Astronomy Roundtable
Melissa Hilbert Sponsor: Thomson ISI A summary of the Astronomy Roundtable follows. For complete notes and presentations, see http://www.sla.org/division/dpam/conferences/2003/astrort/astrort.html.
PART 1 The ATST will be the largest solar telescope in the world. It will be ground based and have a 4 m primary mirror (13 ft), off-axis telescope, advanced hybrid enclosure (angled, fabric, and somewhat controversial), high-resolution adaptive optics, and advanced instrumentation. Different possible locations for the telescope are being considered. The Principle Investigator is the National Solar Observatory, who is working with several collaborators. For more information about the ATST, see http://atst.nso.edu.
He Mo'olelo o ka Hale Kilo [An Oral History of the Observatory]: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corp.'s Oral History Initiative Liz described a project she initiated to preserve the oral history of the CFHT. In preparing the groundwork for her project, Liz met with experts in the field of oral history, as well as professors at the University of Hawaii who provided her with graduate students in the fields of instrumentation and archives to work on the project. People with first-hand knowledge of the CFHT from 1977-1990 have been asked to contribute interviews for the project. The interviewees will complete a personal background questionnaire, and will be interviewed by the librarian and the student assistants.
A result of this project will be a digital oral history, in the form of a CD/DVD for the 25th anniversary of the CFHT, and the possible compilation of books with instrumentation history and photographs and descriptions of interviewees.
Astrophysics Data System Update The site map for the ADS (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs_doc/site_map/) is a good starting point for users. Presently, ADS contains 4 million astronomy citations and 4 million physics citations. ADS has recently added the tables of contents of approximately 1,000 astronomy conference proceedings. By the end of the summer ADS will have separate Physics and Geophysics databases, due to the expansion of the Physics database. One of the major reasons for this expansion is the inclusion of IOP abstracts and references, which have been resolved with matching ADS bib codes. ADS purchased an ISI physics journal citation data set, which will probably be processed and included in ADS by the Fall.
Donna explained the "Browse Library" feature of ADS, which includes scanned material. ADS is running OCR on all scanned literature to allow for full text searching and for many more references to be resolved since the data will be available in machine-readable form. In a project with the Wolbach Library (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), ADS is digitizing microfilmed observatory publications. These publications are already included in ADS, but need to have metadata created to be more easily accessible, for which ADS is seeking volunteers. ADS has obtained permission to scan Earth, Moon, and Planets, but is missing v18(4). Please contact the ADS if you can provide this issue. Celestial Mechanics is coming to ADS soon, and the Australian Journal of Physics will probably be included by the end of summer.
USNO Cataloging Records in ADS and Recent USNO Archival Projects The proceedings from LISA IV, Library and Information Services in Astronomy IV, have been published in print and electronic form. Brenda tried to send a copy to every astronomy library. If you did not receive one, please contact Brenda. Any remaining copies will be sent to individual astronomy librarians.
The USNO Library has cataloged every obituary from American Astronomical Society, which are now included in OCLC and ADS.
The transit of Venus will occur in June 2004; the last transit was in 1874. Two large volumes were compiled with material about the 1874 transit, but were never published. USNO made a preservation copy of the unpublished materials on acid-free paper, and one copy was sent to ADS to be scanned, which should be completed in time for the next IAU meeting. IAU Commission 41 has plans for gathering observations of next year's transit.
A history of the US Naval Observatory was published recently: Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830-2000 (Steven J. Dick, Cambridge University Press, 2002).
New IoP Journal The Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics is peer-reviewed, published electronic-only, and is offered at no charge this year (a nominal charge will apply next year). The "stellar" editorial board includes John Bahcall (Princeton), Michael Turner (University of Chicago) and Martin Rees (Institute of Astronomy and King's College, UK). The journal was launched this year, and thus far there have been 2,000 full text downloads, 71 article submissions, and 18 published articles. This "blockbuster in the making" is a SISSI and IOP joint publication and is available at http://www.iop.org/journals/jcap.
PART 2 William described the successful information literacy programs he has initiated at CWRU. After networking with faculty, he became involved in an undergraduate physics course. Students were assigned a paper for which the bibliography would be reviewed and evaluated by the librarian, who would also assign a portion of the grade. Most students initially had a "Google" top 5 search result for a bibliography, and said they spent a good deal of time trying to find sources. When they repeated their literature searches with the librarian, they were "wow"ed in the first 5 minutes. In the second quarter, students were better able to locate materials, and William could focus more on the "evaluation" aspect of information literacy. The CWRU campus is going through a general education requirement revision and is looking to weave information skills into the curriculum. A pilot project with 300 first-year students is expected.
Virtual Observatory project The Virtual Observatory uses present and developing information technology (e.g. WWW, GRID) to provide seamless access to and operations on astronomical literature (e.g. ADS), astronomical catalogs and services (e.g. NED, SIMBAD), and astronomical data archives (e.g. NASA). The drivers of the Virtual Observatory are: the integration of literature, catalogs, and data, very large data sets (terabytes++), multi-wavelength astronomy, and exploring the time domain. To work towards the creation of the Virtual Observatory, data archives must be standardized and calibrated, and metadata standards, data models, and computational capability and tools must be developed.
Virtual Observatory initiatives exist worldwide. In the U.S. there is a National Virtual Observatory project funded by the NSF; in Europe there are national activities in the UK (AstroGRID) and in Germany, and collaborative projects across Europe (e.g. the UK, France, ESO project: Astrophysical Virtual Observatory); and in the rest of the world there is the International Virtual Observatory Alliance which includes the projects previously mentioned, with additional participation by Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, and Russia.
The Virtual Observatory will work towards creating the future of astrophysics data analysis. Astronomers may eventually use the Virtual Observatory the way we use the Web today, to access large amounts of data, perform multi-wavelength data comparisons and analysis, and to access simulation tools and theory data. Much more information on the Virtual Observatory is available from Pepi's detailed presentation, http://www.sla.org/division/dpam/conferences/2003/astrort/fabbiano.pdf. Pepi is also happy to respond to any questions from librarians about the Virtual Observatory.
Core List of Astronomy Books The Core List of Astronomy Books is hosted on the ADS Web site (http://ads.harvard.edu/books/clab/), and is coordinated by Liz Bryson. The list will be updated annually, and an update request form will be provided on the Web. The project currently needs people who are interested in tracking reviews. That is, not in an attempt to duplicate Marlene Cummins' reviews (http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/reviews1.html) but rather to follow Marlene's list and select materials for inclusion on the Core List of Astronomy Books. If anyone would like to contribute to this project, please contact Liz Bryson.
Core List of Astronomy and Physics Journals The Core List of Astronomy and Physics Journals is also hosted on the ADS Web site (http://ads.harvard.edu/books/claj/), and coordinated by Liz Bryson. The list was updated earlier this year. Of ongoing consideration is whether or not titles should ever be removed from the list if they somehow fail to continue to meet the list's criteria. Suggestions and comments on the list are always welcome, and may be addressed to Diane Fortner.
Observatory Publications Microfilming and Digitizing Project Update The John G. Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has one of the most complete collections of early observatory publications from around the world still in existence. Titles from this collection are being microfilmed as part of an ongoing preservation project being carried out at Harvard University. Microfilmed titles from the project are being digitized and made freely available online through the Scanned Historical Literature section of the ADS (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/historical.html). After six years of work on preservation and digitization, 529 titles and 2,505 volumes have been microfilmed. Of these, 96 titles and 1,274 volumes have been digitized and included in the ADS.
Unfortunately, Harvard did not receive project funding for the coming year, so the project will be coming to an end. For more information on the project, and lists of microfilmed and digitized titles, see http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/library/projects.html.
Open discussion at the end of each session
mhilbert@cfa.harvard.edu
Notes: Stella Ota
Introduction to the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope
Ruth Kneale
Liz Bryson
Donna Thompson
Brenda Corbin
Steve Moss, Vice President of Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc.
Information Literacy for Science Students at Case Western Reserve University
William Claspy
Dr. Giuseppina (Pepi) Fabbiano, Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Senior Personnel Member of the National Virtual Observatory, gfabbiano@cfa.harvard.edu
Madeleine Needles
Pam Yorks
Donna Coletti
