ENC. ED 1.340/3: . CD. (Reserve). These collections of educational resources on CD-ROM are from the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education. The CDs are on 7-day Reserve; ask for them at Circulation. The Clearinghouse also puts out ENC Focus (ED 1.304/2: ), a printed catalog. Some of ENC's information is also available on their Web site.
Exploring the Unknown NAS 1.21:4407. 1995. This 6-volume set includes, as its subtitle indicates, "Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civilian Space Program." Not all of the pieces included are official or even connected with NASA; there are reprints of magazine articles, fiction and other materials considered influential in shaping American attitudes towards space exploration. A truly remarkable reference, the set includes individual biographical appendices and indexes in each volume. Volumes are available online from the NASA website, in PDF form: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6.
General Information Concerning Patents. This booklet is no longer received in print by the Library. Online information is available from the Patent Office website.
Guidebook of Federal Resources for K-12 Mathematics and Science. ED 1.308:M 42/998-99. Summarizes the educational activities of Federal agencies in Washington as well as regional and state offices. Contact information for each resource is included.
Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs and Mathematical Tables. C 13.32:55/2. 1972. There is a detailed subject index to the volume's 29 chapters, and also an index to notations.
LC Science Tracer Bullets LC 33.10: . Guides to information on various topics in science and technology, prepared by the Library of Congress (LC) and containing a brief explanation of the subject and lists of sources for further information. Call numbers given are not necessarily those used by the Academic Library; we do not even own all sources listed. Particularly useful sections of each guide are sources of introductory information on the topic, and lists of subject headings to facilitate seaching in the Online Catalog. The Bullets are no longer received in printed form, but the Library of Congress continues to produce them, and the most current versions of each topic are available on the Library's website.
National Assessment of Educational Progress in Mathematics; State Reports. ED 1.302:M 42/14/. 1996. Separate volume for each state gives results of math achievement tests and analysis of the findings.
Science and Engineering Indicators. NS 1.28/2: . 1973- . Irregular. Statistics and analysis covering science and technical education (at all levels), research and development (publicly and privately-supported) and, in recent volumes, attitudes towards science and technology. Some volumes are available online from the National Science Foundation.
Smithsonian Year SI 1.1:. Earlier title is Annual Report. Annual. 1930-. Reports activities of the major government science museum. Reports back to the 1990's are available online.
Toward the Endless Frontier: History of the Committee on Science & Technology (Y 1.2:F 92/959-79). Includes a detailed index and bibliography; traces history of scientific and technical issues of national importance during the years 1959-79.
The Wind and Beyond: A documentary journey into the history of aerodynamics in America. NAS 1.21:4409. A proposed 6-volume set which examines the importance of aerodynamic development in the evolution of the airplane.
House Committee on Science & Technology Y 4.Sci 2:. Hearings and committee prints from 1967. (Holdings for the early years in this span are incomplete.) Publications are arranged chronologically, not by subject. Hearings are labeled with a 2-part number consisting of Congress number and sequence number (e.g., 105-44); prints are given congress number and letter (e.g., 105-A). NOTE: Many other Congressional committees hold hearings and publish prints dealing with scientific and technical issues. This committee is simply the only one that deals exclusively with these subjects. Some of their hearings and other publications are available on their website.
National Air & Space Museum SI 9. These publications utilize the museum's collections, which memorialize the history of manned flight of all types. We receive all available publications. Of particular interest is the series Annals of Flight (SI 9.9:), consisting of 10 volumes published from 1964-74. Some publications are available on the Museum's Web page.
National Science Foundation NS. Primarily a funding agency for scientific research, NSF also publishes analyses of existing and emerging scientific and technical issues (such as "Lead in the Environment"; most of these analytical studies are classed NS 1.2:) and disseminates information on human and financial resources in the sciences (such as studies of women and minorities in science and engineering). Some publications are available on the NSF Web page.
Office of Technology Assessment Y 3.T 22/2:. An analytical arm of Congress, OTA helped legislators anticipate and plan for consequences of technological changes until its demise in 1995. Most reports have accompaning summaries; some have technical appendix material in microfiche. We received all of their publications that were available to depositories from 1985-1995, and have acquired some older material as well. There is a CD-ROM collection of the entire output of the OTA, from 1972 to 1995, called OTA Legacy. It is on 7-day reserve (Y 3.T 22/2:2 L 52/V.1-5).
Go to Resources in the Library
GPO Browse Topics. This listing of links to government sites is by broad subject. Their general science-related pages are currently under construction.
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education. This clearinghouse is designed to provide K-12 teachers with a central source of information on mathematics and science curriculum materials. The entire site can be search or one may search only for educational resource materials; grade levels and cost of materials may be specified. The Library receives a collection of materials from the ENC on CD-ROM and some information in paper format.
Los Alamos Technical Reports and Publications. The Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy has made available thousands of unclassified reports that, until 2002, were publicly available from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The collection includes books, articles and reports, covering several decades of research.
National Science Foundation. This agency promotes science and engineering through grants to thousands of research and education projects. Their web site offers many of their reports and other publications online, information about grants, and details about funded research in these program areas: Biology, Computer and Information Science, Crosscutting Programs, Education, Engineering, Geosciences, International Programs, Math and Physical Sciences, Polar Research, Science Statistics, and Social and Behavioral Sciences.
National Technical Information
Service (NTIS). NTIS is the official source for a great deal of
government-sponsored scientific, technical, engineering and business-related
information products. It is a self-supporting agency that sells this material
on a cost-recovery basis. Many of its specialized databases are only avaible
by paid subscription, but the general files, containing records of about
one-third of NTIS' 3 million product inventory, are free to the public.
Some of the reports available are from foreign countries and some are produced
from cooperative ventures between government agencies and organizations in
the private sector. NTIS is best known for its collections of technical reports
and publications such as government and industry standards, material that
is difficult to locate elsewhere.
You may search the entire collection from the main page, or turn to the "Products" page for links to subject areas such as Environment and Health, or product types (Publications and Reports is especially useful) or specialty collections. This last category includes publications of certain agencies (such as the Bureau of Mines) that NITS maintains for the agencies.
National Institute of Standards
and Technology. This agency was called the National Bureau of Standards
until 1988, when the name was changed to reflect its new, broader mission
to support technological development in all areas. The Institute operates
the Advanced Technology Program, a "partnership between government and private
industry to accelerate the development of high-risk technologies that promise
significant commercial payoffs and widespread benefits for the economy,"
confers the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Awards, and operates several
separate labs which are linked from the main NIST page. These labs conduct
and fund research and cover the following areas:
There is a great deal of reference information available online at NIST, through these labs and the NIST Virtual Library, but some of the databases and electronic journals can be accessed only at NIST or by their staff. A clearinghouse of U.S. and international standards is available from the National Standards Systems Network. The standards themselves are not freely available, but the NSSN website links to the vendors and others that sell them.
National Science and Technology Council. This cabinet-level advisory council has only been in existence since 1993. Its mission is to advise the President on matters relating to the coordination of the "diverse parts of the Federal research and development enterprise." Many of the Council's reports and other publications are available online.
NASA Quest. This site aims to bring interactive learning experiences to students and teachers directly from leading researchers in various fields. The material is geared toward middle-school-aged children. Topics covered include: rainforests, polar areas, Mars, the stratosphere, and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Patent and Trademark Office. General information on patents and trademarks is available, along with downloadable forms and a searchable database of patents from 1976.
Science Conferences. This portal, provided by the Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), allows searching of the proceedings of several major scientific societies. Not all papers retrieved are freely available online, but the citations can help with interlibrary loan borrowing.
Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINET). Operated by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), STINET contains citations to unclassified reports added to their database since 1985. The full text of some reports is also available. The collection includes reports not only from DOD agencies but also the Energy Dept., NASA and some other agencies.
SciTechResources.gov. This is designed as a comprehensive portal to government science information for both professionals and the general public. You can search the site or browse by broad (and some sub-divided) subject areas. This site is an offshoot of the general government search portal, Firstgov.gov.
Smithsonian Institution. This organization operates a variety of museums and research efforts in many areas including the arts, but an emphasis in its mission has always been the history of science and technology. Major web pages for these subjects within the Smithsonian system are: National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Archives. A good way to find a particular page within the voluminous Smithsonian website is to click on "Websites A-Z."
House Committees on Energy and Commerce, Education and the Workforce, Resources and Science.
Senate Committees on Aging, Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Commerce, Science and Transportation, Energy and Natural Resources, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and Environment and Public Works.
There is some variation among Congressional Committee Web sites as to content. But all of them will have at least some information on legislation they are currently considering. So for information of this kind, these are good sites to consult. Some Committees, however, will have more historical information available than others.
A selection of links to government databases in the sciences and technology can be found on our Government Databases in Scientific and Technical Fields page.