TRAIL: Technical Report Archive and Image Library

Abstract

Technical Reports might not be the first information resource people think about when seeking data resources, but many federal agencies have published reports containing data on many different topics. Technical Reports communicate research in science and technology, technical development, and contain valuable information serving specialized audiences of researchers. Scholarly research papers often summarize research findings but technical reports often lay out the detail and data of research. This poster will introduce attendees to the TRAIL (Technical Report Archive and Image Library) Project and why this is a unique source for a variety of topics such as climate studies from research labs and agencies like the Corps of Engineers. Technical reports have always been challenging because of inconsistent and differing dissemination practices, no title level cataloging, and series level records with no holdings making it challenging to get technical reports via ILL. TRAIL is digitizing federal agency technical reports in print and microformats and cataloging them at the item level and depositing them in the HathiTrust and University of North Texas digital repositories where they are viewable to anyone in the world. Attendees can also learn more about Technical Reports and TRAIL and how to publicize this resource to their patrons.