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26 January 2007
U.S.-U.K. Pact Promotes Creation of International Science Portal
Washington -- The United States and the United Kingdom have agreed to collaborate on development of a global science portal aimed at making science information resources of many nations accessible via the Internet, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced January 22.
The DOE said the agreement, signed January 21 in London by the department’s under secretary for science, Raymond Orbach, and British Library Chief Executive Lynne Brindley, calls for creation of a gateway in cyberspace through which scientists worldwide could access scientific information published by any participating nation.
An invitation to participate in the project is extended “to all nations in good standing who disseminate web-based scientific information collections and who wish to partner in the spirit” of the agreement, according to a DOE spokesman. Several nations – including Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Portugal, the Russian Federation and South Korea -- were represented at an international meeting coincident with the signing ceremony and were invited to express their interest in partnering, the spokesman told USINFO.
The project, named “Science.world,” builds on the model of the U.S. interagency portal “Science.gov” – a Web site that relies on content published by each participating government agency. The goal is to use existing technology to broaden access worldwide to scientific information, especially to small and/or obscure – yet valuable – sources. The project recognizes that scientific endeavors increasingly are becoming international efforts, depending on effective collaborations of researchers all over the world. But the project also is intended to serve the general population by providing one-stop access to a wide range of science-related information.
Orbach, speaking in London after signing the Global Science Gateway Agreement, said, “It is time to make the science offerings of all nations searchable in one global gateway. Our goal is to speed up the sharing of knowledge on a global scale. As a result, we believe that science itself will speed up.”
Brindley concurred, saying, “We are delighted to be embarking on what we expect to be a very fruitful collaboration with the DOE to develop the Science.world resource. The British Library has a long history of delivering online information resources through international partnerships.” The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom.
The DOE and the British Library said the Science.world” initiative seeks to:
• Search dispersed, electronic collections in various science disciplines;
• Provide direct, seamless and free searching of open-source collections and portals;
• Build on existing and already successful national models for searching;
• Complement existing information collections and systems; and
• Raise the visibility and usage of individual sources of quality science information.
The partners said they hope to release a prototype of Science.world later in 2007.
For additional details, see the full text of the DOE press release on the department’s Web site.
See also http://www.science.gov, the U.S.-based model for the planned global gateway developed by DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information and the British Library Web site.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) | 
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