Science.gov: 
FirstGov for Science
Gail Hodge
CENDI Secretariat/IIa

Federal Depository Library Conference
October 21, 2002
Objective
	Provide cross-agency, gateway access to selected, authoritative U.S. government science and technology resources for the science-attentive citizen, including science professionals, students, teachers, business people, and members of the public interested in science
Science.gov Initiative
 An integrated, voluntary cross-agency effort of 14 STI programs in 10 federal agencies
 Supports the Administration's E-Gov objectives, bringing government science and technology closer to citizens
 A FirstGov-designated "Cross Agency Portal" for science
 Provides a public gateway to federal web sites and databases
Science.gov Alliance
 Dept. of Agriculture
 Dept. of Commerce
 Dept. of Defense
 Dept. of Education
 Dept. of Energy
 Dept. of Health and
	Human Services

 Dept. of Interior
 Environmental Protection Agency
 National Aeronautics and 
	Space Administration
 National Science Foundation



Guiding Principles
 Provide simple, integrated access to web sites and database content
 Use currently available content 
 Provide selected, useful information and a high quality site 
 Focus on customers - conducted formal usability testing as part of development


Access to Government Science Web Sites
 1100+ selected web sites selected and cataloged by agency content managers and NTIS
 Organized for browsing under one or more of 12 topics and 175 sub-topics
 Free-text searching based on text of selected web sites and linked sites (to one level) provided by USGS

Access to Invisible Web Databases
 30 databases that are generally not accessible to web search engines
 Special invisible web searching developed for science.gov by DOE/OSTI
 Single search interface for web sites and databases



















Challenges
 Broad scope of federal R&D in science and technology
 Wide ranging interests of the potential audience
 Taxonomy issues given the broad scope and audience
 Blending resources from different agencies into cohesive functionality and page design
 Resources, funding and sustainability
What's Next?
 Launch officially in the next few months
 Continue adding content
 Formal selection and cataloging guidelines
 Review the taxonomy
 Link to other Firstgov portals such as kids.gov
 Add members to the Alliance
 Develop support and sustaining resources


Gail Hodge
CENDI Secretariat
IIa
312 Walnut Place
Havertown, PA USA 19083
Telephone:  610/789-6769
Fax: 865/481-0390
gailhodge@aol.com