Reference Sources Among NTIS Technical Reports

A comment on the NTIS reports and their prices is in order. Prices of some of these reports seem to be highly inflated. For example, the paper copy price of A Reference Guide to the NTIS Bibliographic Data File is $6.25. If you notice that it is only 20 pages long, you can figure out ways of duplicating this report — either in paper copy or in microfiche formats — at much lower cost. Similarly, paper copy format of the Index of U.S. Nuclear Standards is priced at $7.25. But the same publication is available from the Superintendent of Documents for only $2.75. In any case, librarians should be aware of this price differential. One way to overcome this problem is to use the resources of a nearby library having a large technical reports collection. One can get these reports duplicated faster and cheaper, provided they are not copyrighted. For more information on the controversy surrounding the NTIS price structure, read the articles: William T. Knox: “Special Libraries and NTIS,” Special Libraries 67 (January 1976) 45–48; and Irving M. Klempner: “Commentary on Knox, NTIS and Special Libraries,” Special Libraries 67 (August 1976) 397–400 as well as the letters to the editor in April and May/June 1977 issues of the Special Libraries.