WA DNR DGER New Web Address

Posted today on the GEOLOGY-PUBLICATIONS@listserv.wa.gov:

"The Washington Department of Natural Resources has launched its new website, and the address for the Division of Geology and Earth Resources has changed.

Geology and earth science information may now be found at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/ResearchScience/GeologyEarthSciences/

More information about the Division of Geology and Earth Resources may be found at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/AboutDNR/Divisions/GER/

Please note that all web addresses beginning with http://www.dnr.wa.gov/geology/ are no longer valid.

Our online publications may be accessed through our publications list at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/ResearchScience/Topics/GeologyPublicationsLibrary/Pages/pubs.aspx

We invite you to visit our new website!"

Library Research Award for Undergraduates

The University Libraries, in cooperation with the Undergraduate Research Program, sponsors the Library Research Award for Undergraduates competition, recognizing University of Washington students who produce significant inquiry requiring use of information resources, the library and its collections.

All undergraduate students enrolled at the University of Washington are encouraged to submit research projects for the award competition.

Winning projects are submitted to the UW digital repository.

Award Application Deadline: 5:00 p.m. May 19, 2008.

Visit the Library Research Award for Undergraduates web page for complete detials.

In the News

A couple more news items of interest:

President Bush is proposing more money for weather monitoring. From AP Press:

"A critical report last year by the National Academy of Sciences contended the government was unprepared for collecting vital information about global warming. It noted that NASA's Earth sciences research budget had been effectively cut by 30 percent since 2000 and the report prompted changes in the government's Earth observing plans, officials said...
Two new satellites, listed as top priorities by the National Academy, were included in Bush's budget proposal. They would map critical soil moisture around the world and replace an aging satellite that monitors shrinking ice worldwide. The NASA budget includes money for four other satellites, but the agency hasn't yet decided which ones to build, Stern said."

At the same time, the President proposed no budget increase for NIH (for the sixth year in a row) though the physical sciences will get a boost. From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

"Over all, federal money for basic research across all agencies would rise by 3 percent, to $29.32-billion. About 60 percent of this money flows to universities. Administration officials said, in essence, that scientists should consider themselves lucky, because Mr. Bush's plan would increase by only 0.3 percent spending for all other nondefense, "discretionary" programs, whose budgets are not automatically set by law.

But biomedical researchers hardly took it that way. The flat line for the NIH, the largest source of funds for academic research, was for many of them an unwelcome version of Groundhog Day, the movie in which the same bad day in February recurs repeatedly. Mr. Bush's proposal of $29.47-billion for the agency drew boos from scientific and higher-education groups, which called it "a disaster" and "shortsighted.""

News Updates

Just a couple little news briefs that came across my virtual desk the past couple months.

Access to National Institutes of Health Research Easier
From the press release:

President Bush has signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764), which includes a provision directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide the public with open online access to findings from its funded research. This is the first time the U.S. government has mandated public access to research funded by a major agency.

For more information see the page put up by the Alliance for Taxpayer Access.

Digital Library for Geosciences Moves to Center for Atmospheric Research
From the press release:

DLESE (Digital Library for Earth System Education) had previously been funded through a five-year grant from NSF. During that grant period (2002-2007), the DLESE archive and program center office were located at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), which operates NCAR.

The move to NCAR will enable DLESE and its users to benefit from NCAR's extensive cyberinfrastructure and expertise in information management. NCAR library staff will maintain the DLESE collections.