About the Catalog

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What's in the Catalog | Descriptions of Fields
Electronic Versions of Documents | Obtaining Copies

What's in the Catalog?

The Reading Room catalog database contains bibliographic records for the majority of items in the Reading Room collection. The collection consists primarily of technical reports related to current and historical operations at the Hanford Site. The catalog has some Hanford-related articles from various journals, but the Reading Room does not subscribe to any journals and rarely has any correspondence. For a more detailed description of what is in the Reading Room collection, see the Reading Room Home Page. As of July 2009, there are over 29,000 records in the catalog. Generally, all items with document numbers get added to the catalog. As soon as a document has been added, it appears in this database.

Please note that NOT EVERYTHING in the Reading Room collection has been entered into the catalog. The types of materials in the Reading Room but NOT in the catalog are:

Unusual and Off-Normal Occurrence Reports
Newsclippings
Press Releases
Individual Plant Force Work Reviews
Newsletters
Factsheets
Materials Relating to the Hanford Advisory Board Meetings
Tri-Party Agreement Information Repository Materials Without Document Numbers
Historic Property Inventory Forms
Cultural Resource Reviews

For questions about these materials, please contact the Reading Room staff.

Description of Fields in the Reading Room Catalog

Accession Number	unique number, sequentially assigned by Reading Room staff when items are entered into the catalog
Document Number	identifying number given to the report, usually by the originator; not all items in the catalog have a document number
Alternate Document Number	any alternate document numbers that the report may have
No. Pages	how many pages the document is (sometimes this field is blank, which means that the pages haven't been counted)
Document Title	the title, as it appears on the document; if a document is known by a common or unofficial title, that is listed in parentheses or quote marks, i.e. "Tri-Party Agreement"
Date Published	date the document was issued, as it appears on the document; if only the year is given, that’s all that’s entered into the catalog; this field may occasionally be blank
Date Placed in Reading Room	date the report was added to the Reading Room collection; it is not necessarily entered into the catalog on that same day. This field was not used until January 1, 1998, so if there is no date listed in this field, it means the report was placed in the Reading Room collection before January 1, 1998.
Document Notes	any miscellaneous but pertinent information about the document (such as format); this field is NOT searchable
URL of the Document	if the Reading Room is aware of an electronic version of the document, the URL is listed here.
Document Category	a category assigned by Reading Room staff to selected records; this is an optional field, which is usually blank; currently there are 5 categories used: Hanford-related Environmental Impact Statements and Environmental Assessments Accident/Investigation Reports Human Test Subject Reports Requested Under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Finding Aids
Author	name(s) of individuals who wrote the document; currently all authors are entered, but in the past only the first 3 authors were listed; many documents do not have personal authors listed; author names are listed alphabetically, not necessarily in the order that appears on the document.
Corporate Author	entity that created the document; usually this is the organization that the writer of the report worked for, but not always
Journal Name	title of journal if the document is an article from a journal
Shelving Location and Location Extension	location on the Reading Room shelves where the document is physically located; there may be more than one location if the Reading Room has multiple copies of the same report (usually these would be in different formats, i.e. paper or microfiche)

Electronic Versions of Reports

Each URL listed in the Reading Room catalog is checked for accuracy at the time it is entered into the catalog, but these Internet addresses are external to the DOE-RL Public Reading Room and the Reading Room is not responsible for the content, accessibility or currency of these sites. Attempts are made to include URLs for as many reports as possible. As of July 2009, there are links to over 8,700 full text reports. When possible, the specific URL for the actual report is provided. However, in some cases, the URL may only go to a preliminary page requiring either scrolling through a list to find the specific report or performing a search by entering the document number. Not every report in the Reading Room catalog that is available in full-text has a URL listed; despite continual efforts, it is impossible to keep up with all that are electronically available. Other sources of electronic versions of DOE-related reports can be found at the sites listed below:

Reports that are part of the Hanford Tri-Party Agreement Administrative Record or Public Information Repository

DNFSB (Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board) reports

GAO (Government Accountability Office) reports and testimony

Hanford-generated documents that have been declassified

DOE Information Bridge includes DOE-sponsored report literature produced by the DOE and DOE contractor research and development community received and processed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information since January 1995

The Energy Citations Database provides free access to over 2.3 million science research citations from 1948 through the present, with continued growth through regular updates. There are over 150,000 electronic documents, primarily from 1994 forward, available via the database.

To get a full listing of all the reports in the catalog that are available electronically, simply change the option to Electronically in the "Search for documents available" field.

Be aware that when clicking on a URL to go to the full text of a report, sometimes, depending on how a site is set up, it may not be possible to return to the list of Reading Room catalog search results by clicking on your browser's BACK button.

How to Obtain Copies of Reports in the Reading Room Catalog

The Reading Room collection is non-circulating and all materials are intended for use within the Reading Room. The collection is not available for interlibrary loan. Although not a copy center, many of the items in the collection can be copied, usually for a duplication fee. Please contact the Reading Room staff for current prices. Some items cannot be copied because they are copyright protected or too large to handle. Currently, the Reading Room does not have the capability to duplicate large maps or plates. It is Reading Room policy to require payment in advance before sending out copies.

What Information to Include When Requesting Reports

The more complete the request is, the faster it can be responded to. Including the following information (for each document requested) will expedite the process:

Accession Number
Document Number (if there is one)
Title
Page Count (if it's specified in the catalog)
all the Document Locations (including Extensions) listed

Include a name and contact information with requests. Every attempt will be made to have requests ready to be sent out by the time payment is received.