STIP Managers/representatives participating in July 10 Teleconference: Jackie Stack (LANL), Kim Kindrew (TJNAF), Pam Novak (PNNL), Mary Petersen (BNL), Janine Ford (NVO), Dennis Gound (ORO), Linda Rohde (CHO), Dale Claflin (INEEL), Lucille Gentry (ALO), Kathy Macal (ANL), Dave Hamrin (ORNL), Bettie Moore (YMP), Ernest Stemley (YMP), Bonna Savarise (YMP), Isom Harrison (LLNL), Bettie Robinette (Y-12), Dorothy Riehle (RLO), Betsy Pratt (BPA), Anne Raible (OAK), Cathie Witker (SRS), Jeanette Brooks (SRS), Jane Tierney (LBNL), Jose Olivares (LBNL), Sue Ekkebus (ORAU), Rita Hohenbrink (OSTI), Susan Tackett (OSTI), and Sharon Jordan (OSTI). Harvesting Status (Susan Tackett) - Harvesting is a major focus of OSTI this year. The initiative involves the use of available technology to obtain ("harvest") STI directly from sites. NREL has been in production for a year; ANL data was successfully harvested into the production database in late June; and PNNL and LLNL are finalizing data mapping for harvesting; BNL plans to initiate harvesting after migration of BasisPlus database to Oracle in late FY 2002. Other sites have expressed interest in future use of the harvesting technology. For additional information contact Susan Tackett at tacketts@osti.gov or (865) 576-0344. Light Source Data Status (Susan Tackett) - The term "light source" really should be "user facilities." Two DOE-IG reports in FY01 focused on the need to get STI from DOE user facilities forwarded to OSTI. The Office of Science has mandated that their user facilities get their STI to OSTI. OSTI has begun to receive records from five of the nine identified sites. To date, no records have been received from SSRL at SLAC, HFIR at ORNL, LANSCE at LANL, or EMSL at PNNL. However, PNNL noted that they have approximately 2,000 EMSL records that will be picked up when they move to harvesting. For additional information contact Susan Tackett at tacketts@osti.gov or (865) 576-0344. Broken/Invalid URLs (Susan Tackett) - OSTI recently pulled a list of unlimited announcement records containing URLs that are broken or invalid. Currently 3,160 records have broken/invalid links; however, this large number is actually down by 600 from early April when a similar review was done. It is unclear if all these items have been removed as a result of a post 9/11 review or if the problem is unrelated (i.e., typos or server problems). If items have been identified for your site, OSTI will be sending you a list for your review to determine the problem(s) as well as guidance to assist you in correction of the announcement records as appropriate via E-Link. For additional information contact Kathy Waldrop at waldropk@osti.gov or (865) 576-1223. R&D Data Call (Susan Tackett) - The FY 2001 R&D Data Call was initiated in early January. Final data was due into OSTI on Feb. 15. R&D data was provided to Rand Corporation for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House in late May. OSTI was subsequently requested to perform a data review utilizing current Homeland Security criteria regarding future dissemination of the data provided by DOE to OSTP from FY 1995 through FY 2001. The review is complete. Fourteen records were identified that meet the criteria for removing them from public view until sites have reviewed them. Affected sites will be notified and feedback will be requested. For additional information contact Kathy Waldrop at waldropk@osti.gov or (865) 576-1223. FOIA Requests (Sharon Jordan) - If you have a FOIA request for a document that you do not have at your site and you want to check OSTI's collections for it, please contact OSTI's FOIA contact Brenda Harrison for assistance ((865) 576-1299 or harrisonb@osti.gov). If the request is not related to a FOIA, you may want to contact the Reports Request line. The Reports Request service is staffed by OSTI employees Kim Buckner and Delores Brabson and the request number is (865) 576-8401 or email to reports@adonis.osti.gov. They can help especially if you cannot find a document on Information Bridge or in Energy Citations. Note that requests for paper documents do involve a cost per document. Board of Visitors (Sharon Jordan) - On June 18-19, 2002, a Board of Visitors convened at OSTI for an STI program review. The Team consisted of five members: Bill Arms, Cornell University, who served as Chair; Rick Luce, LANL; Marthy Blume, American Physical Society; Fred Wood, National Library of Medicine; and Mark Gilbertson, DOE-EM50. Dan Hitchcock, DOE-SC30, had overall responsibility for organizing the review on behalf of Ed Oliver. Each participant submitted individual reports to SC, but they made several observations: (1) They were impressed with the professionalism, morale, and commitment to service exhibited by OSTI's staff. They suggested more training opportunities be provided. (2) They noted OSTI's recent accomplishments, including the move from a compliance-based relationship with the labs to one more focused on partnerships, the aggressive move from print to web access, and the move to a reduced metadata set. They emphasized the need to build around the mainstream web and cited XML and OAI. (3) They recognized that OSTI had placed importance on partnerships at various levels, including the Interagency work with CENDI and science.gov, Intragency work such as the Consortia Purchasing arrangements, and OSTI's leadership in the International arena. (4) It was recognized that OSTI serves a diverse user base, but user needs should be better understanding users' needs and priorities and in developing strategies to communicate with major user groups and obtain feedback. (5) The Team recommended that OSTI set priorities and consider quality versus quantity. They stressed that OSTI should keep in mind who the primary customers are and what OSTI is uniquely positioned to do. Send Sharon any comments or suggestions, dealing with a specific product or general information. Although the home page and individual products have comment forms, OSTI may investigate other means for gathering feedback in the future. Also, to become more service oriented for researchers/universities, OSTI plans to broaden relationships at labs/universities - We need higher level commitments and need input from research programs, libraries, and other communities in addition to STI POCs. OSTI uses author notifications which have been appreciated by the principal investigators. However, we need the author e-mails to be provided on the forms DOE F 241.1 and DOE F 241.3. Although it is an optional field, it is very useful for the communication relationship. STIP Strategic Plan (Sharon Jordan) - The draft sections on vision, mission, and goals were sent out recently, as captured during the meeting in Denver. Goal groups are encouraged to ensure that the draft plan accurately captured their discussions. Goal 1 was deemed accurate during this call; lack of completion dates in the Goal 1 section are items that they feel are OSTI actions. The measurements in Goal 2 need to be recast so that they can be measured. Goal 3 is also deemed accurate, but they noted that there is some overlap among the groups. The communication-improvement need is a good example of this overlap. With these clarifications, OSTI will attempt to edit some of the wording and add timeframes before sending out a revision. Comments or suggestions to Sharon (jordans@osti.gov or 865-576-1194) are encouraged, even if you weren't at the Denver meeting where the goal groups met. Miscellaneous E-Link (Sharon Jordan) - Some E-Link users have been experiencing slow or timed-out service. Note that this problem is not specific to E-Link but applies to the OSTI server overall and thus affects other products such as InfoBridge. We’ve determined that the problem stems from large batch jobs and a new type of search software, causing the server to respond more slowly and to time out. It is intermittent and brief but usually occurs from roughly 10:30am to 2:00 pm Eastern on weekdays. (Reminder: accessing E-Link is not recommended from Saturday afternoons to Sunday mornings when regularly scheduled system maintenance is performed.) We are making some adjustments to better manage batch jobs, but you may encounter temporary problems. On Tuesday, July 16, a modification will be made to the OSTI server in an attempt to diminish these 'overload' requests that slow or stop access. If your site experiences these problems, make note of them (time of day and duration of inaccessibility). But please give us until July 19, to fully implement the server modification above. If problems persist after that, notify Lynn Davis at (865) 241-6435 or 241user@osti.gov. E-PhySCI News (Sharon Jordan) - OSTI is requesting articles for the next issue of E-PhySCI News. Please submit items to Lynn at davisl@osti.gov. OUO Order and Manual (Sharon Jordan) - OSTI is reviewing these directives now. They may impact web document access/availability practices. |
