ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 110 / C&RL News RESEARCH FORUM Bonnie Gratch, editor Impact o f N T IS C D -R O M on the use o f a technical report collection By Linda R. Musser Head, Earth a nd M ineral Sciences Library Pennsylvania State University and Thomas W. Conkling Head, Engineering Library Pennsylvania State University Low use of library m aterials has always b een an area of concern for librarians, from th e standpoint o f costs for acquisition and m aintenance as well as concern for fulfilling th e u ser’s inform ation needs. It has b een theorized that one o f th e reasons for low use is lack o f easy access to th e m aterial by the user. Prior to th e advent o f electronic resources, how­ ever, this prem ise was difficult to prove. T he ability to improve access to inform ation has b een one of th e m ajor justifications b e hind decisions to invest in electronic resources such as C D -R O M indexes. T hese C D -R O M p roducts are particularly exciting because th e relatively simple com m and structure allows users to begin retrieving useful results al­ m ost imm ediately, and th e re is usually no charge for the information. W hile th ere is no doubt that C D -R O M products are popular with users, how they affect access is not as obvious. This p a p er sum ­ m arizes the results o f a study th at exam ined th e in­ fluence of the N T IS C D -R O M on the use o f a technical rep o rt collection. Technical reports are an im portant com ponent o f the scientific literature, and access to these m a­ terials is vita] at a research university. Traditionally, however, technical reports have not b e en highly used by university researchers. Easy access to these m aterials has always been lacking. Technical r e ­ ports are rarely, if ever, provided th e same access in th e library catalog as journals, books, or even gov­ e rn m e n t documents. T he E ngineering Library at th e Pennsylvania State University m aintains a large collection of technical reports in a variety o f form ats and actively encourages th e ir u se . C urrently the library receives microfiche copies o f technical reports in prese­ lected subject categories via th e GPO and NASA depository program s as well as the Selected R e­ search in M icrofiche (SRIM ) program o f NTIS. T hese program s are supplem ented by an on-de­ m and ordering program for titles n ot included in th e collection. Selected p a p er copies of technical reports are also received directly from various organizations. As o f January 1990, th e E ngineering L ibrary’s collection o f technical reports contained approximately 240,000 item s and had a growth rate o f 35,000 p e r year. Prior to the introduction o f th e N T IS CD-ROM, indexed access to the technical re p o rt collection was provided by several tools, including Govern­ m e n t R eports A nnouncem ents a nd Index (the p aper equivalent o f N T IS), Scientific a nd Technical Aero­ space Reports, International Aerospace Abstracts, E nergy Research Abstracts, a nd m iscellaneous specialized subject bibliographies derived from these tools. T he N T IS CD -R O M was installed in th e E ngi­ neering Library in S eptem ber 1989. D uring this m onth and th e following one, th e system was tested, m inor problem s w ere corrected, docum en­ tation was developed, and staff w ere introduced to February 1991 / 111 the system. A great deal o f publicity was n ot g ener­ ated to announce th e acquisition o f th e N T IS CD- ROM. I t was m entioned along w ith o th er available tools in th e regular c o u rse-re lated instruction seminars, and handouts were revised to m ention its availability. In general, the users o f the E ngineering Library required very little assistance in using th e C D - ROM. T he majority o f users w ere students, b u t representatives o f all user groups w ere observed using th e system. W hile users had the option to download th eir search results to a diskette, most chose to have results p rin te d out. Abuse o f printing privileges was generally n ot a problem . T he effect o f th e N T IS C D -R O M on the use of th e technical report collection was im m ediate and dramatic. Prior to th e advent o f the C D -RO M , technical report use was fairly stable. In the first six m onths o f full operation, N ovem ber 1989 through April 1990, the use o f m icrofiche technical reports increased from the average o f 586 for th at period in previous years to 1,658, an increase of 183%. The use statistics w ere collected m onthly from refiling statistics and w ere broken down by m ajor report series, all o f which show ed significant increases in use (see graph below). O th e r areas o f library operations w ere also im ­ pacted to varying degrees by th e N T IS CD-ROM. T he dem and for portable microfiche readers in­ creased. O f the five portable readers available, one was always charged out; m any tim es all w ere. The on-dem and ordering program show ed an increase in use, and photocopying (micro to paper) in­ creased by 17% over th e same period in the previ­ ous year, from 5,718 copies to 6,689 copies. T he results o f this study seem to dem onstrate th at th e use o f a collection is a function o f th e ease o f access to th e m aterials in th at collection. The presence o f the C D -R O M in the library has stim u­ lated interest in the technical rep o rt collection and has had a positive effect on th e users’ perception of these materials. Previously, technical reports were an acceptable source o f information; with the C D - ROM available, technical reports have becom e a favored resource. I f th ere is a drawback to the C D -R O M , it lies in th e fact th at it tends to distract users from other inform ation resources, such as journal articles, that m ight b e m ore appropriate for the work at hand. This is particularly true for undergraduates, who have a tendency to rely on the resource th at gives them the m ost results in the shortest time. To counteract this tendency and provide a m ore bal­ anced access to the engineering literature as a whole, users are regularly rem inded o f o th er infor­ m ation sources, and another C D -R O M covering journal articles is being added to the library. The effect of the NTIS CD-ROM on technical report use The report series codes correspond to governm ent agency sponsors, as follows: AD=Dept. o f Defense, N=NASA, DE=Dept. o f Energy, a nd PB=miscellaneous governm ent agencies o r others.