The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) Bibliographic Database

Mona F. Smith

NTIS, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, in Springfield, Virginia, is the central source for the public sale of U.S. government-sponsored research reports and electronic products such as bibliographic databases, numeric and statistical data files, computer software and Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM). NTIS is a unique U.S. government agency sustained only by its sales revenue.

NTIS Mission

T he National Technical Information Service (NTIS) provides access to the results of both U.S. and foreign government-sponsored research and de-

velopment (R&D), engineering, and business-related activities. Throughout its years of operation, the NTIS mission has been to improve the transfer of tech- nology from the government to the private sector and improve competitive- ness of U.S. business and industry in a global economy.

History

In 1945, President Truman established the Publications Board (PB) to review all scientific and technical research documents produced during World War II. The purpose of the Publications Board was to determine what could be made available to U.S. industry and the general public. In 1950, Public Law 81-776 directed the Department of Commerce to operate a national clearinghouse to collect and distribute scientific and technical information. In 1970, this clear- inghouse was reestablished as the National Technical Information Service.

In 1992 passage of the American Technology Preeminence Act (ATPA) man- dated government agencies to submit all federally produced or financed scien- tific, technical, and engineering information to NTIS in a timely manner. Until the passage of ATPA, all items were submitted to NTIS voluntarily by govern- ment agencies, sometimes unevenly and irregularly. The ATPA will play a key role in building a more comprehensive and centralized collection of current government information.

The NTIS Bibliographic Database online covers 1964 to the present. Printed or microform indexes provide access to the titles that predate the online data- base.

Address for correspondence: c /o NTIS, 5285 Port Royal Rd., Springfield, VA 22161.

Smith 167

TABLE 1 Titles in NTIS Collection

Dates Items in Collection Items in Database

Cumulative- 834,111 388,263 FY 1974

1975 63,670 63,670 1976 58,146 58,146

Transition 15,482 15,482 Quaaer 1977 80,993 80,993 1978 74,927 74,927 1979 6Z692 6Z692 1980 77,335 7Z335 1981 78,223 78,223 1982 82,683 82,683 1983 79,471 79,471 1984 71,587 71,587 1985 70,211 70,211 1986 69,760 69,760 1987 6~906 62,906 1988 68,096 68,096 1989 61,307 61,307 TOTAL 1,976,976 1,208,683

A c q u i s i t i o n and Eva luat ion

One of the major advantages of the NTIS database is that it combines unclas- sified input from the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and NASA with that of other government agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Interior, National Science Foundation, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, and others within one database. The major contributors to the database come from the combined input of NASA, Defense, and Energy. This material is supplied to NTIS in machine-readable form on magnetic tapes and is essentially merged into the database. The PB-collection documents are processed by NTIS. Other sources for these titles include hundreds of federal

168 Publishing Research Quarterly/Fall 1995

TABLE 2 NTIS Information Sources: Annual Input of Federal Agency-Sponsored R&D by

Major Contributors, 1988 and 1994

Organization 1988 1994

Agency for Int'l Development

Agriculture Dept.

Commerce Dept.

Defense Dept.

Energy Dept.

Health & Human Services

Labor Dept.

Interior Dept.

Transportation Dept.

Environmental Protection Agency

NASA

Nat'l Science Foundation

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Fach Informations-zentrum (FIZ)

Canada Institute for Scientific &

Technical Information

- - 223

775 680

2,200 1,405

13,100 14,845

12,100 22,473

1,600 1,520

50

1,000 720

800 750

1,900 2,540

4,800 13,370

700 460

400 330

- - 2,020

- - 3,940

agencies, n u m e r o u s state and local governments , federal contractors, academic institutions, foreign governments , international organizations, and private sec- tor organizations. Because the U.S. gove rnmen t funds more than half of the research and engineer ing activities in the United States, the NTIS Bibliographic Database contains information on such diverse topics as envi ronmenta l sci- ences, compute r sciences, te lecommunicat ions, health care, physical sciences, international trade and marketing, regulations, research administrat ion, busi- ness, and education.

Major Traits o f the Collection

�9 Very diverse collection based on a wide range of U.S. and foreign gove rnmen t sources.

�9 Approximate ly 2.5 million titles are available for searching. Each year 70,000--80,000 titles are added to the database.

�9 Primarily a collection of unclassified reports and compute r products rather than journal articles in the open literature.

Smith 169

TABLE 3 NTIS Subject Coverage, 1988 and 1994

Ten year

Subject area 1988 1994 average

Administration & management 2,640 Aeronautics & aerodynamics 2,530 Agriculture & food 1,840 Astronomy & astrophysics 2,020 Behavior & society 1,920 Biomedical & human factors 940 Building industry 1,120 Business & Econ. 1,610 Chemistry 6,060 9 Civil Engineering 1,520 2 Combustion, engines & propellants 1,620 3 Communication 1,260 3 Computers & Information theory 3,350 6 Detection & countermeasures 760 2 Electrotechnology 2,520 5 Energy 6,780 9 Environment 5,880 16 Health care 1,300 2 Library & info. Science 3,160 9 Manufacturing & industrial eng. 3,370 5 Materials Science 3,960 8 Mathematical Sci. 1,680 2 Medicine & biology 6,060 11 Natural resources & earth sciences 4,140 9 Nuclear science & technology 6,600 11 Ocean technology & engineering 1,850 3 Physics 9,990 16 Space technology 2,020 5 Transportation 1,640 3 Urban & regional technology & development 1,310 3

4% 3 3 3 5 2 2 4

2,150 2,030 1,690

790 3,340

870 1,220 1,490 6,310 1,780 1,340 1.,210 2,710

760 2,060 8,590 6,780 2,130 1,960 3,100 3,930 1,480 6,260 4,160 7,390 1,810 7,810 1,020 1,990 1,870

�9 Twenty-five percent of all new titles come from foreign sources through various international exchange agreements.

�9 Covers state-of-the-art technology, and practical and appl ied research.

�9 Provides current informat ion not readily available from any other source.

I70 Publishing Research Quarterly / Fall 1995

TABLE 4 NTIS Top Ten Non-U.S. Contributors, 1994

Country of Origin Number of Citations

Canada 4,631 Germany 3,021 Netherlands 1,886 Japan 1,796 France 1,230 United Kingdom 1,195 International Agencies 1,094 *U.S.S.R. 838 Sweden 786 Finland 546

*These documents from the former Soviet Union were published prior to the breakup into the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Types of Documents 1994

Reprints from Journal Articles

Government-owned Inventions Patents Patent Applications

Computer Products

Technical Reports Conference Proceedings Theses Bibliographies Published Searches CD-ROM Videotapes

3,604

1,035 439

451

Processing

NTIS provides information managemen t to agencies whose documents or magnetic tapes are submitted. NTIS creates a bibliographic record for each item, lists each item in its online database and maintains the item in its ar- chives.

Smith 171

Products

NTIS provides current awareness, government inventions available for li- censing, a directory of Japanese technical resources, and software catalogs. A major high point of NTIS services is its document delivery service. Most docu- ments noted in the bibliographic database are available from the agency.

NTIS Preview Database via FedWorld

NTIS receives an average of 7,000 Scientific and Technical Information (STEI) and business-related information products each month. NTIS is making the bibliographic citations of items it has acquired within the most recent thirty days available to the public via FedWorld. Anyone may access FedWorld with a computer and a modem. To connect by modem: Set parity to none, data bits to 8, and stop bit to 1. Set terminal emulation to ANSI. Set duplex to full. Then set communication software to dial FedWorld at 703-321-FEDW (3339); via Internet: Telnet to fedworld.gov; For File Transfer Protocol (FTP) services, con- nect to ftp.fedworld.gov; For World Wide Web (WWW) access, point web browser to http://www.fedworld.gov.