National Technical Information Service

The National Technical Information Service an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. The primary mission of NTIS is to collect and organize scientific, technical, engineering, and business information generated by U.S. government-sponsored research and development, for private industry, government, academia, and the public. The systems, equipment, financial structure, and specialized staff skills that NTIS maintains to undertake its primary mission allow it to provide assistance to other agencies requiring such specialized resources. 1945-present.

History

Departmental Order No. 5 of the Commerce Department in 1945 established the Office of Declassification and Technical Service was created to "serve as a clearinghouse for collecting, editing, and publishing of such scientific and technical data for the purpose of promoting economic expansion and development".

July 1946 Named changed to OTS and "its functions were expanded to included 'aid in increasing the technical production of the nation by assisting manufactures and industries by contacting federal, state, and private agencies which can help...by furnishing solutions to technical problems'" (Adkinson 1978).

OTS also responsible for making foreign and domestic science-technology information accessible to the US scientific, technical, and public; Published Monthly Bibliography of Technical Reports and Technical Newsletter; 1958 central distributor of nonfederal documents to unfriendly countries.

In 1964 became Commerce's Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information (CFSTI) and in 1971 the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and became national distribution center for federal science-technology information products.

Papers

National Archives and Records Administration. Record Group 0422: Records of the National Technical Information Service. [3]

History

Further reading

Papers