Catherine Murray-Rust
Associate University Librarian
Oregon State University
Laurie E. Stackpole
Chief Librarian
Naval Research Laboratory
R. James King
Specialist in Library Information Technology
Naval Research Laboratory
Two new initiatives are advancing the cause of easy access to scientific information through digital libraries. One project analyzes the need for information about natural resources in the Pacific Northwest, while another provides users affiliated with the Naval Research Laboratory with access to scientific journals, databases, and technical reports.
Building on its land-grant mission, the Oregon State University Libraries plans to create a natural resources digital library to inform decision-making and environmental stewardship in the Pacific Northwest. A needs assessment was commissioned to answer two fundamental questions:
- Would better access to existing natural resources information through a digital library help users make informed decisions about natural resources policy and practice?
- Will users be able to understand the accessed information? Interviews with citizens, policy makers, and scientists showed that potential users want to quickly find, retrieve, integrate, and synthesize well-organized and geo-referenced information in a wide variety of formats, especially in three high-priority natural resource thematic areas: watersheds, land and water use, and forestry.
The Ruth H. Hooker Research Library has made significant progress in providing its distributed user community at the Naval Research Laboratory with a single point-of-access to information needed to support scientific research. End users at the Navy’s primary corporate research facility currently enjoy continuous access to databases, reference tools, technical reports, and journals via the Web whether in the office, at home or on travel. Locally mounted and remote databases and publications are available to researchers through a Web-based Information System and Gateway known as InfoWeb. A key InfoWeb component is the TORPEDO Ultra digital repository consisting of thousands of agency publications and a growing number of licensed journals. In support of its goal to provide users with a unified approach to retrieving journal content regardless of location, the Library has developed a strategy to link users to journals that reside on publisher Web sites through a TORPEDO Ultra browse or search.
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