What is a Technical Report?
Technical reports are produced by various individuals, agencies, and industries to communicate scientific and technical results. Typically quite specific and intended for an audience of fellow researchers, these materials provide a deeper look into varied technologies and developments.
Digital Databases for Technical Reports
- National Technical Reports LibrarySearch government-sponsored reports and data hosted in this resource provided by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). Materials available from 1904 to 2017. Not all items are available in full text.
- National Institute of Standards and TechnologyHosted on govinfo.gov, this collection hosts technical information on a variety of disciplines and industries. See the link for collection details. Dates range from 1903 to 2016. Items are full-text.
- TRAILSearch U.S. government technical reports issued primarily prior to 1975 and digitized by engineering, science, and government documents librarians as part of the TRAIL working group. Special focus on the Atomic Energy Commission, Bureau of Mines, and National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the precursor to NASA. Items are full-text.
- NASA Technical Reports ServerIncludes conference presentations, technical reports, journal articles, citations, and images from NACA and NASA collections. Dates range from around 1900 to 2017. Not all items are full-text.
- Rosa P - National Transportation LibraryThe U.S. Department of Transportation's digital library includes bibliographies and limited full-text technical reports. Dates range from 1941 to 2017. Not all items are full-text.
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers PublicationsThis site is the official repository for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineering Regulations (ERs), Engineering Circulars (ECs), Engineering Manuals (EMs) and technical reports/letters. Dates range from 1905 to 2017 with most materials from 1970 to 2017. Not all items are full-text.
- Science.govThis site searches across federal agency websites and can be a good place to start if you have a citation but don't know which agency is responsible for it. Not all items are full-text.
- SciTech ConnectThis site hosts the Department of Energy's publicly-accessible research and reports. Not all items are full-text. Dates range from 1940 to 2017 with most full-text material from 1991 to 2017.
What if I can't find it online?
Technical reports are not fully available digitally. But there are options to find a report from a citation.
- Technical Reports at USUSee this tab for how to search the Government Information Department's materials.
- WorldCatWorldCat is very useful for locating historic government documents, and many records include SuDoc numbers, the call numbers used for government publications at the library. Note the SuDoc number and format and visit the Government Information Department to find it in our collections.
Questions?
Federal Depository Library
“This library is a congressionally designated depository for U.S. Government documents. Public access to the government documents collection is guaranteed by public law. (Title 44 United States Code)”
