Give the improved search at the Energy Department’s Green Energy website a spin. Managed by Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), Green Energy searches databases of Energy research and development reports and patents relevant to renewable energy resources and energy conservation.

In a 7 September 2011 press release, OSTI explains its implementation of the semantic search technique “keyword to concept mapping.” From the press release:

When you type “solar power” into a search box, are you looking for information on solar farms, solar radiation, or solar electric power plants? The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Green Energy portal can now map your keyword query to scientific concepts. This semantic technique, called “keyword to concept mapping,” is applied to your search behind the scenes and helps hone your search for more efficient knowledge access and discovery.

At DOE Green Energy, you will now receive results that allow you to explore more narrow concepts, related concepts, or even broader concepts. DOE Green Energy affords you the use of the familiar and simple search box – yet still provides the benefits of an advanced search technology to help get to the information you need.

The site also has a new auto-complete feature to prompt for related phrases as you type in the search box.

Search results are displayed according to relevance but can be sorted by date with a click on the Date column heading.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Library Network has released a three-year strategic plan, the result of controversy dating back to 2006 over EPA’s management of its libraries. (At the time, SLA’s public policy office encouraged congressional inquiry into agency’s operation of the libraries.)  Announced today, the plan is available from the Library Network site:

EPA National Library Network Strategic Plan FY 2012-FY 2014: Executive Summary, EPA Publication Number 260-S-11-001 [PDF] )

EPA National Library Network Strategic Plan FY 2012-FY 2014 (full plan), EPA Publication Number 260-R-11-001 [PDF]

The Library Network announcement notes that “EPA’s advisory board from the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) and Federal Library Information Network (FEDLINK) reviewed the plan and supported its publication.”

The EPA National Library Network includes numerous library services and repositories around the nation.

An update to our previous post, SLA Urges Further Hearings on EPA Libraries Reorganization, 5 April 2011:

SLA HQ’s Doug Newcomb has posted a status report on the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to complete a strategic plan for the agency’s network of libraries. EPA expects to issue the plan in June. For a full report, see Doug’s post on the SLA Public Policy Connections blog, EPA Library Network Strategic Plan Moves Forward, 8 April 2011.

Along with executives from the American Association of Law Libraries and the Medical Library Association, SLA’s Chief Operating Officer Doug Newcomb has signed a letter urging further congressional oversight of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Library Network reorganization. Doug’s April 5th Public Policy Connections blog post summarizes the situation and links to the letter, which is addressed to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer.

The letter is in response to issues identified in the Government Accountability Office (GAO) September 2010 report EPA Needs to Complete a Strategy for Its Library Network to Meet Users’ Needs (GAO-10-947). From the 4 April 2011 library associations letter:

We are very concerned with GAO’s recent findings that indicate that EPA has not yet finalized its strategic plan, which has been available in draft form since July 2007. The plan does not address GAO’s previous recommendations to include goals or timeliness. In response to the report, EPA stated that it planned to resume work on the plan in late 2010 and complete its strategic plan in Fiscal Year 2011. We urge you to investigate the status of the strategic plan.

We are also troubled that EPA has not determined what documents will be digitized or identified target dates for completing the digitization project. While EPA has begun digitizing some of the libraries’ holdings, it has not completed an inventory of its holdings and thus cannot determine the number of documents that will be digitized or the associated costs.

For the recent history of EPA Libraries controversies, see the page EPA Update on the SLA website.

Plunging into Deep Water is the GPO Government Book Talk blog post about the recently released report of the BP Deepwater oil disaster.  The report, Deep Water: the Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling, provides the results of a national commission study of the causes of the disaster.

Government Book Talk says the causes can be summarized in one word – complacency!  On the part of all parties involved.  The blog post provides a very good review.  Check it out!

And the Blog itself – Government Book Talk – is one you might want to bookmark.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released its recent evaluation of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) National Library Network:

Environmental Protection Agency: EPA Needs to Complete a Strategy for Its Library Network to Meet Users’ Needs,GAO-10-947. September 30, 2010.

Recommendations for Executive Action

From the summary:

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) library network provides agency staff and the public with access to environmental information. A 2006 attempt by EPA to reorganize its network by consolidating libraries and making more materials and services available online caused concern among users, and in 2007, EPA put a moratorium on its reorganization plans. Congress requested that GAO report on the reorganization and has again requested a follow-up on these issues. Accordingly, GAO reviewed (1) the status of EPA’s overall strategy for its library network, (2) the status of EPA’s plan to reopen the libraries it closed and other actions planned or taken, (3) EPA’s efforts to digitize printed documents to make them electronically available, and (4) EPA’s efforts to communicate with staff and other stakeholders about its library network. GAO reviewed regulations and agency funding and inventory documents and interviewed EPA staff and contractors, as well as independent library professionals. GAO also assessed the reliability of EPA’s data on library holdings and from EPA’s staff survey on library use and needs.

[h/t bspacific.com]

National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen announced on 7 July 2010 the launch of a new, official federal government portal for information on the BP oil spill disaster. It will replace the existing DeepwaterHorizonResponse.com. From the announcement:

Content for www.RestoreTheGulf.gov will
be gathered from a wide variety of sources, including the Unified Area
Command’s Joint Information Center in New Orleans, all federal agencies
involved in the spill response and recovery efforts, and independent
scientists and members of academia who are contributing their expertise.
… The web portal maintained by the Unified Area
Command’s Joint Information Center as a short term incident
communication site (www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com)
will be phased out over the coming weeks as information there is moved to RestoreTheGulf.gov.

The Response section of the site includes links to telephone hotlines and web information from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

The University of South Florida Library is maintaining another portal, Gulf Oil Spill Information Center, “designed to assist scholarship regarding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.” The site notes that “a digital library containing many more documents and sources is under development.”

The University of South Alabama Library Government Documents Department has created a list of links to information on the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The web page, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Incident 2010, links to online resources from the U.S. government and the State of Alabama.

The US Coast Guard is using crisis communication specialists PIER Systems to keep the public informed about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and response. A central site, Deepwater Horizon Response, provides news updates, fact sheets, and toll-free emergency phone numbers. The site also has social media services on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube; the links are under the Social Media menu.

The State of Louisiana has set up a website for oil spill communications at emergency.louisiana.gov.

The Environmental Protection Agency has created a site for air monitoring and air, water, and sediment sampling information at www.epa.gov/bpspill/.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released a new research site, DOE Green Energy. The site is a searchable database of DOE bibliographic citations and associated detailed full-text research reports and
patents focusing on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Subjects covered include hydrogen, solar energy,
tidal and wave power, energy storage, and direct energy conversion. DOE Green Energy has a simple search box and searches the full text of the documents. Results can be sorted by relevance or date.