The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Library, with a Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) grant administered through the Illinois State Library, is now able to provide a web-based source for all its Scientific and Technical reports collection dating to 1968, the year the laboratory was established. The documents are the culmination of more than 30 years of advanced physics research.
Fermilab is Illinois’ premiere physics research laboratory. The $59,366 grant enabled for the first time, a National Laboratory to make available to the public through the World Wide Web, its collection of research documents. The public is now able to access the information by way of the federal Department of Energy’s Information Bridge Internet site.
The grant allowed the lab to both expand the range of reports available but, also to make them available more rapidly. In addition to providing full text reports, they also are able to provide a web based search engine for accessing any report. With the addition of the Fermilab information, the Department of Energy Information Bridge, has begun the expansion of its content backward in time. As other labs follow the example set by Fermilab through the LSTA grant, the system could ultimately contain a comprehensive collection of reports dating back to the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was the World War II crash program to develop and test a nuclear device.
The major expense of the project was the hiring of two librarians for a six-month period of time to enter all the documentation. The entire collection of more than 20,000 documents consists of prepublished journal articles, technical memos, physics notes, conference papers, design reports, experimental proposals, theses and dissertations from research conducted in Illinois. Much of the research papers contained in the project include many technological breakthroughs including new diagnostic tools for the field of medicine, synchrotron light sources for industrial research and manufacturing, and beams of neutrons and protons for treating cancer. Fermilab’s scientific and technical publication collection offers a unique repository of experimental results and theory, as well as accelerator design, development and construction reports.
The Fermilab Technical Publications Web Servers provides an average of 40,000 documents each month.
The Department of Energy Information Bridge is available to the public through a cooperative agreement between the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) and the government printing office and is available at www.doe.gov/bridge>. Or telephone (423)576-0487.
For further information regarding this grant contact: Ms. Elizabeth Anderson, Fermi Lab, P.O. Box 500, MS777 Batavia, IL. 60510-5000 (630)-840-6017
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