Mission
Organization
Current Directions
Technical Highlights
Future Directions

Mission

The mission of the Office of ECSED is to coordinate and facilitate the electronic dissemination of Physics Laboratory (PL) information, and to develop methods and serve as a model for the effective dissemination of scientific and engineering data by means of computer networks.

Current Directions

• WWW Dissemination Information. This Office is responsible for PL world wide web (WWW) pages at physics.nist.gov. We produce material for WWW publication, encourage and support the production of material by others, and assure the high quality of disseminated information. We are also engaged with PL Divisions and the NIST Standard Reference Data Program in developing physical reference databases for WWW dissemination. We design and develop effective WWW database interfaces to facilitate access to the data.

  We began providing information to the public in June 1994. We provide a wide array of information ranging from physical reference data to staff and organization lists, technical activities, publication lists, research and calibration facilities, and news and general interest items. In a recent month, there were nearly 670,000 requests for web pages from the Gaithersburg server (over half from our databases), and nearly 1.5 million requests for web pages from all Physics Laboratory servers (including Boulder).

• X-Ray Transition Energies. This Office in collaboration with the Quantum Metrology Group of the Atomic Physics Division has developed the X-Ray Transition Energies Database that provides the energies for the K and L transitions connecting the n = 1 to n = 4 energy levels (53 transitions). The elements covered include Z = 10, neon to Z = 100, fermium. Further review by the authors is required before WWW publication.

• Microwave Spectral Databases. This Office in collaboration with the Optical Technology Division is developing four databases of diatomic, triatomic, hydrocarbon and chemical agent molecules containing rotational spectral lines and various molecular constants. The diatomic and triatomic databases are nearly ready for WWW publication and are currently under review by the authors.

• HTML Publications. Two popular NIST publications have been converted to HTML and are now available on the WWW: SP811 - "Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI)" (74 pp.) and TN1421 - "A National Measurement System for Radiometry, Photometry, and Pyrometry Based upon Absolute Detectors" (32 pp.).

• Database Updates. Several online databases were updated, including: the Electron-Impact Ionization Cross Section Database (21 molecules and a new graphical interface were added), the Searchable Bibliography on the Constants (293 entries were added), and the Atomic Transition Probability Bibliographic Database (441 entries were added).

This Office has started a collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop an extension to XML (eXtensible Markup Language) for scientific units and a NIST repository containing unit information. The entire PL website is in the process of being modified to comply with legally enforced accessibility standards for the disabled and to meet the "One Face of NIST" criteria. New online data will include the Atomic Energy Levels and Spectra Bibliographic Database, a tabulation of the properties of amorphous metals, and NBS Monograph 115, "The Calculation of Rotational Energy Levels and Rotational Line Intensities in Diatomic Molecules."