Library Quarterly Report FY19 Q2: October-December 2018

Spotlight: Library Attends 2nd ASTM Advisory Meeting

Ken Winter represented VDOT on a "Product Advisory Council" meeting held at ASTM headquarters in Pennsylvania.

In an effort to assess and validate new ideas for products and services, ASTM invited representatives from across the country to a Product Advisory meeting last week.  The meeting focused on the ASTM Compass database, core full-text resources from ASTM and AASHTO that are in that database, as well as training resources, and some cool new products ASTM is contemplating. 

VDOT was the only state DOT represented in this mainly industry group, including reps from Martin Marietta and engineering firms such as Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates. The group was there to discuss current features of ASTM Compass, and also to brainstorm product enhancements, explore training materials, and conduct usability testing exercises on the user interface.

Building on last year's meeting, which Winter was also invited to, we see that ASTM Compass is once again the single most used subscription database managed by the VDOT Research Library, with more than 400 registered VDOT users averaging around 4,000 full-text document downloads of ASTM and AASHTO standards every year.