Engineering

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Technical Reports

What's a "technical report" ?

A technical report is "an important means of... recording... the activities and the results of progress and research in... science and technology.

"Where once reports were simply the reporting of government-sponsored research, they are now used as a means of communicating information for technical development throughout the world."

[Report Series Codes Dictionary, 3rd edition, 1986]

Specialized Tech Report Collections

MILITARY

DTIC (Defense Technical Information Center)

  • DTIC's publicly available collection of military reports and documents, going all the way back to the beginning of the 1900's, is available through Science.gov

NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server [1915+] -- This is a continually growing collection of information about NASA's current and historical research and engineering. It contains:

  • NACA [National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics] information covers 1915-1958
     
  • NASA information covers 1958 to the present
     
  • NIX collection includes images, photos, movies, and videos downloaded from the NASA Image eXchange

For reports from the Jet Propulsion Lab, the best thing to do (after exhausting all other options) is to contact the library directly at library@jpl.nasa.gov.

HISTORY OF NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY

Los Alamos Technical Reports site -- In 2002, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) terminated public access to thousands of unclassified reports about nuclear science and technology.

Fortunately, almost all of the withdrawn reports were acquired and preserved so that the public has access to them.

How to Find and Get Technical Reports

National Technical Information Service (NTIS) [1964 to the present, with some info as far back as 1899] - NTIS is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce and is responsible for storing and disseminating technical reports generated from U.S. government-sponsored work. The database includes 3 million+ unclassified DoD, DoE, NASA, and other reports.

NTIS reports can be searched in two ways:

  1. Search the National Technical Reports Library (NTRL)
  2. Search the NTIS database [this is easier]

To GET reports: Call or go to the GIS & Data Services office on A Level (410-516-8360), and ask to have an NTIS report ordered for you. This service is free of charge.

Science.gov -- 200 million pages of science information and R&D results for 36+ U.S. government agencies.

TRAIL (Technical Report Archive and Image Library) -- This site has detailed reports that include materials data, mathematical functions, time series, diffraction patterns, measurements, and much more. ata provided are from direct measurements.

WorldWideScience.org -- This web site, which also includes the information within Science.gov (listed above), is a gateway to national and international scientific databases. You can search resources from 17 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, and the UK.

Reports Written by JHU Authors

Technical reports written by authors with JHU affiliations can be print or electronic.

 DIVISION  LOCATION               YEARS                       NOTES                       
Computer Science Department JScholarship site 1985-1989

"Historic Tech Reports"; full text

Computer Science Department University Archives, Brody Learning Commons 1987-1990

Print only; here's a list

Computer Science Department JScholarship site 2009-2012

"Current Tech Reports"; full text

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department JScholarship site 2009-2012

full text

Electrical Engineering Department University Archives, Brody Learning Commons  

Papers of Prof. Jan Minkowski

From the Carlyle Barton Lab, formerly in Barton Hall

Print only; here is a list

Request through Special Collections

Human Language Technology Center of Excellence (HLTCOE) HLTCOE site 2009+ full text
Mathematical Sciences Department

University Archives, Brody Learning Commons

1964-1986

Print only; here is a list

Request through Special Collections