STIP Managers Teleconference November 8, 2000

The Scientific and Technical Information Program Managers teleconference was held on November 8, 2000, beginning 12:00 p.m. EST. The teleconference minutes have been contributed by Dave Hamrin (ORNL) with clarifying editions by OSTI.

The meeting was well attended, with 20 sites and offices represented. The participants included Judy Lussie, LLNL; Pam Novak, PNNL; Janine Ford, NVO; Stephanie Janicek, LMSI; Dennis Gound, ORO; Gomes Ganapathi, ETTP; Dale Claflin, INEEL; Tad Pearson, INEEL; Kathy Macal, ANL; Dave Hamrin, ORNL; Mina Perrin, SRO; Kevin Schmidt, SRS; Catherine Witker, SRS; Anne Raible, OAK; Linda Cusimano, SNL; Anna Nusbaum, SNL; Mary White, BNL, Jane Tierney, LBNL; Carol Backhus, LBNL; Sharon Lee, BHI; Niclole Brooks, IDO; Betty Robinette, Y-12; et al.

Electronic Transition Goal: Sharon Jordan

We should all have seen the October 12 memo from HQ stating that OSTI will not accept paper after January 1, 2001. If you haven't, contact Sharon. OSTI had provided statistics to HQ earlier, and budget problems at OSTI for FY01 (budget is flat) plus a recent focus on e-government caused quick action to occur. The general consensus is that it's an achievable goal. Wording will be changed in the Order and Guide to reflect this decision. If this decision will cause your site problems, contact OSTI as soon as possible. There may be some alternatives (e.g., send electronic bibliographic info, with a comment like "to get a copy, contact the site for a paper copy"), but this needs to be worked out with OSTI on a site-by-site basis.

Draft DOE O 241.1A and DOE G 241.1-1A Comments: Kathy Waldrop

Formal comments on the Order and Guide via the Directives System were due by October 30. OSTI is addressing the Order major comments first, since it's a much more formal process. Major comments will be shared via INFO-M or a future call, however, the new requirement for electronic submission will be in the Contractor Requirements Document. After the formal review concurrence process ends, the new Order will go to NNSA, the DOE Office of General Counsel, and the Field Management Council before the Order is issued.

Although proposing revisions to the Guide doesn't require a formal review and comment process, comments were requested and all comments will be reviewed and considered for the final revision. Accepted changes will be sent out via Info-M. Some changes in the Guide include- STIP meetings will no longer be twice per year; they'll be as needed by the STIP group. "Musts" and "shoulds" will either refer to requirement upon which based (i.e., law, order, etc.) or be changed in the Guide.

Submittal forms (e.g., DOE F 241.1, DOE F 241.2, DOE F 241.3, and DOE F 241.4) were removed from the Guide on purpose per guidance provided by HQ directives staff; therefore, in the revised Guide, the forms will not be attachments, but will stand alone. References in the Guide to the forms as attachments will be changed.

The expected issuance date for both the Order and the Guide is January 2001.

Scientific and Technical Information Coordinating Group (STICG) Meeting: Sharon Jordan

The STICG Meeting was held September 27, at the Forrestal Building. The agenda was mostly on the "energy.gov" site as the new DOE Home Page. The Headquarters Web Council has "assigned" different offices to manage different content areas. OSTI and STICG will manage the "National Library" button. Also discussed was the status of electronic transition (although the proposal to go forward was being discussed that day in another part of DOE).

Update on STI Products, Services, etc.: Sharon Jordan

GrayLIT Network (http://www.osti.gov/graylit) and Federal R&D Project Summaries (http://www.osti.gov/fedrnd) are two new interagency STI products that were made available in August 2000. They are available off the OSTI Home Page at http://www.osti.gov. GrayLIT includes DOE, DOD, EPA, and NASA. Other agencies' reports will be added as available. The GPO public version of Information Bridge (http://www.osti.gov/bridge) now uses Oracle, so electronic submissions are posted there within a day or two of submission. A new Alert Service is also about to be rolled out for the PrePRINT Network (http://www.osti.gov/preprint) to automatically inform users of newly posted preprints within the user's scientific disciplines of interest. It may be applied to other products later.

Foreign Trip Reports: Kathy Waldrop

The official foreign travel directive (DOE O 551.1A) is in place and mandates that foreign trip reports be submitted to OSTI via e-mail or in paper. To clarify, Foreign Trip Reports are not treated as STI and not submitted to OSTI via E-link and DOE F 241.1, but they are submitted to OSTI per guidance from HQ Programs. Electronic reports that are unclassified, unsensitive may be submitted to "tripreport@osti.gov". The plan is for OSTI to get Part I of the trip reports; this process is already in place. A new system is also under way, but not fully developed yet. David Bellis (865/576-1269) is OSTI's point-of-contact for Foreign Trip Reports.

There will be no formal STIP meeting this calendar year, perhaps even the fiscal year. A decision on InForum has not been made yet. Cause is partly budget and partly a desire to change some other things. One-on-one meetings with the sites are planned for this year. Teleconferences will continue; some other communication channels may also be utilized. There may be some focus meetings to work on elements of the STI program and new concepts such as data harvesting.

Next teleconference would be Jan. 12. If there's a need to have a teleconference before that, let OSTI know.