Welcome to the CENDI website

CENDI is a volunteer-powered membership organization that serves the federal information community - that is, all those who create, manage, aggregate, organize, and provide access to federally-funded data and publications resulting from the nation's $150 billion annual investment in federal R&D. Member organizations represent a cross-section of federal data and publication providers, including libraries, data centers, aggregators, information technology developers, and content management providers.

CENDI's vision is to provide its member federal scientific and technical information (STI) agencies a cooperative enterprise where capabilities are shared and challenges are faced together so that the sum of accomplishments is greater than each individual agency can achieve on its own.

CENDI's mission is to increase the impact of federally funded science and technology by improving the management and dissemination of data and information. CENDI provides a forum for sharing expertise, promoting best practices in information management, and developing and executing collaborative projects.

CENDI exists to promote the success of its members' missions and, for more than 25 years, has provided a forum in which to address common interests through education, advocacy and joint projects that leverage scarce resources and specialty capabilities.

Advantages of Cooperation

Much research in the Federal government is funded through interagency programs or with more than one agency having part of the overall program responsibility. Programs that increase resource sharing, develop new applications of technologies to agency operations, and avoid unnecessary duplication of effort are desirable. Equally desirable is a coordinated effort to ensure that Federal policies and standards are developed with the best information available and are implemented consistently and efficiently.

With tight budgets, limited personnel resources and expertise, and increasing cross-cutting programs in R&D, the need to leverage resources and avoid duplication has been very strong over the last decade. Interagency cooperation and resource sharing have proven to be a means for information managers to extend their abilities to maintain quality operations, develop new technologies, and better serve their user communities.

An important by-product of these cooperative activities is the educational process from which all participating staff members benefit. By sharing information and working together, staff gain training on new ways of doing things, as well as learning more about how their jobs and systems impact and are impacted by processes and procedures of other groups.

CENDI is an interagency working group of senior STI managers from 14 U.S. federal agencies:

• Defense Technical Information Center (Department of Defense)
• Government Publishing Office
• NASA Scientific and Technical Information Program
• National Agricultural Library (Department of Agriculture)
• National Library of Education (Department of Education)
• National Library of Medicine (Department of Health and Human Services)
• National Science Foundation
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• National Technical Information Service (Department of Commerce)
• National Transportation Library (Department of Transportation)
• Office of Research and Development & Office of Environmental Information (Environmental Protection Agency)
• Office of Scientific and Technical Information (Department of Energy)
• The Science and Technology Directorate (Department of Homeland Security)
• United States Geological Survey (Department of Interior)

These programs represent over 97% of the federal research and development budget.