[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 73 (Wednesday, April 16, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 18597]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-9305]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No.: 030401077-3077-01]


Notice of Intent to Create an Infrared Spectroscopy Library

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology announces 
its intent to create a new Infrared Spectroscopic Library. The initial 
version of the new library will contain between 20,000 and 50,000 
spectra from approximately the same number of chemical compounds. The 
initial version of the library will only be available as images of the 
original spectra. Interested parties are invited to submit comments to 
the address below.

DATES: Comments must be received by June 16, 2003.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to the attention of Dr. W. Gary 
Mallard at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 
Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8380, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8380.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. W. Gary Mallard by writing to the 
above address or by e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at 
(301) 975-2444.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: As part of its responsibilities under Title 
15 U.S.C. 290 to collect, evaluate and publish high quality Standard 
Reference Data (SRD), NIST creates and maintains evaluated SRD 
databases. From time to time exceptional collections from non-
governmental sources become available for distribution. One such source 
of infrared spectral data has become available. The data has been 
collected over a long period of time by an industrial laboratory, 
primarily in the condensed phase with a variety of instruments. The 
industrial laboratory plans to donate the data to NIST. It is the 
intent of NIST to create digitized images (TIFF or PDF) files of each 
of these spectra and index them in terms of their chemical identity and 
structure. The resulting data will be made available over the NIST 
WebBook (http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry) for general use.
    Infrared (IR) spectral data is used to identify unknown compounds. 
The location of the features of the IR data are characteristic of 
specific functional groups of the molecule. Large collections of IR 
data with many different structural features aid in the classification 
of the compound even if an identification cannot be made from the data.
    We invite comments concerning this update.

    Dated: April 9, 2003.
Karen H. Brown,
Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. 03-9305 Filed 4-15-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P