, high-quality biological databases, information products, and analytical tools maintained by NBII partners and other contributors in government agencies, academic institutions, non-government organizations, and private industry.

The NBII's information network of partners represents the spectrum of sectors and assumes a variety of roles to help deliver this information system to the end-user. For instance most federal science and land management agencies are NBII partners. States natural resources agencies participate, and generate valuable data and research. Since local government now has an increasing role over the management of their local natural resources, there are partnerships between NBII and these government agencies.

NBII is the U.S. representative for many initiatives at bilateral, regional, hemispheric, and global scales. Larr also discussed The Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN), a forum to foster technical collaboration and coordination among countries of the Americas in collection, sharing, and use of biodiversity information relevant to decision-making on natural resources management and conservation, and education to promote sustainable development in the region. IABIN has several networks that include species & specimens, invasive species, pollinators, ecosystems and protected areas. Larr’s presentation highlighted the invasive species network which is also known as I3N. This network collects biological information on the invasive species and information on the economic impacts and identified control measures.