Finding Technical Reports

About Technical Reports

Technical reports are typically used to report progress of research and technical information. The reports usually come from a company, university, or government agency. They are published by noncommercial publishers and are usually part of a numbered series. They can be located in a library catalog by series title or individual report title or a combination of both.

Technical reports in UCSD libraries are listed in the catalog, ROGER, as series for many, and individual report titles for some. Unfortunately, some microfiche reports in the collection are simply not listed in ROGER. The reports may be located at the Science & Engineering Library, the Social Sciences and Humanities Library (usually government documents), or Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library (SIO). Some may be easy to find in ROGER. Others are easier to find by looking in the microfiche files by report number. S&E technical report collections are described below for help in using this method.

Many reports are now available in full text on the internet. SAGE lists websites where technical reports can be identified and/or accessed.

Search the Catalog of U.S. Publications to find titles and SuDocs numbers for government publications. This database includes technical reports and non-report materials from 1994 to present.

Technical Reports at the Science and Engineering Library

S&E maintains a technical report collection with an emphasis in materials from U.S. government sources: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), DOE (U.S. Department of Energy), and NBS/NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). Most of these are in microfiche.

The S&E microforms are all located along the North wall of S&E Library, a Microfiche viewer/printer can be found adjacent to the microform cabinets. The microforms are separated into three collections: the Technical Report Fiche collection, the Microfilm collection and the Cataloged Fiche collection.

When S&E microfiche are cataloged in ROGER by individual titles and series titles, they are shown to have a location code XEX #. These fiche are located in 2 cabinets close to the door, labeled Cataloged Fiche in red . In some cases, at the XEX #, there is a card that indicates that the microfiche for that title is located in the Technical Report Fiche collection (to the left), filed by report number. (Example: NASA CR in ROGER says XEX 802, S&E Microform. At XEX 802, the filing card says "Filed in Technical Reports Fiche Collection under NASA-CR.")

NASA

S&E library does not have a complete collection of NASA reports. Certain series have been collected with some consistency and continue to be received. As described above, most are cataloged with an XEX # and kept in the Technical Report Fiche collection. These series are listed below with their locations. If the UCSD libraries have received NASA materials in print (books, journals) or CD-ROM they will be cataloged in ROGER. NASA non-report fiche and print materials should be cataloged in ROGER. Some NASA publications are available online at the NASA Technical Report Server, NTRS. This database can be searched to identify reports on a particular topic or it can be used to find additional classification numbers for an item.

A numbered series that is commonly sought by library users is AD-A #. This is because the NASA Technical Report Server has citations for reports put out by the Department of Defense (DOD) on aerospace topics. Because DOD information is often classified, it is not always possible to get these reports, even through ILL. At S&E, the microfiche collection only has about a dozen of these from the years 1996 to present. If a report is not here, a request can be made through ILL or other document delivery services. You will be notified if it is unavailable.

Some of the older microfiche are not sorted by report number. Instead, they are located in the Technical Report Fiche collection by a generic U.S. Government publication number (across departments) that starts with N. With a NASA report number, the NTRS database can be used to identify N-numbers. For example, if the report # NASA CR 80772 was not found where you would expect in the NASA CR series, you would search the NTRS database. Enter "NASA, CR, 80772." The resulting record includes the N-number, N67-13873.

DOE

S&E has Department of Energy (DOE) microfiche reports up through 1991. (Reports from 1991 to date are available online at the DOE Information Bridge. This database can be searched to find reports on a particular topic). They are located in the Technical Report Fiche collection by report number only. Many are NOT cataloged in ROGER. For some series ROGER indicates a location of XEX 4000. Also, if the UCSD libraries have received DOE materials in print (books, journals) or CD-ROM they will be cataloged in ROGER. DOE non-report fiche and print materials should be cataloged in ROGER. The catalog record will show them at the SuDocs classification E # in the Government Documents section of the Social Sciences & Humanities Library or at S&E or SIO libraries under regular LC classification by subject. (For the years 1977-1980 a collection of microfiche DOE reports DOE/___ in can be found under SuDocs number E 1.28:DOE/__). A sample of DOE reports are given below.

NBS and NIST

NBS and NIST (National Technical Information Service, formerly National Bureau of Standards) publications are all cataloged in ROGER either by series or individual title. The most important report series, NBSIR and NISTIR, are located in the S&E Cataloged Fiche collection under XEX 789. Other NBS/NIST titles should be searched by both individual title and series title in ROGER. Some examples are given below.

You can also search for NBS/NIST reports in the NIST Library Catalog. If full text is not available there, a Google search might turn something up: enter nistir and author's last name or title words.

Older Reports

Search the Roger catalog by title keyword or author or series for specific locations of various government or university engineering technical reports we have in our collections. S&E also has a paper collection of older NASA and NACA, JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), and EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) reports, which are stored in the Library Annex. Some of these may duplicate older NASA microfiche reports. The paper technical reports holdings list can be consulted at the S&E Reference desk. Once you determine that the item is located at the Libraries, fill out an Annex request form to have it delivered to the S&E Circulation desk.

UCSD Department Reports

The library also houses selected UCSD School of Engineering technical reports:
Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), 1982-1995, QA75.5 .T43 (online 1999-)
Structural Systems Research Project (SSRP), 1986-2000, TA645 .S76
You may search ROGER by the title or author of individual reports.

How Do I Obtain Technical Reports Not at UCSD?

1. UCSD researchers should contact S&E's Interlibrary Loan Department - we can get most U.S. government technical reports for you in either fiche or paper; you may be asked to provide a budget number for all NTIS reports costing more than the $40 ILL subsidy.
2. The public can order Technical Reports through UCSD using PLUS Information Services
3. Contact the author of the technical report or the institution.
4. Some agencies and organizations may have information on their site about obtaining printed copies of their reports.
5. NTIS, the National Technical Information Service, is a good place to search for and order government technical reports.
6. Access citations (and some full-text) of unclassified Department of Defense materials from DTIC's Technical Reports Collection.

Additional Information about report series at S&E Library: Codes and locations.

Additional Information about report series at S&E Library: Codes and locations.

Additional Information about report series at S&E Library: Codes and locations.