National Technical Information Service

The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is an agency within the United States Department of Commerce that acts as a U.S. government repository for research and development results, and for other information produced by and for the Federal Government, as well as a variety of public and private sources worldwide. In addition NTIS provides technical support solutions to other Federal Agencies, providing a wide range of services.

The NTIS serves the United States as the largest central resource for government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information available today. For more than 60 years NTIS has assured businesses, libraries, academia, and the public timely access to approximately 2.5 million publications covering over 350 subject areas. The stated aim of the NTIS is to support the Department of Commerce mission to promote the nation's economic growth by providing access to information that stimulates innovation and discovery. (Public Law 102-245, Section 108 American Technology Preeminence Act of 1991).

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Government.(Dept. of Commerce)

NTIS Scope

Containing over 2.5 million bibliographic records, the NTIS content collection is a significant resource for accessing the latest research sponsored by the United States and select foreign governments. The collection represents the technical results of billions of dollars the U.S. Government allocates for scientific research. The contents of the collection include research reports, computer products, software, and more. The complete electronic file dates back to 1964. On average, NTIS has added over 30,000 new records per year to the collection over the past ten years. Most records include meta-data. It also contains a comprehensive collection of nuclear research, beginning with the Manhattan project, and the latest government sponsored research. NTIS covers a wide spectrum of subject areas with 39 Major Subject Categories and 375 Sub-categories.

NTIS Operations

NTIS operations includes the acquisition and archiving (in perpetuity) of scientific and technical information. This information is disseminated to the public on a fee-based cost-recovery model.

NTIS also provides technical support solutions to other Federal Government Agencies. These include:

• Shipping & Fulfillment Services
• e-Training Services
• Federal Energy Data Management
• Government Web Hosting
• Scanning, Digitization & Electronic Archive Services
• Other Support solutions

NTIS New Initiatives

In 2008 NTIS recognized the need to provide subscription-based access to the collection using an online platform. In April 2009, the [National Technical Reports Library](NTRL) was introduced which offered convenient access to the collection to subscribers worldwide.

Building upon the success of the NTRL, in 2012 NTIS introduced a beta release of the new NTRL Repository Version 3.0 which uses the [open-source] platform Fedora which provides a flexible, over-arching repository solution. The new NTRL V3.0 is the first of several respositories planned for introduction under the [Federal Science Repository Service] (FSRS).

NTIS Statutory Authorities

NTIS' basic authority to operate a permanent clearinghouse of scientific and technical information is codified as chapter 23 of Title 15 of the United States Code (15 U.S.C. 1151-1157). This chapter also established NTIS' authority to charge fees for its products and services and to recover all costs through such fees "to the extent feasible."

This authority was restated in the National Technical Information Act of 1988, codified at 15 U.S.C. 3704b. That Act gave NTIS the authority to enter into joint ventures and declared the Clearinghouse to be a permanent Federal function that could not be eliminated or privatized without Congressional approval.

That Act was amended by the American Technology Preeminence Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-245) which:

1. required all costs associated with bibliographic control to be recovered by fees,
2. required agencies to make copies of their scientific and technical reports available to NTIS, and
3. directed NTIS to focus on developing new electronic methods and media for disseminating information.

Another statute having a profound impact on NTIS is the Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Act for FY 1993 (Public Law 102-395) which established NTIS Revolving Fund and gave it the authority to use that Fund without further approval by Congress.

In addition, section 1526 of Title 15 of the United States Code authorizes NTIS to accept payments in advance for services to be provided to other agencies.

See also

• Defense Technical Information Center
• Government Printing Office
• National Archives and Records Administration

External links

• National Technical Information Service website
• NTIS Advanced Search
• NTIS Federal Publications
• NTIS Federal Services
• NTIS Customer Service