Technical Reports and Standards
Technical Reports Collections
The Library of Congress holds one of the largest and most accessible
collections of technical reports in the world. Depending on one's
definition of a "technical report," the number of documents held by the Library
runs into the millions of items, of which over 5
million are housed on hardcopy, microform or digital media, in the Technical
Reports and Standards Unit (TRS) of the Science, Technology, and
Business Division (browse the "Technical Report Series Holdings listed alphabetically by Prefix/Code" for a detailed survey of holdings). Other reports can be found cataloged either
in the Library's general collections or in the custody of appropriate
specialized divisions, including the Asian Division.
Consult Library of Congress Databases
and Electronic Resources to locate online indexes for technical
reports and standards. To find Library of Congress technical
reports holdings not in TRS,
consult the guide: Heavily
Requested Technical Reports Series in LC General Collections.
For a guide to which materials are added to the Library's permanent
collections, see the Collection
Policy Statement for Technical Reports, Working Papers and Preprints.
In support of current research, the Library is also striving
to acquire important gray literature, i.e., domestic and foreign
research documents that report on developments in the cutting
edge of scientific and technological research. For online availability,
try OSTI.gov,
a portal for technical report information generated through federally
funded research and development projects. Also browse the TRS
list of technical reports on Digital Media, or search the Library of Congress online catalog. Please be aware though that
many major technical reports collections are found across government, industry and academia (consult the List of Grey Literature Document Types for more detail). To locate and acquire these may require consulting numerous resources
and contacting a multitude of agencies, organizations or research
centers. Moreover, many technical reports available digitally reside in the Deep Web on the internet and are not indexed by search engines (also try GreySource - Index to Web based Resources in Grey Literature).
Major Technical Report Series in TRS
Historical Technical Report Collections in TRS
Specialized Collections in TRS
Major Technical Report
Series in TRS
Government-issued Series:
AD (AD-A, AD-B). Issued by ASTIA, the Armed Services
Technical Information Agency, and its successors, the Defense Documentation Center (DDC) and the Defense
Technical Information Center (DTIC) from 1943 to the present.
These documents, available on microfiche and CD, (which can also be located thru NTIS)
cover all subject fields of interest to the military and the Department
of
Defense
(DoD). TRS has most of the titles in the AD and AD-A series,
far fewer in the AD-B series, and significantly less
in the other, more restricted series (AD-C,
AD-D, ADL, ADM,
AD-P). Documents not held by TRS may be acquired
from DTIC. TRS
does not have, or provide information on, "classified" or "limited
distribution" reports issued by DoD.
Also visit the Army Publishing Directorate and DoD Forms, Directives & Instructions sites for the armed services publicataions.
AID-PN. Issued by the U.S. Agency
for International Development, this series covers technical
and assistance information for use by AID specialists in developing
countries.
TRS has approximately 20,000 reports covering 1972 to 1987. However,
the TRS collection does not cover all the reports issued by AID
and provided to its regional centers,
or the AID contract reports. Reports can be
searched online at the Development
Experience Clearinghouse (DEC).
ANL Report Series. Issued by the Argonne
National Laboratory (DOE),
TRS has unclassified older reports beginning with ANL-7151 and
continuing into the ANL/AA to ANL-ZPR series.
BNL Report Series. Issued by the Brookhaven
National Laboratory (DOE), TRS has unclassified older reports
ranging from BNL-325 to BNL-52134 and continuing into the BNL-NCS,
BNL-NUREG and BNL-TR series.
DOE / AEC. Initially reports of the AEC (Atomic
Energy Commission), this series expanded and diversified along
with the agency when it became the Department
of Energy (this is the largest record
group in the TRS collection).
The reports are announced by NTIS as
DE-numbers, but are issued as separate DOE series. Please note
that reports issued prior to
1992 as DE-numbers
can be located in TRS only by using the original issuing agency
series numbering (for example: BNL,
CONF,
COO,
DOE/EIS, SAN, plus a myriad of other minor series covering foreign
research establishments,
report series, or even individual journals). Beginning in 1992,
TRS changed this arrangement and now files by DE-numbers. Along
with reports on microfiche & Digital Media,
TRS also has the positive microcards
issued by AEC between 1943 and 1964. Abstracts of DOE publications released to the public
are available on the Department's Office of Scientific and Technical
Information Energy
Citations Database (1948 - present).
Also see the DOE Information
Bridge,
which consists of full-text documents produced and made available
by the Department of Energy National Laboratories and grantees
from 1995 forward.
Docket Reports. Docket Reports of the Atomic
Energy Commission and its successors, the Federal Energy Administration
and the Energy
Research and Development Administration, contain information on
the design and generation of nuclear power plants in the United
States and cover the period 1956-78. Also see the NRC
Document Collection or use their Agency
wide
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS).
Domestic Reports. Issued primarily by the Atomic
Energy Commission (which served as the U.S. Government´s
principal nuclear energy regulatory agency until 1974), but also
by other government
agencies and their contractors, including universities, these
reports cover the period from the 1940's to the 1970's. Totaling
about 187,000 documents, these reports include the hardcopy equivalents
of the AEC positive microcards, technical translations, ARD and
AID reports prepared by military contractors. For recent documents,
search the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Agency
wide
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides access to
all image and text documents that the NRC has made public since November 1,
1999.
ED Pubs. TRS has about 340,000
titles of the Department of Education's Education Research
and Information Center (ERIC Search Engine)
reports beginning in 1959 (ending with ED 482063). A second set
of ED-documents can be found in the Microform
Reading Room. The
last receipt
of ED
documents was July 2004.
Education Journals (EJ) can be found in the Library's general collections.
EPA Reports. TRS has hundreds of thousands of technical reports on microfiche and on CD issued by the Evironmental Protection action. The distribution of EPA
documents fell to NTIS,
the National Technical Information Service, which maintains a
database to identify these materials.
HRP. These microfiche, issued
by NTIS during
1969-88, deal with health resources planning. TRS has 10,500 reports
(ending with HRP 0907255).
NASA. TRS has
NASA microfiche & CDs from
1962 to the present. The more than 400,000 reports in the collection
are not limited to research performed at NASA installations only.
However,
they
do not always
include research performed by independent contractors, translations
done for NASA, or articles and reports generated by other organizations
but issued by NASA as N-reports. Various series of NASA and NACA
reports are included in part in the general collections of the
Library. For online access,
use the NACA Technical
Reports Server; the NASA
Glenn Research Center Technical Reports; or the NTRS:
NASA Technical Reports Server.
NUREG. Issued first by the Energy Research
and Development Administration (ERDA), the predecessor of DOE,
and now by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. TRS has over 6,500 documents in various
series (BR, CP, CR, G, IA) beginning in 1976 and continuing to
the present. The reports cover the operation
of nuclear power plants. Documents can be searched online at NUREG-Series
Publications.
PB Reports. TRS has hundreds of thousands of technical reports on microfiche and on CD issued by the Publication Board,
starting with PB 160001. Through a series
of intermediate agencies, the distribution of PB
documents fell to NTIS,
the National Technical Information Service, which maintains a
database to identify these materials. Information about historical PBs....
Domestic Non-Government Series &
International Series:
AGARD (Advisory Group for Aerospace
Research & Development).
AGARD is a NATO Agency formed in April 1954 under the authority
of NATO's Military Committee. The organization consists of:
a Board of National
Delegates; a number of Technical Panels and Committees; and a
Technical and Administrative staff. AGARD publishes some 40
to 50 unclassified scientific
or technical publications each year, many of which are available
in TRS. These include the proceedings of all its technical
meetings, the conclusions
of Working Groups, and publications specially commissioned by
one of its Panels. AGARD also publishes a number of information
bulletins and indexes
to its publications. Search for AGARD/RTO Technical Publications
at the NASA
Technical Reports Server and the NATO
Research and Technology Organization. TRS also has dozens of NATO technical
reports on CD.
AIAA Papers. Conference papers of the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and its predecessors
issued on microfiche and CD are
in TRS from 1963 onwards. Online searchable indexes
to the papers are available
at Aerospace
Research Central
and on the NTRS:
NASA Technical Reports Server.
ASME Papers. TRS started to collect the papers of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers in
1989. Presented at the society's meetings, these papers are usually not
published in any other format.
They generally are indexed in the Engineering Index, located
in print in the Science Reading
Room's reference alcoves. TRS also has a few ASME documents on CD.
International Astronautical Congress Papers. Technical papers (1995 - 2000) issued by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), which is composed of space agencies, space companies, societies, associations and institutes concentrating on the development and application of space assets. Link to IAC Papers Archive.
International Atomic Energy Agency. TRS has scores of
publications issued by the IAEA (an independent international
organization related to the United Nations) in the field of nuclear
technologies covering safety, security, and environmental issues.
Search the IAEA
Publications, Documents & Reports site for a list of their documents.
Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) Reports. Dating from 1987, these reports cover the technical literature for earthquakes, earthquake engineering, natural hazard and disaster mitigation, and related topics. The reports are designed to convey specific research data and project results. TRS has in hard
copy about 400 of these reports (list of titles). To help identify these reports and locate other related materials, use QUAKELINE, a bibliographic database of about 50,000 records.
RAND Corporation Technical Reports (print & CD). The
RAND Corporation, an independent, nonprofit organization engaged
in
scientific research
and analysis was created in 1946
to conduct aerospace research for the U.S. military. Today, its
areas of expertise include child policy, civil and criminal
justice, community and U.S. regional
studies, drug policy, education, health, infrastructure, international
policy, methodology, national security, population and aging, science
and technology, and terrorism. RAND publications include monographs,
technical reports, documented briefings, conference proceedings,
congressional testimony, issue papers, research briefs, white papers,
and dissertations from the RAND Graduate School. TRS has in hard
copy about 5,000 older RAND Memorandum (ending with RM-6385), Notes
(ending with N-3620), Papers (ending with P-8024) and Reports (ending
with R-4213). Rand materials can also be found in the Library's
general collections:
Search the RAND
Database for over 17,000 titles dating back to 1948. RAND
documents published in various technical reports series for public
release are also indexed in NTIS and DTIC.
SAE Technical Papers Society of Automotive Engineers
1965 to present. The Library receives annual accumulations
of the microfiche & CD series, and since 1992 it receives
the hardcopy
versions as soon as they are published. SAE
Technical Papers are indexed (since 1906) on the SAE public web site.
SPE Technical Papers of the Society of Petroleum Engineers
1957 to 1994. TRS received selective annual accumulations of
these microfiche from 1957 until publication in that format
ceased
in 1994. In every case, these papers were delivered
at conferences sponsored by the Society. Indexes can be found
in the Science Reading
Room, or by searching OnePetro, an online library of technical literature for the oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) industry. Caution:
Not all papers listed in the indexes are actually published;
they were either not submitted
for publication, not delivered at the conferences, or eliminated
by peer review. In addition, papers were not necessarily published in chronological order.
Technical Reports Published by Foreign Academic and Research
Institutions. TRS holds a wide range of
technical reports covering scientific findings from universities and private enterprises throughout
the world, both in print and on CD. Countries represented include:
Argentina; Australia;
Austria; Belgium; Brazil; Canada; Chile; Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Great Britain; Greece; Honk Kong; Hungary; India;
Israel; Italy; Japan;
Norway; Netherlands; New Zealand; Poland; Portugal; Romania;
South Africa; Spain; Sweden; and Switzerland. Also see "Technical
Reports and Working Papers in Business
and Economics."
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Historical Technical Report
Collections in TRS
OSRD. In June 1941, the U.S. government established
the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), to conduct
research in war-related technology. The research conducted by 19
subject-specific divisions was summarized in a series of histories after
the war. More than thirty thousand documents, describing original
research in such
areas as war chemistry (including gases and protective measures),
anti-fouling paints, radar, sonar, jungle communications, explosives,
missiles, penicillin, psychological training of pilots, metallurgy,
and effects of bombs, are archived in TRS. More
information....
Historical PB Reports. Immediately following World War
II, the Publications Board (PB) of the Department of Commerce
began to issue unclassified
research reports performed under contract for OSRD. Also released were reports describing research performed by German industries, universities,
and government laboratories
in support of the Nazi war effort (part of the
captured German document series - also see the National
Archives holdings). The German data were collected by research teams of the Field
Intelligence Agency Technical (FIAT), the British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee (BIOS),
the Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee (CIOS), and the Joint Intelligence
Objectives Agency (JIOA). These reports contained patents, company papers,
interviews of key personnel, and other related materials (also see the guide: Heavily
Requested Technical Reports Series in LC General Collections). By 1947, the Publications Board
began to extend its coverage to include reports from research
programs established by other U. S. government agencies.
Subsequently,
as German sources dried up, the coverage shifted totally to U.S.
government contract research reports. The first 160,000 reports
issued as PBs are in hardcopy and microform and held by TRS. More
information....
Reports of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS). World
War II Allied bombing campaigns are a dominant (and at times
controversial) feature of historical accounts
of the war. The Library of Congress holds a complete set of USSBS
reports in the general collection documenting the
military, economic and morale effects of the bombing in the European
and Pacific Theaters (some of these reports
are also held in TRS as part of the Publications Board (PB) collection). More
information & bibliography...
Synthetic Rubber Project. In 1942, U.S. rubber
and chemical companies, university research institutes, and government
laboratories joined forces to produce synthetic rubber and to make
and test tires for aircraft and vehicles from this material. This
unique venture, which lasted until 1953, is documented in 8,000
technical reports, describing meetings, research, technical processes,
and tire tests. One complete set of this documentation is archived
in TRS. More
Information....
Technical Oil Mission. The microfilm reports in this collection cover the German effort in the 1930s and early 1940s to develop synthetic oil and other fuels.The research concentrated on petroleum refining and the gas-synthesis and coal-hydrogenation processes for producing oil and coal. Related fields that were investigated included coal gasification, oxygen production, alcohol manufacture, lubricating oil production and the production of waxes and edible fats.
The data were collected after the war and microfilmed in Germany and other parts of Europe by the Technical Oil Mission operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Fuel and Power for Great Britain, and the Petroleum Administration for War and the Bureau of Mines for the United States. For a history of the German / United States efforts for developing synthetic fuels, see the US. Department of Energy's Early Days of Coal Research.
TT. Technical Translations series consists of
English-language translations of non-English scientific and technical
material pertinent to a government agency's mission. More information....
United States War Department / Department of the Army Technical Manuals. War Dept. publications pertaining to training were issued in the form of Field service regulations, Field manuals, Technical manuals, Technical regulations, Training manuals, and Training regulations. In January 1940, numbers were assigned to Field service regulations and Field manuals from 1 to 1000 (FM), to Technical regulations from 1000 to 2000 (TR), to Training manuals from 2000 to 3000 (TM); and Training regulations were eliminated. In April 1940, Technical regulations and Training manuals were consolidated in the series of Technical manuals, and a new system of numbering was adopted. The War Dept. provided the following instructions: "The number of each pamphlet will consist of two parts: the basic number and subnumber. The basic numbers will be as follows: 1--Air Corps. 2--Cavalry. 3--Chemical Warfare Service. 4--Coast Artillery Corps. 5--Corps of Engineers. 6--Field Artillery. 7--Infantry. 8--Medical Department. 9--Ordnance Department. 10--Quartermaster Corps. 11--Signal Corps. 12--Adjutant General’s Department. 13--Inspector General’s Department. 14--Finance Department. 15--Judge Advocate General’s Department. 16--Chaplains. 20 to 30--Basic field manuals. 100--Field service regulations. 101--Staff officers’ field manual. 105--Umpire manual. The subnumbers for Field manuals were from 1 to 199 and for Technical manuals 200, etc." Subsequently, field manuals and Technical manuals were referred to by number only, e.g., FM 6-110 or TM 4-235.
Many of the U.S. Army WWII era manuals listed in The Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports (BSIR), 1946-1949 were also issued as PB reports and are available in TRS. An online version of the BSIR lists the manuals by PB number and Title. The LC Science Reference Section has also created reference guides for the Technical Manuals and Field Manuals in the general collections. Also see Liberated Manuals.com, the HathiTrust Digital Library and the Internet Archive for a list of freely available manuals. Technical Manuals can also be identified in "Government Reports Announcements & Index" and through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) . A related collection is the Department of the Army Pamphlets (AMCP), which can be found in the general collections by searching either under the corporate name: United States. Department of the Army or by Series: "Department of the Army pamphlet" or by keyword using "DA pam" (AMCP reports were also issued as AD documents and can be found by using NTIS).
ADI (American Documentation Institute)Technical Reports. Founded in 1937 (becoming the American Society for Information Science (ASIS) in 1968), the 10,000 hard copy and microfilm ADI reports in TRS cover a wide-range of subjects.
More information...
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Specialized Collections in TRS
L'Aerophile Collection. In 1970, TRS acquired this historical
aviation collection of the editorial office for the French monthly
illustrated revue L'Aerophile (published 1893-1947).
The collection reflects the development of aviation over a 50-year
span and contains correspondence on aeronautics, manuscripts, design details
for aircraft engines, wings, etc. and information and brochures
about early aircraft companies. The collection also includes
hundreds of photographs of famous aviators and aircraft designers.
The material is stored in 150 archival boxes (about 50 lin. ft.) and because of its fragile
condition, is made available only to serious researchers. More
information...
Aeronautics Card Catalog. TRS
has a card catalog describing thousands of books, reports,
and magazine & journal articles written from the 19th to mid-20th
century on aeronautics. The catalog is divided
into four sections: author; subject (including first
words in titles); date (the World War II years, 1940-1945);
and biographies (arranged alphabetically
by person). The entries contain basic author, title and
source information, and are primarily from English language materials,
although other foreign language sources are also included. To
locate photographs from the era, see the TRS L'Aerophile
Collection, or search the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online
Catalog (PPOC).
Japanese Medical Experiments During
World War II. These reports
are part of the information obtained by American investigators
from members of the infamous Kwantung Army Water Supply and
Purification Department (boeki Kyusui Bu), stationed in Manchuria
and commanded by Lt. Gen. Shiro Ishii. Imperial Japan's Biological
Warfare Unit conducted experiments (often using human guinea
pigs) on how to defend against bacteriological attacks, and
conversely, how to use biological agents against enemies. These
reports were translated
into
English and housed over time
at different military locations. The
pages have been placed in polyester sleeves and preserved
in 16 archival boxes (the reports were
also photocopied
and bound as a preservation measure). The individual titles are:
Report of A; Report of G; and, Report of Q (Parts
1 & 2; and, Parts 3 & 4) - the letters represent the biological
agents studied: A, for anthrax; G, for glanders; and Q, for plague.
Some
of the descriptions of human tissues and organs include illustrations,
some of which are color coded. Originally classified prior to
transfer to the Library from the Dugway, Utah, Proving Ground
library, the security level
has been downgraded over the years, from Secret, to
Confidential,
and finally (as of 1960) Unclassified.
For further reading,
see Japanese
Biomedical Experimentation During the World-War-II Era,
part of the The
Textbooks of Military Medicine Series maintained by the
The Borden Institute of the U.S. Army Medical Department Center
and School. Or search the Library of Congress catalog under World
War, 1939-1945 Prisoners and prisons, Japanese. The National
Archives also holds several thousand documents on Japanese biological warfare in their Japanese War Crimes collection and has produced an online guide for researchers.
Sams Photofact (print & CD). Sams publishes repair manuals containing
printed schematics and technical service data for different
models and brand names covering a wide variety of consumer
electronic equipment. A bound set of schematics for televisions,
computers (computerfacts) and VCRs (VCRfacts) are available
in TRS. Other titles / editions by Howard
W. Sams & Co. can be found in the Library of Congress general
collection. Users can find the Sams number by searching
the Sams PHOTOFACT® Repair
Schematics website by brand names or model numbers to help
identify and request schematics held in the Library.
United States Copyright restrictions prevent copying
entire copyrighted documents. However, the fair use provision does
permit reproduction
of relevant portions (small parts) of these documents. Photocopiers,
microform reader/printers and computer terminals are available
for patron use in the Science
Reading Room. TRS materials are non-circulating and are not
to leave the Science Reading
Room area. |
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