“Enhancements To WorldWideScience.org Include Arabic Translation, Mobile Capability, and Multimedia Results”
From the OSTI: Arabic has been added to the suite of translated languages at WorldWideScience.org, bringing the total number of translated languages to 10. At WorldWideScience.org, your query can be translated into the languages of the search engine’s 80-plus databases and the results can be translated into your preferred language. In addition, WorldWideScience.org has added a new multimedia search capability, including search of speech-indexed scientific videos from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and CERN. Speech-indexing is provided by the Microsoft Research Audio Video Indexing System (MAVIS). Also, a mobile version of WorldWideScience.org (http://m.worldwidescience.org) has been launched, which will mark another first in the field of federated search. Continue reading
State Agency Databases Activity Report: 6/19/2011
Activity continues at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States Project. Marlena Crenshaw of the Arkansas State Library publicly claimed the Arkansas page. Welcome Marlena! The Pennsylvania and Wisconsin pages came open for adoption. The project coordinator sent out the last of the follow up e-mails to volunteers who have not updated their pages since 1/1/2010. Next Sunday we should have definitive lists of who is continuing with the project and what pages remain orphans. We are currently studying ways to ensure that orphan pages have updated links while we recruit for documents specialists for them. You can find a blow by blow listing of this week's wiki activity by visiting http://tinyurl.com/3npd96f. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED Arkansas Arkansas Resource Information CyberCenter - Searchable database of community service information. Searchable by organization, city, county, status, hours of operation, and service offered. New Jersey Civil War Treasury Vouchers, 1861-1865 - "Includes 15,770 payment receipts for military expenditures and wartime purchases made by the State of New Jersey from 1861 through 1866. It includes soldiers' discharge certificates for final pay, affidavits of family members for pay due to deceased soldiers, and quarterly returns of the counties and cities listing the names of soldiers’ families and dependent mothers who received subsistence pay during their service." Department of Agriculture Photographs - Indexes more than 7,000 photographs, and displays more than 2,000, showing all aspects of farming, including events and celebrations, organizations, people, corporations, and more. These Department of Agriculture public information photographs range in date from the 1930s to the 1970s with a few items from as early as the 1880s. Continue reading
EPA Makes More Chemical Databases Available to the Public
From an EPA Announcement: ToxCastDB users can search and download data from over 500 rapid chemical tests conducted on more than 300 environmental chemicals. ToxCast uses advanced scientific tools to predict the potential toxicity of chemicals and to provide a cost-effective approach to prioritizing which chemicals of the thousands in use require further testing. ToxCast is currently screening 700 additional chemicals, and the data will be available in 2012. ExpoCastDB consolidates human exposure data from studies that have collected chemical measurements from homes and child care centers. Data include the amounts of chemicals found in food, drinking water, air, dust, indoor surfaces and urine. ExpoCastDB users can obtain summary statistics of exposure data and download datasets. EPA will continue to add internal and external chemical exposure data and advanced user interface features to ExpoCastDB. The new databases link together two important pieces of chemical research — exposure and toxicity data — both of which are required when considering potential risks posed by chemicals. The databases are connected through EPA’s Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource (ACToR), an online data warehouse that collects data on over 500,000 chemicals from over 500 public sources. See Also: “EPA Removes Confidentiality Claims for More Than 150 Chemicals” (via INFOdocket) Continue reading
New Mobile Resources From the State Department, NLM, and USDA
Here are links from INFOdocket. New State Department"Smart Traveler"iPhone App Available http://infodocket.com/2011/06/14/new-state-department-iphone-app-available/ Travel info. iPhone app; Free. "Digitized Medical Books: National Library of Medicine Releases “Turning the Pages” iPad App" http://infodocket.com/2011/06/16/digitized-medical-books-national-library-of-medicine-releases-turning-the-pages-ipad-app/ iPhone app; Free "Food Safety Questions? USDA Releases Mobile Version of “Ask Karen” Virtual Assistant" http://infodocket.com/2011/06/14/food-safety-questions-usda-releases-mobile-version-of-ask-karen-virtual-assistant/ Mobile Web; FREE Continue reading
Update on status of e-government funding
Sunlight has an update on the status of funding for e-government programs:
- Draft H. Appropriations Bill Would Slightly Increase E-Gov Fund, by Daniel Schuman, Sunlight Foundation blog (June 15, 2011). In a legislative twist, funding for the Electronic Government Fund appears to have been combined with funding for the Office of Citizen Services, making it difficult to figure out how much money will actually go towards e-gov websites. My best guess is that the legislation would increase the money available for e-gov to $13m from the $8m appropriated in FY 2011, which is still far off from the $34m available in FY 2010.