National Technical Information Service

NTIS National Technical Information ServiceNational Technical Information Service (NTIS), United States Department of Commerce

Established 1945 to collect and provide permanent access to nations scientific, technical, engineering and business information and to collect related international information

National Technical Information ServiceFacilitates perpetual public access to Federal information in various formats

Assists federal agency compliance with transferring their government information to NTIS under the American Technology Pre-eminence Act (ATPA). ATPA Requires Federal Agencies to transfer their Scientific, Technical, and Engineering Information (STEI) to the National Technical Information Service

Develops bibliographic records to aid find-ability

Maintains a permanent repository of unclassified scientific, technical, engineering, and business information Collects and disseminates information worldwide Provides customized information services to other agencies

General Trends in Dissemination of Physical Media National Technical Information Service

The Collection

National Technical Information ServiceTotal Documents

Customer Feedback

Strengths:The NTIS database is focused on government technical reports.The NTIS database is big and covers lots of years Consistent metadata over a long period of timeCustomer recognition with major commercial suppliers

Concerns:Collection is not completely digitalCustomer confusion about the NTIS role in S&TSource agency confusion about NTIS value to themNational Technical Information Service

Observations

National Technical Information ServiceCore customers are academic and government libraries.

Customers are intermediaries not end-users.

Print and PDF orders are mostly corporate.

Customers know who we are.

Librarians do not generally collect technical reports, but value them highly.

Librarians value comprehensive coverage.

Sources of reports need to be recognized.

Value of the collection is far greater than the value of the document.

The Big GoalNational Technical Information Service NTIS will be recognized by the technical information community as the leader in must-have government scientific, technical, and engineering content and services with easy to use access, search, discovery, and retrieval tools in a collaborative environment.

Big ObjectivesNational Technical Information ServiceBuild a resource for scientific discovery.Ensure that NTIS content is accessible and usable to the widest possible audience.Provide focus to the NTIS content acquisition and preservation strategy.Create a value proposition that encourages Federal Agency participation.

Step 1: National Technical Report LibraryAccess to bibliographic records plus full text content from the desktop

Broader dissemination possible

Subject matter exposure

Focus on timeliness, comprehensiveness and current awareness

Higher value to source agencies

Values the collection as greater than the sum of the documents

Subscription based access to library functions

Free search of titles from NTIS website

National Technical Information Service

The Office of Product and Program Development703-605-6142Don Hagendhagn@ntis.gov

For more information, please contact National Technical Information Service