Technical Reports  Tags: standards transportation government  

Technical reports describe research in scientific and technical fields and are typically produced for government, private industry and academic groups, which sponsor the research. The U.S. government is one of the largest sponsors of technical reports in the world.

Listed below are finding aids and full-text sources for technical reports from selected U.S. government agencies. As a federal depository library Alderman receives many U.S. technical reports, but not all. You may request via Interlibrary Services reports not available at UVA. Contact us with any questions you have about locating technical reports.

DOE
NASA
EPA
Multiple U.S. agency resources including NTIS

The Department of Energy (DOE)

Created in 1977, the Department of Energy is involved in contracted research in all areas under its domain: nuclear and solar power, energy conservation, biomass and synthetic fuels and more.

Library holdings in microfiche
The library owns a collection of over 200,000 DOE microfiche, filed under the class number E 1.28 and E 1.99. The E 1.99 collection is currently being refiled by technical report number (CONF, ORNL,etc.). Some of these reports are indexed in VIRGO, but most are not individually indexed in VIRGO. Fiche location: East corner of the Government Information Resources Reading Room.

Index and full-text resources

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Created in 1958, NASA also produces technical reports on microfiche and in print. The reports are filed primarily under class number NAS 1.26 and NAS 1.15. The fiche are located in cabinets in Alderman's Government Information Resources Reading Room 3rd floor east. Printed materials are in Alderman 3rd floor, New Stacks. Many, but not all NASA reports are indexed in VIRGO. The following list of major NASA report series codes and corresponding SuDoc call numbers may be helpful in searching for reports.

Contractor Reports (CR) NAS 1.26
Conference Publications (CP) NAS 1.55
Educational Publications (EP) NAS 1.19
Reference Publications (RP) NAS 1.61
Special Publications (SP) NAS 1.21
Technical Memorandums (TM) NAS 1.15
Technical Notes (TN) NAS 1.14
Technical Papers (TP) NAS 1.60
Technical Reports (TR) NAS 1.12

Listed below are online index and full-text resources.

• Aerospace and High Technology Database 1962-current UVA only
  (Check first option under Subject Area to search this database.)
  Provides citations to documents of basic and applied research in aeronautics, astronautics, and space sciences; in addition to journal literature, the database also includes coverage of reports issued by NASA and other U.S. government agencies. See search tips.
  
  
• NTRS Nasa Technical Reports Server
  Includes full-text current NASA technical reports, 1996 - present. See browse feature and search help.
  
  
• NACA Digital Library National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
  Indexes and abstracts for technical reports issued 1915-1958, some full-text. See browse feature and search help.
  
  
• STAR Adobe acrobat is needed to view.
  Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR) lists citations and abstracts of NASA and worldwide aerospace-related research. Updated biweekly, STAR highlights the most recent additions to the NASA scientific and technical information knowledge base.
  
  
• AGARD Reports: a quarterly listing 1995-current (2003)
  Full-text. Published quarterly by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) Scientific and Technical Information Program.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The EPA was created in 1970 from other agencies to consolidate the U.S. effort to fight air, land and water pollution. Most of what GIR owns is indexed in VIRGO. However many EPA reports are not distributed to UVA because the reports are sponsored by contactors outside the government. See the following indexing and full-text resources:

• Government Reports Annual Index (print) 1977-1994. Call number C 51.9/4:. Located in Government Information Resources. This index is the precursor to the NTIS database.
  
  
• NTIS Database UVA only 1983-current
  (Scroll down page to access NTIS)
  Index only. Contains bibliographic citations and summaries of information products, including technical reports, software packages, and data files. The NTIS database is the online version of the Government Reports Announcements & Index.
  
  
• EPA Publications Source
  Several resources for accessing online EPA current and archival documents, as well as ordering EPA documents.
  Includes the NEPIS database (see next item listed).
  
  
• National Environmental Publications Information System (NEPIS)
  Searchable full-text of over 10,000 EAP documents.
  
  
• Emission Inventory Improvement Program ten volume Technical Report Series (full-text). See also resources from the PM 2.5 Inventory Resource Center
  
  
• See also web sites of U.S. State Environmental Agencies.
  

Resources for searching across multiple U.S. agencies

• Finding aids for report numbers:
  
  Dictionary of Report Series Codes
  Z6945.A2 S6 1962, Brown Library Stacks
  
  Report Series Codes Dictionary
  Z6945.A2 R45 1986, Brown Library Stacks
  Indexes only the NTIS catalog from 1979 to May 1985.
  
  
• NTIS
  The National Technical Information Service (NTIS), an agency of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, is the central source for the public sale of U.S. government-sponsored research, development, and engineering reports. UVA owns some NTIS reports, which are cataloged in VIRGO. See subject coverage of NTIS.
  
  
  • NTIS Database UVA only 1983-current
    Index only. Contains bibliographic citations and summaries of information products, including technical reports, software packages, and data files. This database is the online version of the Government Reports Announcements & Index
    
    
  • NTIS web site free search for documents published since 1990.Index only.
    
    
  • See also Government Reports Annual Index (print) 1977-1994. Call number C 51.9/4:. Located in Government Information Resources. This index is the precursor to the NTIS database.
    
    
• Science.gov
  Federal gateway site for technical and scientific research and literature. 
  
  
• E-print Network, "a gateway to over 13,750 Web sites and databases worldwide, containing e-prints in basic and applied sciences, primarily in physics but also including subject areas such as chemistry, biology and life sciences, materials science, nuclear sciences and engineering, energy research, computer and information technologies, and other disciplines of interest to DOE."
  
  
• See also technical report information and links from Library of Congress and Hanford Technical Library