Information Sources

Latest News—

ETDE's Energy Database is built through a myriad of collaborative efforts. The Partners section of the website has links to many of the organizations involved. Member countries bear the primary responsibility for input to the database. Their efforts include expending resources to acquire/locate documents published within their borders that are within the subject scope of the database, translation (if necessary), cataloging records bibliographically, providing abstracts and subject indexing, and ensuring an availability source, including the provision of electronic full text when possible. Each member may have a number of partnerships in place with other organizations/publishers within their country to facilitate this process.

In addition to member input, the database also benefits from the inclusion of information from two other large international information sources in specific subject areas. The International Atomic Energy Agency's International Nuclear Information System (INIS) is a multilateral information exchange agreement which focuses on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. As all members of ETDE are also members of INIS, most INIS information is also included in the ETDE database. The IEA Clean Coal Centre's Coal Abstracts database focus is, naturally, in the coal area of energy. Per a long-standing memorandum of understanding with ETDE, much of the Clean Coal Centre's information is also included in the ETDE database.

The following table provides information about how many records enter the database that are published in member countries, plus how many database additions are included from non-members via ETDE's partners. The most recent three calendar year numbers are provided. Each quarter of the current calendar year will be added as the data becomes available.

In 2005, a new initiative with large international publishers has begun. ETDE has an arrangement with Elsevier to improve coverage of over 40 journal titles for the database. The INIS exchange noted above has also had such arrangements, beginning earlier in the millennium. With the size of the large international publishing houses continuing to increase, members from those countries where these exist had borne a heavy coverage burden. This initiative lessens the burden on individual countries while achieving broader coverage in an economical manner.

Lastly, ETDE strives to include publications generated from its parent organization, the IEA, and from the various other IEA Implementing Agreements. While ETDE has been successful in covering those from the IEA, additional help is needed in finding out about publications generated from the other agreements. Please contact the ETDE Operating Agent if you are aware of key publications not already in the database.