Operation of the Antarctic Bibliography and the Bibliography on Cold Regions Science and Technology

American Geological Institute, Alexandria VA

Investigators

Abstract

The acclaimed Antarctic Bibliography, prepared by the Library of Congress for the period 1951-1998, covers all the world's serious nonfiction literature regarding Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It will be reactivated by the American Geological Institute (http://www.agiweb.org/), producer of GeoRef, which will work with institutions and scientists worldwide to sustain efficiency, completeness, utility, and visibility. The gap in coverage since 1 October 1998 is to be closed within 2 years. The Antarctic Bibliography will be available on the web and on CD-ROM. The bibliography covers the scientific, engineering, and operational disciplines pursued by some 27 Antarctic Treaty nations, including the United States. AGI's tasks are to add new citations and abstracts to the existing database of some 60,000 items, to ease availability of full texts of newly cited items, and to seek to improve availability of the microfiche file of full texts of items that have been cited over the life of the project. The goal is to ease access to the literature in order to increase scientists' effectiveness in defining research projects and achieving research output and to improve access to research for scientists, educators, students, and others.