Examples of Academic & Government Web Portals & Gateways

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This page includes selected examples of academic and government agency Web portals and information "gateways" available on the Web. Entries are arranged alphabetically by the name of the portal or gateway and include links to the creating agency or institution and a brief description.

Elektra -- BSB, Bayerische StaatsBibliothek
"Elektra enables the parallel, but separated searches in multiple databases with a common search interface. In addition to the OPAC of the Bayern State Library, users will find the online catalogs of Munich and international libraries, consortia catalogs, information databases, and databases of e-journals for registered users with direct links to full-text." [Translated from German]
Search interface offered in German, English or French. Some resources and catalogs are searchable freely by anyone; other resources are restricted.

FlashPoint -- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Research Library
FlashPoint is "a multi-database search tool" which accesses a variety of electronic databases and the Research Library catalog.

INFOMINE -- University of California, Riverside Library
"INFOMINE is a virtual library of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level." It is a collection of over 100,000 scholarly Internet resources and supported by iVia software.

Library of Texas -- TexShare, Texas State Library and Archives Commission
"Library of Texas" is a Web-based federated searching portal which permits searching the catalogs of up to 65 public libraries, 25 research libraries and 40 paid databases. It is sponsored by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and its TexShare program. This is an example of the Keystone DLS federated searching Web interface open-source software developed by Index Data. Full access to the Library of Texas requires an ID and password; limited login and searching of several Texas library catalogs is permitted for guests.

NLM Gateway -- The National Library of Medicine
"The NLM Gateway is a Web-based system that lets users ... initiate searches from one Web interface, providing "one-stop searching" for many of NLM's information resources or databases."

science.gov -- CENDI
"Science.gov is a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results." It is "... a project of CENDI [Commerce; Energy; EPA; NASA; National Libraries of Agriculture, Education, and Medicine; Defense; and Interior], an interagency working group of senior Scientific and Technical Information Managers from ten major programs in nine U.S. federal agencies."

SciTechResources.gov -- National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
Maintained by NTIS, this "U.S. Government Science and Technology Gateway and Portal Web Sites" draws together scientific and technical information from across government agencies. It is "... being developed in conjunction with the science.gov web site and is partially funded by FirstGov, a government partnership working to accelerate the growth of a secure seamless, electronic government."

SearchLight -- California Digital Library
SearchLight, developed by a team of University of California staff, "is a search tool that allows you to simultaneously search across multiple journal databases, book catalogs and other information sources available through the California Digital Library (CDL)...". Some resources available only to the UC community.