Current funding for the Gi21 program ended on September 30, 2008 and the information found in the program modules is up-to-date as of December 31, 2008. To facilitate use of the modules from now till the future continuation of the program, new documents can be posted from each module and sub-module main pages and the community discussions are open. However the main module pages and documents will not be updated. If you have any questions, please contact Kirsten Clark.
This module focuses on electronic government information dealing with science and technology.
Historically, access to Federally-funded science and technical information (STI) and reports has been less than desired. The literature is vast and, while many libraries have technical report collections, they are generally difficult to find because they typically are not cataloged. Often the knowledge of these collections rests with a few librarians. Although Federal government agencies perform research in a variety of disciplines, the majority of the staff working within an agency are often unaware of the extent of their own agency's research.
However in the 21st century the situation is starting to change. The results of STI research is becoming easier to locate and use due to the increase of digital dissemination and better search platforms. Many of these research results are available in bibliographic form and some are available in full-text (especially recent reports).