Federal agencies launch Spanish version of Science.gov

Federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy, have launched a Spanish version of a scientific website that provides free access to more than 55 scientific databases and 2,100 websites.

The Spanish version of the Science.gov website is available online at Ciencia.Science.gov.

Science.gov is hosted by the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information, which has offices in Oak Ridge and Washington, D.C.

“Ciencia.Science.gov provides the same breadth and depth in science search as does Science.gov, covering over 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results from 17 organizations within 13 federal science agencies,” an OSTI press release said.

Ciencia.Science.gov uses Microsoft’s Translator, the press release said. It accepts Spanish-language queries and returns results in Spanish.

“The Ciencia.Science.gov web site will help increase the vital role of U.S. scientific information in education, innovation, and discovery, and will help encourage Latino communities to promote careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

Besides offering access to the Spanish-speaking public, Science.gov now includes new multimedia content and more features to help users find scientific information, the press release said. For the first time, research and development videos are available from DOE ScienceCinema, National Institutes of Health MedlinePLUS, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Science Foundation.

Images from the Library of Congress have been added to the website’s image search, and search enhancements have been made, the press release said. The Science.gov Alliance, which governs Science.gov, will highlight these and other achievements in its 10th anniversary celebration in December.

“The Alliance has worked hard to make this a significant interface update and the new navigation will help the public find the science information they need,” said Tina Gheen of the Library of Congress and chair of the Science.gov Alliance.

Science.gov includes key DOE research and development databases of documents, citations, patents, data, and software, among other things.

OSTI conceived and helped launched Science.gov in December 2002. During the past decade, traffic on the site has grown from about 750,000 page requests per year to more than 34 million.

“Since we first launched Science.gov in 2002, we have continually improved it to make it even more useful to citizens interested in finding research and development results from across the U.S. government,” OSTI Director Walter Warnick said. “Now Science.gov contains multimedia content and is accessible to the Spanish-speaking public. We are pleased with these developments, and we fully intend to continue enhancing the value and utility of Science.gov.”

The Science.gov Alliance includes the federal departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, and Transportation, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Library of Congress, NASA, National Archives and Records Administration, and NSF. These agencies represent 97 percent of the federal research and development budget.

Science.gov is supported by CENDI, an interagency working group of senior scientific and technical information managers.