Major online databases from the US Government Research Centre

Citation

(1999), "Major online databases from the US Government Research Centre", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308bad.001

Major online databases from the US Government Research Centre

Inclusion in this section does not imply that these products, or companies/organizations, are recommended or approved by the editor or publisher.

Major online databases from the US Government Research Centre

The US Government Research Center (GRC) is an initiative of the US Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS), to provide a single Internet access point to valuable government information.

The GRC includes several well-known government sponsored research databases to provide information professionals with world-wide access. The powerful search engine enables broad based and refined search and retrieval capabilities. Users can search in two different modes: BiblioLine Lite and BiblioLine Professional. Subscriptions to the following major online GRC databases are available from Microinfo Ltd.

NTIS Database provides full descriptive summaries of more than 400,000 titles NTIS has received from government agencies since 1990. It offers unparalleled bibliographic coverage of US government and world-wide government-sponsored research. The information it contains represents hundreds of billions of research dollars and covers a wide range of business, scientific, medical, and technological topics

The Energy Science and Technology Database (EDB) is a multidisciplinary file containing world-wide references to basic and applied scientific and technical research literature. The information is collected for use by government managers, researchers at the national laboratories, and other research efforts sponsored by the US Department of Energy.

Included in EDB are scientific and technical reports of the US Atomic Energy Commission, US Energy Research and Development Administration and its contractors, other agencies, universities, and industrial and research organisations. Approximately 25 per cent of the records in the file contain abstracts. The entire Energy Science and Technology Database contains over three million bibliographic records and is updated every two weeks.

The NIOSHTIC® Database contains bibliographic literature in the field of occupational safety and health. About 160 current, English language technical journals provide approximately 35 per cent of the additions to NIOSHTIC® annually. Retrospective information, some of which is from the nineteenth century, is also acquired and entered.

NIOSH examines all aspects of adverse effects experienced by workers; much of the information contained in NIOSHTIC® has been selected from sources that do not have a primary occupational safety and health orientation. The database is updated quarterly.

The Federal Research in Progress Database (FEDRIP) provides access to information about ongoing federally funded projects in the fields of the physical sciences, engineering, and life sciences. The ongoing research announced in FEDRIP is an important component to the technology transfer process in the USA; FEDRIP's uniqueness lies in its structure as a non-bibliographic information source of research in progress. Project descriptions generally include project title, keywords, start date, estimated completion date, principal investigator, performing and sponsoring organisations, summary, and progress report. Record content varies depending on the source agency, with the database updated monthly.

The AgroBase™ Database combines two of the world's most comprehensive databases on agriculture. AgroBase combines duplicate records (citations) from different databases into one record while maintaining all the unique information of the original records. Now users can find the required information through better and faster access to enhanced records.

AgroBase includes both AGRIS and AGRICOLA in their entirety, more than 5.1 million records. The database is updated monthly.

The AGRIS Database is an international database of more than 1 million records. It is designed to help identify problems involved in all aspects of world food supply. AGRIS, which corresponds to the print publication Agrlndex, is produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The Agricola Database is one of the most comprehensive sources of US agricultural and life sciences information. The Agricola (Agricultural Online Access) Database contains bibliographic records for documents acquired by the National Agricultural Library (NAL) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The complete database dates from 1970 and contains over 3,600,000 citations to journal articles, monographs, theses, patents, software, audio-visual materials, and technical reports related to agriculture. AGRICOLA serves as the document locator and bibliographic control system for the NAL collection. This extensive file provides comprehensive coverage of newly acquired world-wide publications in agriculture and related fields. It covers the field of agriculture in the broadest sense and is updated monthly.

The Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) is a database of toxicological information compiled, maintained and updated by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The program is mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The original edition, known as the "Toxic Substances List" was published on 28 June 1971, and included toxicological data for approximately 5,000 chemicals. Since that time, the list has continuously grown and been updated, and its name changed to the current title, "Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances". RTECS© now contains over 133,000 chemicals as NIOSH strives to fulfill the mandate to list "all known toxic substances... and the concentrations at which...toxicology is known to occur."

RTECS® is a compendium of data extracted from the open scientific literature. The data are recorded in the format developed by the RTECS® staff and arranged in alphabetical order by prime chemical name. The database is updated monthly.