National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

 

National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

In a nutshell

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) supports research into our world's frozen realms: the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, and climate interactions that make up Earth's cryosphere.

NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere.

NSIDC distributes more than 500 cryospheric data sets for researchers, from both satellite and ground observations. See Data at NSIDC to browse our holdings, get information, and download or order data sets.

 

Also a cool photo gallery -- http://nsidc.org/gallery/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=26&pos=80

APPS from USA.gov

APPS

 

Government apps provide information when you're on the go. Find instant notification of recalls to the status of veterans benefits. USA.gov is working hard to make government easy, convenient, and accessible.

What is an app?

An app, short for "application," is a tool that helps you accomplish a task or find information. The apps in the USA.gov app store are designed to work on your mobile phone. Some need to be downloaded to your phone while others can be accessed using your phone's web browser.

How much do apps cost?

All the apps featured currently are free. Charges from your cell phone carrier may apply.

Can apps access my personal information?

Review the terms of services page or privacy policy for each app to learn if and how it uses personal information. Most apps cannot access your personal information.

Are your apps available for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Nokia, etc.?

The apps featured in our gallery were developed by government agencies on a variety of platforms. Currently, we have apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. A lot of our apps are mobile-friendly websites, which means they can be accessed by any device. Each agency works one-on-one with the separate platform and signs a terms of service agreement with them, so it is up to the individual agency to decide which platform to use. At this time, there is no coordinated plan to offer each and every app on every platform.

Whom do I contact if I have problems with an app?

If you have problems with an app from the U.S. government, please send us an e-mail.

Whom do I contact if I have an idea for an app or would like to submit an app to this site?

If you have a suggestion, please send us an email. We review suggestions according to our Apps Policy.

eXtension - Objective. Research-based. Credible.

 

eXtension - Objective. Research-based. Credible.

 

eXtension is an interactive learning environment delivering the best, most researched knowledge from the smartest land-grant university minds across America. eXtension connects knowledge consumers with knowledge providers - experts who know their subject matter inside out.

eXtension offers:

• Credible expertise
• Reliable answers based upon sound research
• Connections to the best minds in American universities
• Creative solutions to today's complex challenges
• Customized answers to your specific needs
• Trustworthy, field-tested data
• Dynamic, relevant and timely answers

eXtension is unlike any other search engine or information-based website. It's a space where university content providers can gather and produce new educational and information resources on wide-ranging topics. Because it's available to students, researchers, clinicians, professors, as well as the general public, at any time from any Internet connection, eXtension helps solve real-life problems in real time.

eXtension Foundation: The eXtension Foundation is a non-profit entity that exists to support the work of eXtension. Learn more about how you can support or sponsor this work at our eXtension Foundation.

National Academies Press - free downloads

As of June 2, 2011, all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press (NAP) will be downloadable free of charge to anyone. This includes our current catalog of more than 4,000 books plus future reports published by NAP.*

Free access to our online content supports the mission of NAP--publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council--to improve government decision making and public policy, increase public education and understanding, and promote the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in matters involving science, engineering, technology, and health. In 1994, we began offering free content online. Before today's announcement, all PDFs were free to download in developing countries, and 65 percent of them were available for free to any user.

Like no other organization, the National Academies can enlist the nation's foremost scientists, engineers, health professionals, and other experts to address the scientific and technical aspects of society's most pressing problems through the authoritative and independent reports published by NAP. We invite you to sign up for MyNAP --a new way for us to deliver free downloads of this content to loyal subscribers like you, to offer you customized communications, and to reward you with exclusive offers and discounts on our printed books.

Sign up now. It's quick, easy, and free.
Sincerely,
Barbara Kline Pope
Executive Director for Communications and The National Academies Press
*There are a small number of reports that never had PDF files and, therefore, are not available for download. In addition, part of the "Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals" series is not available in PDF. Future titles in this series will also not have PDFs associated with them.

AIP and NIST Make Semiconductor Research Freely Available Online

AIP Publishing, a division of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) (www.aip.org), announces that through an agreement with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), proceedings papers from the entire International Conference on Frontiers of Characterization and Metrology for Nanoelectronics (formerly Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology) series are now freely available from both organizations' websites.

"Publishing papers from these NIST conferences is the most effective way to disseminate the breakthroughs in semiconductor research presented at these meetings. To maximize the reach of these papers, we are now offering them to the public free of charge," said John Haynes, AIP vice president, publishing. "We hope that our decision will help to bring this vital information to the desktops of researchers worldwide and speed the rate of innovation in semiconductor technology."

David Seiler, chief of NIST's Semiconductor Electronics Division, characterizes this agreement to make the proceedings freely available as a major breakthrough, as it will help professionals in the fast-paced semiconductor industry get up to speed on unfamiliar measurement and characterization issues. In addition, they can learn about new techniques and equipment being introduced to characterize semiconductors.

"These collected proceedings represent research and overviews of critical topics collected from worldwide experts in the field of semiconductor characterization and metrology," says Seiler. "As there is frequent turnover in the industry, there is constant need for training and retraining of employees. Improved access to this background will ease that process dramatically."

Proceedings volumes are available in PDF format, up to and including the 2009 conference, on AIP's website at http://proceedings.aip.org/semiconductor_metrology, and on NIST's website at http://www.nist.gov/pml/semiconductor/conference/archives.cfm.

About AIP
The American Institute of Physics is an organization of 10 physical sciences societies representing more than 135,000 scientists, engineers, and educators and is one of the largest publishers of scientific information in physics. AIP also delivers valuable resources and expertise in education and student services, science communication, government relations, career services for science and engineering professionals, statistical research, industrial outreach, and the history of physics and other sciences. Offering publishing solutions for scientific societies and organizations in science and engineering, AIP pursues innovation in electronic publishing of scholarly journals. AIP publishes 13 journals, two magazines—including its flagship publication, Physics Today—and the AIP Conference Proceedings series. Scitation, AIP's online publishing platform, hosts 1.6 million articles from 190 scholarly journals, proceedings, and eBooks of learned society publishers. AIP also provides the international physical science community with UniPHY, the first literature-based social and professional networking site; it features pre-populated profiles of more than 300,000 scientists and enables collaboration among researchers worldwide.

About NIST
Founded in 1901, NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST's (www.nist.gov) mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

North American Transportation Statistics

 

North American Transportation Statistics

The need for North American Transportation Statistics reflects the increase in global economic growth and greater integration of trade, finance and manufacturing in recent decades. Transportation is vital in the changing global economy, linking people and places, businesses and consumers, facilitating trade and tourism, and contributing to economic development. The North American experience mirrors these worldwide trends. Reduced trade barriers and increased personal mobility have created a heightened need for information on transportation infrastructure and services among Canada, the United States, and Mexico. While the positive contributions of transportation to the national economies and to the daily life of people everywhere are important, transportation also has adverse impacts. Transportation accidents are a major cause of death and injury every year in North America. Transportation consumes significant amounts of energy, mainly derived from petroleum and also contributes to environmental problems.

The On-Line Database provides for the first time a central web based source for North American transportation statistics for all three countries on common subjects. The working group members evaluate each table for data comparability and note all definitional differences among the three countries.  Accurate data, comparable across modes and countries, is important to understand changes in dynamic transportation markets; to evaluate transportation benefits and impacts; and to support critical decision-making in the public and private sectors.

American Community Survey

 

American Community Survey

The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides data every year -- giving communities the current information they need to plan investments and services. Information from the survey generates data that help determine how more than $400 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year.

To help communities, state governments, and federal programs, we ask about:

• age
• sex
• race
• family and relationships

• income and benefits
• health insurance
• education
• veteran status

• disabilities
• where you work and how you get there
• where you live and how much you pay for some essentials

All this detail is combined into statistics that are used to help decide everything from school lunch programs to new hospitals.

Food Environment Atlas

 

Food Environment Atlas

Food environment factors—such as store/restaurant proximity, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and community characteristics—interact to influence food choices and diet quality. Research is beginning to document the complexity of these interactions, but more is needed to identify causal relationships and effective policy interventions.

The objectives of the Atlas are:

• To assemble statistics on food environment indicators to stimulate research on the determinants of food choices and diet quality

• To provide a spatial overview of a community’s ability to access healthy food and its success in doing so

---

What information is included in the Atlas?

The Atlas assembles statistics on three broad categories of food environment factors:

• Food Choices—Indicators of the community's access to and acquisition of healthy, affordable food, such as: access and proximity to a grocery store; number of foodstores and restaurants; expenditures on fast foods; food and nutrition assistance program participation; quantities of foods eaten; food prices; food taxes; and availability of local foods

• Health and Well-Being—Indicators of the community’s success in maintaining healthy diets, such as: food insecurity; diabetes and obesity rates; and physical activity levels

• Community Characteristics—Indicators of community characteristics that might influence the food environment, such as: demographic composition; income and poverty; population loss; metro-nonmetro status; natural amenities; and recreation and fitness centers

The Atlas currently includes 168 indicators of the food environment. The year and geographic level of the indicators vary to better accommodate data from a variety of sources. Some data are from the last Census of Population in 2000 while others are as recent as 2009. Some are at the county level while others are at the State or regional level. The most recent county-level data are used whenever possible.

See Documentation for complete list of indicators, definitions and data sources.

C-SPAN Video Library

 

C-SPAN Video Library

 

The C-SPAN Archives records, indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational, research, and archival uses. Every C-SPAN program aired since 1987, now totaling over 170,000 hours, is contained in the C-SPAN Archives and immediately accessible through the database and electronic archival systems developed and maintained by the C-SPAN Archives.

The Archives records all three C-SPAN networks seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Programs are extensively indexed making the database of C-SPAN programming an unparalleled chronological resource. Programs are indexed by subject, speaker names, titles, affiliations, sponsors, committees, categories, formats, policy groups, keywords, and location. The congressional sessions and committee hearings are indexed by person with full-text. The video collection can be searched through the online Video Library.

All C-SPAN programs since 1987 are digital and can be viewed online for free. Duplicate copies of programs that have aired since 1987 can be obtained and used for education, research, review or home viewing purposes. Proceeds from the sale of these programs help support the operation of the Archives. Some programs are not copyright cleared for sale.

The Archives began within the Purdue University School of Liberal Arts in 1987. In July 1998, C-SPAN assumed responsibility for the archival operations and the facilities were moved from the Purdue University campus to the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana. The indexing, abstracting, and cataloging of C-SPAN programs is the responsibility of the C-SPAN Archives staff.

E-print Network home page -- Energy, science, and technology for the research community -- hosted by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Department of Energy

E-print Network home page -- Energy, science, and technology for the research community -- hosted by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Department of Energy 

Energy, science, and technology for the research community!

The E-print Network is . . .

. . . a vast, integrated network of electronic scientific and technical information created by scientists and research engineers active in their respective fields, all full-text searchable. E-print Network is intended for use by other scientists, engineers, and students at advanced levels.

. . . a gateway to over 30,380 websites and databases worldwide, containing over 5 million e-prints in basic and applied sciences, primarily in physics but also including subject areas such as chemistry, biology and life sciences, materials science, nuclear sciences and engineering, energy research, computer and information technologies, and other disciplines of interest to DOE. We hope the E-print Network proves valuable to you in supporting your research initiatives.

 

E-prints are scholarly and professional works electronically produced and shared by researchers with the intent of communicating research findings to colleagues. They may include preprints, reprints, technical reports, conference publications or other means of electronic communication. Preprints, those selectively shared pre-published documents or articles going through the publication process, have long been recognized and utilized by peer groups throughout the scientific community. Recent technological advances, however, have incorporated preprints with other forms of peer communications to establish an information genre in its own right. Therefore, the more inclusive term e-prints is more appropriate to use currently in describing this rich and valuable source of scientific and technical information that now reaches beyond the scope of pre-published information.

E-print Network home page -- Energy, science, and technology for the research community -- hosted by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Department of Energy

State Agency Databases - GODORT

State Agency Databases - GODORT 

"Iowa is included -- but not the budget book. 

The Salary book is in a searchable database online through the Legislative Fiscal Bureau at the following URL:
http://staffweb.legis.state.ia.us/lfb/salbook/
The Des Moines Register also has the same salary book at http://data.desmoinesregister.com/results/index.php?info=State_Salaries -- HSM"

Every US State and the District of Columbia, agencies are creating databases of useful information - information on businesses, licensed professionals, plots of land, even dates of fish stocking. Some of this content is available on search engines, but much of it is part of the invisible web.

In any event, no resource we're aware of has tried to pull together all publicly accessible state agency databases until now. Eventually each state page below will have a page listing state government databases by agency. If this project gets a wily programmer, we can talk subject access or even federated search.

Click on a state name below to find a list of databases by agency. This is a wiki, so if you don't see something on a list that should be, feel free to add it as long as the resource is meant to be available to the public and is produced by a government entity in the listed state.

State Agency Databases - GODORT

Regulations.gov

Regulations.gov 

Regulations.gov is your source for all regulations (or rulemakings) issued by U.S. government agencies. On this site, you can find:

• All Federal regulations that are open for public comment (i.e., proposed rules) and closed for comment (i.e., final rules) as published in the Federal Register.
• Many Federal agency notices published in the Federal Register.
• Additional supporting materials, public comments, and Federal agency guidance and adjudications.

When you find a document, you can also submit comments through the web site on those documents that are open for public comment.

After Congressional bills become laws, Federal Departments and Agencies are responsible for enforcing those laws through regulations. Departments and Agencies develop regulations through the Federal rulemaking process, most commonly through a notice-and-comment process. In general, Departments and Agencies publish proposed rules that are open for public comment, and after a specified timeframe, the Department or Agency publishes a final rule based on public comments and other information. Regulations.gov users can find Federal proposed and final rules published every business day by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the U.S. government's Federal Register, and submit comments through the web site to the Agencies on proposed rules that are open for public comment.

The Regulations.gov web site also houses other types of federal information. In addition to Federal regulations, many Departments and Agencies use Regulations.gov to post other types of documents open for public comment, such as Agency significant guidance. Certain Federal agencies also allow the public to initiate an action by filing a submission via Regulations.gov.

Each Department or Agency determines what information is made available on the site. Therefore, the information displayed on Regulations.gov docket and document details screens and comment forms is unique for each Department and Agency and conforms to each Department or Agency's internal policy. For additional information on a specific Department or Agency, visit www.usa.gov.

If you're looking for government information not on this site, you can try the following web sites:

• USA.gov the official portal to the U.S. Government.
• Business.gov the official business link to the U.S. Government. It provides information on regulatory compliance and other information for small business owners.
• e-CFR provides access to the electronic Code of Federal Regulations for a compilation of all final Federal regulations.

Regulations.gov

Business.gov - Official Business Link to the U.S. Government

Business.gov - Official Business Link to the U.S. Government

The Business Gateway to the U.S. Government

Business.gov, the official business link to the U.S. Government, is managed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in a partnership with 21 other federal agencies. This partnership, known as Business Gateway, is a Presidential E-government initiative that provides a single access point to government services and information to help the nation's businesses with their operations.

Helping Businesses Comply with Regulations

In fiscal year 2003, businesses and citizens spent approximately 8.2 billion hours and $320 billion filling out paperwork and complying with government regulations, according to a report by the Small Business Paperwork Relief Task Force. Users spent much of this time navigating complex government hierarchies and wading through millions of documents meant to help their businesses become compliant with laws and regulations.

Business.gov helps businesses save time and money spent on regulatory compliance by providing quick and easy access to business laws, government regulations, forms and agency contacts.

Business.gov - Official Business Link to the U.S. Government

Tools for Open-Access Government: Wikis, Search Engines, Databases

Tools for Open-Access Government: Wikis, Search Engines, Databases 

Tools for Open-Access Government: Wikis, Search Engines, Databases

This week saw good news and new thinking on the power of technology to foster open and accountable governance.

“New technology may be changing the relationship between democracy and expertise, affording an opportunity to improve competence by making good information available for better governance, ” wrote Beth Simine Noveck in presenting possibilities for “Wiki-Government” in the latest edition of Democracy (via cairns).

In a related post, Noveck points to a recent report from the Center for Democracy and Technology and OMB Watch on the difficulty (or often, impossibility) of using major Internet search engines to find government information, despite the requirements of the E-Government Act of 2002.

But at least one government agency is moving forward to make useful data available to the public through the Internet. USASpending.gov provides detailed information on where Federal budget dollars go, and allows queries for contractors and the recipients of agency grants. The site also includes an API for developers and tech-savvy citizens to retrieve data dynamically and manipulate it in ways  unanticipated by the authors of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, the legislation that initiated the project. The site is a collaboration between OMB Watch, and the Office of Management and Budget, with support from the Sunlight Foundation (via the Sunlight Foundation blog).

Tools for Open-Access Government: Wikis, Search Engines, Databases