May 1997 1

STI BULLETIN

May 1997 Issue

STI

A publication for users of the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Program Office

New STI Product Released: NASA Image eXchange (NIX)

The NASA STI Program announces

a new product that has been produced through a cooperative effort

among ten NASA centers and the

Media Services Division of the

NASA Headquarters Public Affairs

Office. The NASA Image eXchange

(NIX) provides a single point of

entry to various photographic databases of six NASA centers (Langley,

Lewis, Ames, Dryden, Goddard, and

Johnson). NIX is currently expanding to include additional photos

from the remaining centers.

NIX provides an umbrella over existing photo databases at the centers,

thus eliminating the need for extensive rework to link them to NIX,

lessening the redundancy of work

across the Agency, and providing

better access to photos for NASA’s

customers. Search capabilities of

NIX include simple searches, complex searches, and browse searches

(prebuilt searches on a number of

preselected topics). NIX also provides tips to users on searching,

copyright information, and a

comments section.

The NIX effort, which was spearheaded by the STI Program Office

at Langley (the Lead Center for the

Agency’s STI Program) was a voluntary association of STI, public

affairs, web, photographic, graphic,

and library personnel from all ten

centers on the STI Photographics

Subgroup. The Subgroup was

formed in October 1996 with a

charter to recommend a prototype.

The idea for NIX originated from a

recent re-engineering effort by the

STI Program which included extensive customer suggestions about new

services and products.

Following the creation of the NIX

prototype, the system underwent

beta testing in March 1997 with an

Agency-wide and external customer

team. The STI Photographics Subgroup gave its final report on NIX to

NASA Headquarters on May 2,

1997. Release of NIX to the public

and to NASA is scheduled for midMay 1997.

Plans for the future of NIX include

to maintain an Agency-wide group

for technical support, to work on

short- and long-term recommendations from the Subgroup, and to

further expand the content and

capabilities of NIX. The STI Program Office is currently providing

technical and other support to

selected NASA centers for the

expansion of the current capability

of NIX.

You can view and search NIX at url

http://nix.nasa.gov

In This Issue

Help Desk Q&A

NASA Center News
2 STI Bulletin

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The STI Bulletin, published every other

month, informs NASA STI users about

the products, services, and news of the

NASA Scientific and Technical Information Program Office.

Graphics & Editing Team:

John Jones, Deborah J. Drumheller

For additional information, contact

George Roncaglia

NASA Langley Research Center

Mail Stop 157, Hampton, VA 23681

E-mail: g.j.roncaglia@larc.nasa.gov

NASA

Access Help Desk

The following are excerpts of recent NASA Access Help Desk inquiries (I)

and helpful responses (R).

I: I’m in the sixth grade. I am glad the Spinoff website is on the Internet,

because the information there is exactly what I am looking for...items

that have been invented through space research, and have been adapted

by industries including medicine, household items like Teflon or neoprene, etc. How do I order back issues of Spinoff?

R: You can contact the National Technology Transfer Center at the

address, phone or fax number below:

National Technology Transfer Center

Wheeling Jesuit College

316 Washington Avenue

Wheeling, WV 26003

Tel: 800-678-6882 Fax: 304-243-4384

I: I have been trying to connect with RECONplus and I keep getting the

message “Unable to find application.” I do have a user ID and password. Is there something else that I need to do before I try to establish

the connection? Do I still have to use Telnet if I try to connect through

the Web?

R: RECONplus is a telnet-based search engine for the NASA STI databases. If you are using a web browser such as Netscape for access, you

also need telnet client software. You should indicate in the browser’s

preferences or setup screens which software you will be using and where

it is located on your computer.

I: Where can I find a local NASA Film & Video Catalog (local being the

greater Seattle/Tacoma, Washington area)?

R: The NASA Video Catalog is available online through the NASA STI

home page. The NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (NASA

CASI) is the only distributor of these videos. The URL is

http://www.sti.nasa.gov

Select STI Program Bibliographic Announcements. From there, you will

see a list of the electronic documents available, one of which is the

current issue of the NASA Video Catalog.

To request a paper copy of the NASA Video Catalog, use the contact

points in the sidebar, at the right of this page, to reach the Document

Ordering Service at the NASA Access Help Desk.

May We Help You? You can contact the

NASA Access Help Desk

by telephone at

(301) 621-0390,

fax

(301) 621-0134,

e-mail

help@sti.nasa.gov,

or write

NASA Access Help Desk

NASA Center for

 AeroSpace Information

800 Elkridge Landing Rd.

Linthicum Heights, MD

21090-2934
May 1997 3

NASA Headquarters · Ames Research Center · Dryden Flight Research Center · Goddard Space Flight Center · Jet Propulsion Laboratory CENTER NEWS · Johnson Space Center · Kennedy Space Center · Langley Research Center · Lewis Research Center · Marshall Space Flight Center · Redstone Scientific Information Center ·

Stennis Space Center · Wallops Flight Facility · White Sands Test Facility · NASA Headquarters · Ames Research Center · Dryden Flight Research Center · Goddard Space Flight Center · Jet Propulsion Laboratory · Johnson Space Center · Kennedy Space Center · Langley Research Center ·

After

an island, encircled by flood water

and cut off from surrounding areas.

These photographs were captured at

an altitude of 65,000 feet using a 24"

focal-length camera.

The California Office of Emergency

Services will use these photographs

to document the extent of flooding

and property damage. This will help

in restoration of property and planning for future flood prevention.

The photographs shown here are an

example of before and after the

flooding. These images ran on virtually every major television station in

many big cities and local newspapers

thought the Western region.

to offer users access to online

journals, scholarly societies, and

professional organizations. In

addition, RSIC provides gateways to federal resources and

dynamic links to unique science

and technology resources of

interest to engineers, researchers,

and scientists.

The addition of the Technical

Information Division to RSIC

results in a streamlined process

of creating, editing, publishing

and archiving technical reports

with a goal of facilitating user

access both now and into the

future. The division’s new procedure of submitting a report

electronically combined with

editing and publishing within

the electronic arena results in a

faster, cheaper and more accurate product according to

RSIC’s director, Sybil Bullock.

Currently, the reports are being

electronically transmitted to

DTIC and future plans include

internet

access for

unclassified unlimited distributed

reports

through

RSIC’s

website.

To coincide with the challenges of

augmenting RSIC’s virtual

aspect, computer systems are

being upgraded and the librarians and staff are expanding

their professional knowledge

by attending seminars, workshops and conferences.

STI Program Is Alive

and Well at Ames

Research Center

Scientific and Technical Information comes in many formats,

and even today aerial photography is the preferred format for

disaster assessment. During

Before

January 1997, Northern California was hit with appalling

weather and almost uninterrupted rains. Despite the bad

weather, an ER-2 aircraft based

at NASA Ames Research Center was launched. The ER-2

was capable of finding a sufficient break in the clouds,

enabling it to obtain valuable

photographic evidence of the

devastation caused by the

flooding from the rains. This

was done at the request of the

California Office of Emergency Services (OES). The

ER-2 aircraft acquired Color

IR imagery of Northern

California’s entire central

valley region. The towns of

Yuba City, Marysville and

Olivehurst showed vivid

evidence of the flooding and

destruction. In the photographs, Marysville appears as

Redstone Scientific

Information Center

To meet the rapid growth of access

to the digital environment, Redstone

Scientific Information Center is

working to strengthen its electronic

presence beyond access to its unique

scientific and technical unclassified

unlimited collection.

During this fiscal year,

RSIC will expand its website

http://library.redstone.army.mil
4 STI Bulletin

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