Happy Birthday, Science.gov!

This month marks the 10th anniversary of Science.gov. This free gateway to government science information and research results from 13 federal agencies provides a search of over 55 scientific databases and 200 million pages of science information, including Library of Congress information from THOMAS, the Prints and Photographs Division, and the Science, Technology, and Business Division, with just one query.

The Science.gov Alliance press release celebrating the event nicely sums up the motivation for Science.gov’s inception ten years ago:

The founding idea was to provide a comprehensive gateway to federal science information for those who might not know exactly where to find it. The interagency effort would raise scientific and technical literacy, serve as a foundation for future discoveries, and foster greater understanding of the public’s return on investment from the government’s science and technology efforts.

To celebrate this great milestone, the site has a new look and has been expanded to include multimedia content and visualization tools. If that wasn’t enough excitement, the Spanish version of Science.gov, Ciencia.Science.gov, was also launched in honor of the anniversary.

Along with my co-chair of the Science.gov Alliance, Annie Simpson of USGS, I am proud to wish Science.gov a very happy tenth birthday with hopes for many great years to come!

 

OASIS Puts Akoma Ntoso on the Standards Track

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) recently formed a new technical committee, the OASIS LegalDocumentML (LegalDocML) Technical Committee, to begin moving forward specifications for a common legal document standard for parliamentary, legislative and judicial documents. The specification will be based upon the Akoma Ntoso-UN project’s XML schema, which Andrew Weber mentioned …

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“Bills To Be Considered on the House Floor” Repository

The following is a guest post by Kimberly Ferguson, Specialist in Legislative Information Systems Management in the Library of Congress. You can now access “Bills To Be Considered on the House Floor” – a new digital repository from the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. “Bills To Be Considered on the House Floor” provides access …

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From the Law Librarian of Congress

The following is a guest post by Roberta I. Shaffer, Law Librarian of Congress. Roberta has posted to the blog on multiple occasions including: Happy Old Year, The Law Library of Congress Strategic Plan Released, and My Trip to the Future. Another year has passed and I am pleased once again to send you great cheer and …

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Tools for My Trade?

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to attend Summer School LEX 2011. As background, [t]he school aims at providing knowledge of the most significant ICT standards emerging for legislation, judiciary, parliamentary and administrative documents. The course provides understanding of their impact in the different phases of the legislative and administrative process, awareness of the tools based …

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