Volume 2005, Issue 2
June 21, 2005

Project Highlights

Arnold AFB (AEDC)

IIa Receives Perfect Performance Score

Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) has awarded Information International Associates (IIa) 100% of its award fee for the period Oct. 1, 2004 through March 31, 2005. In addition to the 100% fee, IIa also achieved a perfect score of 100. In the award fee letter, ATA Deputy General Manager John Miller commended IIa’s excellent performance during the period, saying, “It is particularly noteworthy that your performance improved during the period when our oversight had to be reduced to meet other pressing needs. This reflects your proactive operational approach and commitment to our collective success and customer satisfaction. We recognize that your performance is very important to our success.” ATA evaluates IIa on a number of factors including innovation, technical performance and customer satisfaction.

This was the fifth award fee evaluation since IIa began the contract for oversight of information management at Arnold AFB in October 2003. At each evaluation, IIa has been awarded100% of the award fee and has received scores of 100, 98.8, 99, and 98 consecutively, all resulting in “excellent” ratings. IIa's information management support services at Arnold include the technical library, technical publications, forms/records/management publications, graphics and visual services, which includes the photo lab and video production, and office machine repair.

AEDC Records Team Implements e-Cabinet

The records management program at Arnold Air Force Base, administrated by IIa, has been converted from a hard copy format to a more efficient electronic system. e-Cabinet, the new records management system, allows hard copy records to be scanned to an electronic format and electronic records to be saved by using PC Capture. e-Cabinet is web-based and once records are stored in e-Cabinet, they can be retrieved by using index categories from your computer in your office. No more leaving the office and going to the records staging area and then having to return the record back to the correct box.
Users will only be able to access and scan to their own folder in e-Cabinet. A user ID and password will be given to each user.

There are a number of improvements that e-Cabinet brings to AEDC’s records management program. They include:
• reducing space requirements of hard copy records.
• storing records in a more protective format.
• providing more convenient records access and retrieval .
• providing a backup system with e-Cabinet.

The need to maintain records in a hard copy format may still exist in a limited number of cases with justification. This is the first electronic records management program of its kind in the AFMC command.

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Barksdale AFB Library

In March, Barksdale Library conducted a "Free to Read" Adult Reading Program. At the conclusion of the program on March 31, two winners were selected by a random drawing from among participants who read 15 or more books during the program. Each of the winners--Betty Duvall and Casey Kirkland (seated photo, right)--received a $25 gift certificate for Barnes & Noble Books. Also pictured are (standing, left to right) Pat Powell, IIa Senior Vice President; Major Kendall Peters, 2 SVS Commander; and IIa Library Director Fran Morris.

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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Since 2001, the IIa Team has provided information technology support to DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information in Oak Ridge. Our IT and information science professionals support OSTI products and applications that provide access to the results of DOE’s multi-billion dollar research and development enterprise. Three of the tools we have critical involvement with are Science.gov, the Science Research Connection (SRC), and ScienceLab. Our staff also support OSTI’s outreach effort.

Science.gov. In 2002, our team was key in developing and implementing the Science.gov web site that provides public access to vast amounts of federal scientific and technical information. We continued to work on Science.gov. Version 2.0 was launched in May of 2004 and introduced real-time relevancy ranking to government science retrieval. In addition, an advanced search capability and an Alert Service have recently been added.

Science Research Connection. We were a key contributor to OSTI’s SRC from concept to implementation. Launched in April 2005, the new web-based tool enables DOE scientists and information specialists to enhance their DOE research. It incorporates a variety of new capabilities and enhanced search options for both unclassified/unlimited and controlled access information, both domestic and worldwide. Users can manipulate search results, save their searches, set up alerts, and even use a shopping cart. SRC patrons can access more than four million bibliographic records and over 140,000 full-text documents spanning more than six decades of DOE research.

ScienceLab. We developed and maintain the education web site ScienceLab, connecting teachers, students, and the public to DOE national laboratories and user facilities.

Outreach. So far in 2005, we have worked to support OSTI’s efforts to strengthen public awareness of OSTI products and services. As a result, OSTI has been seen in Science Magazine, Federal Computer Week, Government Computer News, and Information Today. In April, we supported the DOE Office of Science (SC) Pavilion at the National Science Teachers Association Annual Convention in Dallas, Texas, with over 12,000 teachers in attendance.

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Edwards AFB

IIa staff at Edwards Air Force Base participated in Spring clean up week and were recognized by senior leadership for consistent participation in base activities. As part of the clean up effort, we policed around buildings, pulled weeds, etc. to generally enhance the outward appearance of the base. We teamed up with the Functional Area Supervisor (FAS) and all colleagues assigned to the Human Resources Development activity. The group photo from spring clean up includes, standing, left to right: Liz Zeigler, DeDe Haynes, Penny Leach, Erin Searles, Angie Martinez, Connie Hinderman, Lynn Braswell, Dale Moten, and Katrina Coullier. Seated is Staci Reimer.

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Eglin AFB

Eglin CCSS

In late February, the Air Force Material Command Headquarters Staff Assistance Team conducted a Staff Assistance Visit (SAV) at Eglin CCSS. The results of the SAV were impressive. At the brief out, the SAV team noted the “superb leadership” of the contract and the “phenomenal relationship” of the contractors and government workers. In addition, the team stated that there were “no issues” and the written report identified 26 accolades from across the contract.

The SAV team noted that the outstanding management of the Education Services program, as evidenced by three consecutive citations as "best in command." Additionally the Base Enlisted Training function was noted for going above and beyond most established standards. In the brief out, the SAV leader stated that Eglin’s Base Training was “by far, the best he had ever seen

The testing office was also noted as “best in command.” In recognition of the glowing report from the Command visit, Air Base Group Commander Colonel Kane recognized the following staff members with organizational coins:

• Richard Smith, Lead Contractor, Education Center
• Grieg McClure, Lead Contractor, Base Enlisted Training
• Marvin Lesher, Lead Contractor, Civilian Training
• Helen Salley, Education Center Counselor
• Fredy Page, 96 Mission Support Squadron Training Manager
• Rochelle Oleksuk, Testing Officer
• Sarah Stacy, Testing Officer

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Eglin Library

National Library Week (April 10-16) at Eglin was an event to remember. More accurately, it was several events to remember -- one for each operations day of the week. We passed out treats, wore crazy hats (photo, right), held a luau, dressed in purple, made balloon animals, and ran a variety of games and contests. Customers who played along with our activities (wore a crazy hat, answered trivia questions, etc.) were awarded prizes. We solicited the Top 10 outrageous excuses for late library books and asked customers to guess how many books we have in the library. For our celebration of April as National Poetry Month, we played "refrigerator poetry" on a large bulletin board, using laminated words with Velcro backing.

With National Library Week and Month at a close, Eglin staff undertook a "No-Money Makeover" of our Children's Room. Teens were moved into their own niche in the adult stacks with a cozy seating area away from the little tots. To create more open spaces and take advantage of lighting, we rearranged shelves and furniture with some surprisingly big results. All those hours of watching "Trading Spaces" have finally paid off! Among efforts to add color and pizzazz was painting designs on ceiling tiles (photo, left). Each staff member, our volunteers, and even some of the military wielded brushes or stencils. The "Grand Re-opening" was May 31, coinciding with the first day of our summer reading program. Hundreds of new children's and youth books, purchased with fallout money last year, are being displayed en masse for a maximum impact.

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Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Library

OneNASA Award. Members of the IIa-led team at the GSFC Library have received one of the first OneNASA Team Peer Awards. Presented by Diane Williams, Director of the Management Operations Directorate, the award honored the work of the Metadata Review Group, which was initiated by team members from IIa and its partner, Zimmerman Associates.

The award is presented to teams that exemplify the spirit of OneNASA through cross-agency collaboration and promoting standards and best practices. A nomination by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory cited the Group’s “dedication to providing a common metadata process across NASA Centers that will save resources and time for developers and [limit] frustration for end-users.”

The Metadata Review Group includes employees and contractors from Goddard, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s Glenn and Langley Research Centers, and metadata experts from other federal agencies and academia. The winning group was created by Goddard’s Digital Project Team during the development of the Goddard Core Metadata Element Set. The group has evolved to provide its members with opportunities to share experiences about metadata, to work toward common approaches, to document cross-walks for specific metadata element sets, and to develop strategies for advancing the use and application of metadata across NASA.

Taxonomy Tuesday. The GSFC Library on April 26 hosted a special collaborative meeting called Taxonomy Tuesday. Many of the Library staff participated in some way to arrange or conduct the meeting. Librarians attended from around the Washington, D.C. area in person and via live computer connection. Gail Hodge (IIa senior information scientist), Nikkia Anderson (computer programmer), and Jonathan Lorig (digital librarian) delivered presentations that described taxonomy development and implementation efforts. Those efforts were presented in the context of overall Library operations, knowledge management initiatives, digital asset system development, coordination with specific GSFC projects, and development of the Goddard Core Metadata Element Set. Feedback from the session was extremely positive, including one GPO employee who said, "You folks put on a great session today…. Thank you for making this available to us. It opened up some excellent discussions internally for us."

Year of Physics. This year the Goddard Library is hosting a series of events in celebration of the Year of Physics. On May 11, Dr. Nick White spoke about the Beyond Einstein program, from the Big Bang to Black Holes. The program was a huge success, with a final count of 122 attendees. The team’s efforts brought an exciting talk to the Center’s community and brought some new faces to the library. For more information on the program, see universe.nasa.gov/.

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ICSTI

For four years, IIa has served as the Secretariat for the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information, or ICSTI, managing the organization's daily operations. ICSTI is a "unique forum for interaction between organizations that create, disseminate and use scientific and technical information." Membership includes representative organizations from 40 countries and 13 international organizations.

Part of our Secretariat responsibility is organizing two annual meetings for the organization...a business meeting at the headquarters in Paris, France, in January and a general assembly in one of the member countries in May/June. In late May, Bonnie Carroll and John Rumble represented the Secretariat at the General Assembly that was held in Moscow and hosted by the The All-Russian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In addition to providing a venue for the Assembly, the host organization also holds a public conference geared toward their national scientific and technical community. VINITI's conference was an international public conference themed "Information Services for Fundamental and Applied Sciences." In addition to presentations about the scientific and technical information organizations and efforts in Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, attendees also learned about biodiversity informatics from a U.S. representative, international access to scientific publications from the United Kingdom., and about DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information when Carroll presented a paper on Energy Information for OSTI's R.L. Scott, who could not attend due to last minute obstacles. During the conference, the host provides opportunities for attendees to tour both local sites of interest as well as visit technical sites such as the visit and briefing at VINITI.

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Kirtland AFB

The Technical Library at Philips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base is one of IIa’s newest contracts. When we won the contract, we were not aware that the services of the library had been neglected for several years. To bring more expertise to the aid of the library, IIa proposed an Advisory Team composed of Gail Hodge (Sr. Information Scientist), Randy Hoffman (Goddard SFC Project Manager), Pat Powell (Sr. Vice President), and Deborah York (Chief Information Officer). The Advisory Team was designed to infuse new ideas from other IIa experience into the operations of the Kirtland library. The Advisory Team met for the first time on May 25-26 and having gained a thorough understanding of the Kirtland environment, made several recommendations for priorities for library services, operations, and tools.

Also in May, to bring more visibility to the expertise available from IIa and the new library staff, Gail Hodge agreed to provide a presentation to the entire base. The lecture was entitled “Supporting the Science of the Future” and was very well received. This is another way that IIa leverages their outstanding success in library operations to enhance their customer service

Langley AFB

With Batman, the Fantastic Four, and Darth Vader on the movie screens this summer, the Summer Reading program at Langley should be very timely. This summer's theme is "Super Readers are Super Heroes." The library will be featuring super heroes, cartoons, graphic novels, and manga (Japanese comics).

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Moody AFB

Check out the e-newsletter that Moody library staff has started. The newsletter provides information about new items the library has received in the past month, we feature a database, list upcoming activities and several book reviews. Back issues can be found at www.moodylibrary.com. We also have worked with marketing and the bowling alley the past couple of months to create our "Reading Gets You Rolling" campaign, which is a takeoff of the old Bowling for Books program of the Air Combat Command.

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U.S. Geological Survey

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

In April, IIa President Bonnie Carroll and several U.S. Geological Survey representatives attended the 3rd GBIF Governing Board and Science Symposium in Brussels, Belgium. GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, is a large global biodiversity informatics science project that was established in 2001 to make the world's biodiversity data freely and openly available on the Internet. It's 77 members include 47 countries and 30 related organizations such as the European Union, the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN), and UNESCO. The symposium, Tropical Biodiversity: Science, Data, Conservation, was held in conjunction with the semi-annual GBIF Governing Board Meeting.

USGS and the National Science Foundation co-chair the United States delegation to GBIF. IIa has served in a consulting capacity for the USGS for 10 years working in support of U.S. interests and partnerships. Staff in both Reston, VA, and Oak Ridge, TN, support USGS-related projects. Carroll, Annette Olson, and Crispin Wilson specifically support GBIF technical activities as part of the USGS commitment to GBIF. Carroll serves on the GBIF budget committee and is in her second term on the science subcommittee on outreach and capacity building.

At the governing Board meeting, Carroll served as chair of the IABIN delegation on behalf of Gladys Cotter who is the formal chair of that organization. Because Cotter, the Associate Chief Biologist of Information for USGS, had to serve on the U.S. delegation, she was unable to serve as chair for IABIN and named Carroll as her surrogate.

NBII Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN)

SAIN is a leader in information sciences in the biodiversity informatics field. IIa's SAIN staff have been working with the Association of Southern Herbaria Curators and its members to standardize their collection databases into Darwin Core and to register them with the GBIF DiGIR portal. The National Biodiversity Information Network (NBII) is the United States node for GBIF (see related story). Distributed Generic Information Retrieval (DiGIR) is a client/server protocol for retrieving information from distributed resources. It uses HTTP as the transport mechanism and XML for encoding messages sent between the client and server. DiGIR was originally conceived to be the replacement for the Z39.50 protocol (the ANSI/NISO information retrieval standard) and is intended to work with any type of information, not just natural history collections.

At the same time, IIa staff working on the SAIN project have been working with NBII headquarters staff (and other IIa employees working on the NBII project) and the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) in the Smoky Mountains to assist with crating an information standard for specific species pages. This is a very important topic and a great challenge for information professionals.

To learn more about the SAIN project, contact Franciel Azpurua-Linares, IIa Project Manager at franciel@iiaweb.com.

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