Overview
This site contains information pertaining to the NIH Enterprise Directory (NED).
Contact the NED project team: ned-ops@list.nih.gov
Last Updated: 03/06/09
| NED is an enterprise directory containing information about the people who are working at NIH or using NIH facilities or resources. Mainly, NED contains information that identifies a particular individual, such as a person's name, NIH ID number, date of birth, place of birth, SSN, and ID photo as well as information to locate or contact a person at work or home, such as their email address, postal and delivery addresses, telephone numbers, organizational affiliation, and classification (employee, contractor, guest, etc.). NED is the best source for NIH directory information because it includes all types of workers, it represents data values consistently to simplify searching and report generation, it is connected to NIH business processes for registration/deregistration, and it is readily accessible. As a result, NED is used by many enterprise-wide applications at NIH. |
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As a result of the NIH Director’s Retreat of September 1996, the NIH Director commissioned an Information Technology Central Committee (ITCC) to make recommendations for improving information technology management at NIH. Among its seven major recommendations, the ITCC’s report of November, 1996 included the following:
The NIH Director gave the acting NIH CIO the task of implementing these recommendations, who in turn commissioned the NIH Architectural Management Group (AMG), to undertake this work. The AMG’s Report on Interoperability at the NIH issued in May, 1997, made the following recommendations relating to the security and directory strategies:
To further develop implementation requirements for NIH security and directory services, the NIH acting CIO approved the formation of a small technical subcommittee, the AMG TSC, which began meeting in August, 1997. This subcommittee developed the concept and design of an NIH electronic directory service and also of an NIH Unique Identifier, or NIH ID, as the common key that would be used to reliably associate with an individual all the related information stored in the electronic directory and various other NIH systems and databases. TSC completed its work in November, 1998 and the Final Architecture Review - Recommendations for an NIH Enterprise Directory Servicewas issued. Work on the directory commenced in late 1998 during which time the project was known as the NIH Electronic Directory, or NED. While the NED acronym remained the same, the directory was subsequently renamed the "NIH Enterprise Directory" to more accurately reflect the enterprise-wide scope of the project. |
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NED provides a central repository of contact and organization information for all people working at NIH or using NIH services and resources and makes this information available to people and automated applications. NED is also used for authorizing NIH services such as ID badges, NIH Library privileges, and computer accounts. NED:
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| NED contains the
following worker "classifications": employee, contractor, fellow,
guest, volunteer, and tenant. All NED classifications
can be identified as summer workers. |
| Classification | Description |
| NIH FTE (Employee) | All NIH Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees. Includes General Schedule (GS), Commissioned Corps, Senior Executive Service (SES), Senior Biomedical Research Service (SBRS), Wage Grade (WG), Special Expert, and Title 42 employees including clinical/research fellows. |
| FELLOW | All individuals who receive monthly stipends from NIH. Includes Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) Fellows and Visiting Fellows. |
| CONTRACTOR | Non-NIH employees who are paid by NIH for services rendered via a procurement vehicle. Includes Professional Service Contractors. |
| GUEST | Non-NIH individuals (scientists, engineers, and students ) who are permitted to engage in scientific studies and investigations using NIH facilities. Under this program, these individuals further their own research by using equipment and resources that are otherwise unavailable to them. They provide no direct services to NIH. |
| VOLUNTEER | All non-paid individuals who work for NIH primarily on NIH programs. Includes Special Volunteers. |
| TENANT | Employees of non-NIH organizations that lease and utilize NIH space. Includes on-site employees of the DHHS Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), and Shared Services (SS). |
How Was NED Initially Populated and How Is Data Maintained?
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NED was initially populated in November 1999 by joining and importing records from the following NIH enterprise databases:
Following the initial population, NED contained approximately 28,000 records for employees, fellows, contractors, guests, volunteers, and tenants. An incremental data population and refresh was performed in May 2000. Since the initial data population, administrative personnel in each of the ICs have been using a web-based application (NEDWeb) to register new workers in NED, update existing records, and deactivate records when people leave NIH. In addition, NED offers web-based self-service update capability whereby record owners can view all, and update some of their own NED information. NED also obtains data from external "authoritative sources" such as payroll systems and other enterprise directories. |
Impact on NIH Business Processes
NED has
impacted a number of NIH business processes by eliminating formerly
paper-based processes for the authorization of ID badges,
Library privileges, and requests for listings and
updates in the NIH Telephone and Services Directory. These services are now
requested by NIH administrative staff using NEDWeb, a web-based directory
registration and update service for NED. Active
Directory (AD) accounts and Exchange mailboxes can also be provisioned
(requested) via NEDWeb by administrative staff working in ICs that participate in the NIH
Constellation System (once requested, Constellation automatically creates
the AD accounts and Exchange mailboxes). Numerous enterprise and
IC-specific applications across the NIH rely on NED
as an authoritative data source and for determining whether a person is
entitled to various NIH services and access to resources. For example,
the NIH Parking and Transhare System (PARTS) uses NED data to assess a
person's eligibility for an NIH parking hanger and participation in the NIH
transportation incentive program (TRANSHARE). Other NIH enterprise systems
supporting business processes that rely on NED include:
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Most data contained in NED is public information (e.g., contact and organization information). However, some private information is collected and used for identity binding when registering new people in NED and to reduce the likelihood of duplicate records being created. The collection of private information is covered by the NED Privacy Act clearance under the authority of 5 U.S.C. 301 and 302, 44 U.S.C. 3101 and 3102 and Executive Order 9397. A number of steps have been taken to ensure the security of NED data. First, access to private information is limited to authorized system users who are restricted to working with records for people in their own IC. Access to records can be further restricted based on the record's organizational affiliation and the authority granted to a user. NIH Login is used to authenticate all users to NED. Second, NED uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology to create an encrypted channel for data traveling between client workstations and the NED web server. All NED system hardware is housed in a secure data center located on the NIH campus. Third, a comprehensive NED Security Plan has been developed in accordance with the provisions outlined in the Privacy Act, HHS Privacy Act Regulations, and the requirements of the DHHS Automated Information Systems Security Program Handbook. Finally, NED maintains detailed system logs making it possible to know precisely what information was changed, when, and by whom. As with any system containing private data, care must be taken by authorized system users in safeguarding and protecting this information. To help achieve this objective, the Executive Officer of each IC has designated one or more NED IC Coordinators (NICs) who are responsible, among other things, for ensuring that only personnel with a legitimate need to access NED are authorized to do so. NICs are also responsible for reporting any privacy or security-related issues to IC management and the NED project team. Privacy and security issues are also covered during NED end user training sessions.
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User Community Involvement and Awareness
| The NIH
Directory Steering
Committee (DSC), consisting of AOs and other system stakeholders
was formed in early 1999 to work with the NED project team
in developing system requirements and
specifications. The DSC played
a major role in defining the functionality of NEDWeb, the
web-based content management application used by administrative staff
for maintaining NED data. Following the development of an initial prototype, NED was piloted by NINR,
NIAAA, NCRR, CIT, and NHLBI during the spring of 2000 in order to obtain additional feedback and
further refine requirements. Prior to general
deployment, a number of presentations were made to stakeholders including NIH
Executive Officers, Intramural and Extramural AOs, NIH Office Technology
Coordinators, and the AMG Technical Subcommittee. Members of the NED project team continue to meet with
stakeholders to discuss and evaluate change requests, interfaces to other systems, and how to best leverage NED's capabilities. In
addition, ICs have appointed NED IC Coordinators
(NICs) to channel end user feedback to the NED project team. The NED project team may be contacted at
ned-ops@list.nih.gov.
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