TABLE 1.

INFORMATION SOURCES (modified from Waste Management, Inc., 1989)

GENERAL DATA SOURCES

Information

Source

Obtainable

Comments

Libraries

Earth science

Many of the types of information discussed

bibliographic indices

below can be obtained from libraries.

Excellent library facilities are available

at the U.S. Geological Survey offices (USGS)

in Reston, VA; Denver, CO; and Menlo Park,

CA.

Local university libraries can contain

good collections of earth science and

related information and typically are

repositories for Federal documents.

In

addition, local public libraries normally

have information on the physical and

historical characteristics of the

surrounding area.

Computer literature

Bibliographic indices

Perhaps one of the most useful and cost

searches

effective developments in the bibliographic

indexes has been the increased availability

of computerized reference searches.

On line

computer searches save significant time and

money by giving rapid retrieval of citations

of all listed articles on a given subject

and eliminate manual searching of annual

cumulated indexes.

A search is done by use

of keywords, author names, or title words,

and can be delimited by ranges of dates or a

given number of the most recent or oldest

references.

The average search requires

about 15 minutes of online searching and

costs about $50 for computer time and

offline printing of citations and abstracts.

Dialog

Accesses over 425 data

Provides indexes to book reviews and

Subscriptions and

bases from a broad scope

biographes; directories of companies,

information:

of disciplines including

people, and associations; and access to the

1 800 3 DIALOG.

such data bases as GEOREF

complete text of articles from many

and GEOARCHIVE.

newspapers, journals, and other original

sources.

Master Directory

The MD is a multidis 

MD is a free on line data information

(MD)

ciplinary data base that

service.

Data available include personnel

User Support Office

covers earth science

contact information, access procedures to

Suite 300

(geology, oceanography,

other data bases, scientific campaigns or

Hughes STX Corp.

atmospheric science),

projects, and other data sources.

7601 OraGlen Drive

space physics, solar

Greenbelt, MD 20771

physics, planetary

Access Procedures:

MD resides on a VAX at

(301) 513 1687

science, and astronomy/

NSSDC and may be reached by several

Span:

BLAND NSSDCA.

astrophysics.

It

networks.

MD is option #1 on the menu of

GSFC.NASA.GOV

describes data generated

NSSDC's On line Data Information Services

THIEMAN.NSSDCA.

by NASA, NOAA, USGS, DOE,

(NODIS) account.

From span nodes:

SET HOST

GSFC.NASA.GOV

EPA, and other agencies

NSSDA.

USERNAME:NSSDC (no password).

From

and universities, as well

Internet:

TELNET NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV or

as international data

TELNET 128.183.36.23.

bases.

Via Direct Dial:

Set modem to 8 bits, no

parity, 1 stop bit, 300,1200 (preferable),

or 2400 baud.

Dial (301) 286 9000 ENTER

NUMBER:

MD, CALL COMPLETE:

[CR], USERNAME:

NSSDC (no password).

For assistance or more

information, contact the MD User Support

Office (301) 513 1687.

A4 1

November 1992