Because a taxpayer, whether he be service general or general service, field grade or supergrade, experiences special satisfaction on discovering evidence of intelligent use of his tax dollar, the following description—of a valuable service set up for the Defense Department and its contractors, but which can greatly benefit the professional observer of the military/naval scene—should prove welcome. Have a look now at an unusual organization whose principal function it is to acquire, store, and make available useful data, literally, For Your Information.
For some thousands of engineers, scientists, researchers, and historians associated with Department of Defense agencies and their contractor organizations, a prime source of information for a number of years has been a facility which operates under the title of Defense Documentation Center (DDC).
For many other thousands of serious and scholarly researchers, however, in and out of the Government, there is probably little, if any, awareness of this information center which also makes available for public use over half of its technical reports through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) of the Department of Commerce.
And just what is the DDC? How does it function? How may interested researchers benefit from its services? All these are questions for which, surprisingly, there is an abundance of answers, readily provided, by an organization entirely willing to extend its services to the limits of the standard legislative and security restrictions which, understandably, define the scope of its operation. So, for the researcher seeking additional sources of information, there is the need for a first-awareness of the DDC and its counterpart agency, the NTIS.
A field activity of the Defense Supply Agency, the Defense Documentation Center is the central facility within the Department of Defense for the collection, storage, and secondary distribution of research and development program planning summaries. As such, the Center makes available, from one central depository, thousands of research and development reports produced each year by U. S. military organizations and their contractors. The Center also operates computer-based data banks of information concerning current R&D projects. The DDC was earlier known as the Armed Services Technical Information Agency (ASTIA), which was formed in 1951 by consolidating the missions of the two documentation centers then serving the DoD—the Navy Research Section in the Library of Congress (operated by the Office of Naval Research), and the Central Air Documents Office at Dayton, Ohio (operated by the Air Force). In 1963, ASTIA was changed to become the Defense Documentation Center, and is presently located at Cameron Station, Alexandria, Virginia.
Although originally established to serve the military within the framework of the Defense community to expedite the completion of DoD contracts or grants, by providing documentation on completed research, DDC services have been extended to all Federal Government agencies and to their contractors, subcontractors and grantees. In addition, research and development organizations without current contracts may be declared eligible for documentation services by a military service under the Defense Potential Contractors Program- DDC does not serve the general public directly, but every effort is made to give the scientific and industrial community access to reports having no security or other distribution restrictions. Such reports—more than half those processed by DDC—are sent to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) of the Department of Commerce, where they are made available and sold in full-size of microform copies to the general public Defense facilities and their contractors are required to submit to DDC copies of each report (up to and including secret and restricted data) that formally records scientific and technical results of Defense-sponsored research, development, test & evaluation. The documents are screened at DDC to ensure they are of scientific and technical scope and to make certain that they are not duplicates of reports already in the collection Upon selection, each report is assigned an AD (Accession Document) number, processed into the collection, and recorded by microphotography.
For announcement, the technical reports are categorized in a two-level arrangement consisting of 22 major subject fields, with a further subdivision of fields into 188 subject groups. This is an extension of the subject categories developed through the Committee on Scientific and Technical Information (COSATI) of the Federal Council on Science and Technology.
The Center’s technical report collection currently totals more than a million titles. Those accessioned since March 1953, about 790,000, are under computer control for quick retrieval. These include, for example, more than 77,500 titles in the field of electronics and electrical engineering and 105,000 which concern studies in physics. Almost all areas of science and technology are included.
DDC announces the existence and availability of accessioned documents through its own announcement publication and through announcement media of the Department of Commerce.
By a formal contractual agreement with the Department of Commerce, DDC provides copies of Defense Department unclassified/unlimited technical reports to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). NTIS, in turn, announces the availability of the reports in their semimonthly publication, Government Reports Announcements (GRA), and offers paper and microform copies for sale to other Government organizations and to the general public.
In addition, technical reports which were formerly classified and/or limited are forwarded to NTIS when they have been declassified and delimited, and are made available through this program.
The NTIS also acts as the billing and collecting agent for classified and un- classified/limited documents available from DDC. Several methods of payments are offered by NTIS. Users may establish a deposit account, in which case they may order reports directly from DDC; or, they may send a check, purchase order, money order, or the number of an American Express Credit Card, and receive their documents from NTIS.
Classified reports and unclassified reports having distribution limitations are announced in the confidential DDC Technical Abstract Bulletin (TAB). Announcements of unclassified reports having no distribution limitations are listed with similar reports produced by other Federal agencies in the Government Reports Announcements (GRA), published by the Department of Commerce NTIS.
Companion index volumes (TAB indexes and Government Reports Index) are available for each issue of the aforementioned announcement publications to aid the user in determining quickly which, if any, new accessions in the collection are of particular interest. Each of these reference tools includes a corporate author-monitoring agency index, subject index, personal author index, contract number index and a report number (or correlation) index. In addition, TAB indexes include a title index and a release authority index. The indexes are cumulated quarterly and annually. The annual indexes to TAB are available in full-size or microfiche.
To assist organizations in registering for service, DDC provides a manual entitled "Registration for Department of Defense Scientific and Technical Information Services," DSAM 4185.3. The manual outlines registration procedures and includes a complete sample set of pertinent DoD forms. Registration for DDC services also assists the user in obtaining access to services offered by Defense-sponsored Information Analysis Centers and by major DoD technical libraries.
Upon registering with DDC an organization is sent a service package containing the necessary instructions and forms for requesting documents and other services. Organizations registered for DDC services may request copies of the technical reports in either full-size or microform.
Unclassified/unlimited reports, announced and sold by NTIS, are subject to that agency’s pricing policies.
The gradual expansion of the DDC user community, to include services to other Federal Government organizations, and the resultant increases in report requests and costs, necessitated a nominal service charge for DDC paper products. The charges are not intended to defray the total costs of processing reports or to cover the costs of equipment or services, and therefore the DDC maintains a minimal $3.00 charge for paper copies and $0.95 for microfiche copies of technical reports.
Authority to provide a document is governed by its security classification, by any release limitations imposed by the source of the report, and by the requester’s need-to-know. Release limitations are used by sources to protect patent or proprietary rights, to minimize the liability of the Government and its employees, or to withhold information on the relative merits of commercial products. Special provisions for requesting copies of documents having limitations on their distribution include review and approval of release by the responsible source in all cases where required.
Bibliographies: As a related function within the technical report program, DDC provides a bibliography service to registered user organizations. Through this service, the Center produces listings containing abstracts which describe technical reports in the collection.
This is accomplished by utilizing retrieval terms assigned to each document during input analysis. These terms are of two general types: descriptors, or terms more generic than a proper name, e.g., torpedoes; and identifiers, or terms which are proper names, e.g., M-44 torpedoes.
DDC bibliographies take three forms. The first, the Report Bibliography, is prepared in response to a specific request for references to technical reports relating to a specific subject or other information need. With specific descriptive information, the Center prepares a computer search strategy to locate documents which are most pertinent to that particular problem or project. The resultant bibliography is sent as a bound document. Each page contains a separate report description.
The second type, the Scheduled Bibliography, is prepared for those subject areas for which numerous requests are anticipated. Such bibliographies are added to the DDC collection complete with AD number and announced and requested in the same manner as other technical reports.
The third type, the Rapid Response Bibliography, is a literature search prepared in response to a specific request through the Telex Telecommunications System. The response, which is a listing of AD numbers only, is transmitted electrically on a 24-hour basis.
While DDC is a major source of documents on completed research and development, it is also a central source of management and status information on Defense R&D in progress, a means to determine quickly who is doing what research, when, where and how. To accomplish this, "work-in-progress" information covering some twenty-five data fields is computer-stored to describe each "work unit," the logical segment established by local management for technical control.
As an example of the impressive variety of its material, over 800 Research and Technology Operating Plan (RTOP) summaries from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have been incorporated into the Work Unit Information System (WUIS) maintained by DDC.
Data from the system are available in a variety of formats to Defense components and other Federal agencies. Limited access to the data bank is available to contractors and grantees of Federal agencies through the use of a single fixed-format report. Work-in-progress information which is releasable to the public is furnished to the Smithsonian Science Information Exchange (SSIE) from which a public user may request it.
In addition, DDC’s referral service extends the scope of its technical report program to include the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information concerning Defense-sponsored specialized sources of scientific and technical information. When requesters require information exceeding that contained in DDC’s technical report collections, this service is used to direct them to organizations or to individuals which are known or potential sources of this expertise, or to the National Referral Center for Science and Technology in the Library of Congress.
"Defense R&D of 1960s," a 10-year compendium of descriptions concerning the 400,119 technical reports accessioned by DDC during that decade—along with six indexes—is available for sale on 16mm positive or negative roll microfilm. The roll film, provided on reels by DDC, can be used with film cartridges or magazines. The compendia also are available on magnetic tape.
Computer time-sharing through the use of remote cathode ray tube terminals capable of tapping DDC data banks greatly enhances the services provided by the Center to major registered user organizations.
Fifty-one of these remote terminals provide direct access to the DDC central computer. The current terminal sites are as follows:
Defense RDT&E On-Line System Operational Terminal Sites[1]
Army
Redstone Scientific Information Center, Huntsville, Ala.
Army Materiel Command, Alexandria, Va. (temporarily located at DDC)
Office, Chief of Research and Develop ment (OCRD), Pentagon
Army Electronics Command, Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey
Army Air Mobility R&D Laboratory, Ft. Eustis, Virginia
U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Miss.
Army Library, Pentagon
Army Tank Automotive Command, Warren, Michigan
Army Aviation Systems Command, St. Louis, Missouri
Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, Charlottesville, Va.
Army Armament Command, Rock Island, Illinois
Army Test and Evaluation Command, Aberdeen, Md.
Picatinny Arsenal, Dover, New Jersey
Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Army Command & General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas
Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center, Watertown, Mass.
Army Library, Pentagon (classified)
Navy
Naval Ship Research and Development Center, Carderock, Md.
Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, California
Naval Material Command, Arlington Va.
Naval Electronics Laboratory Center, San Diego, Calif.
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.
Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, Md.
Naval Air Development Center, Warminster, Pa.
Naval Underwater Systems Center, Newport, Rhode Island
Naval Coastal Systems Laboratory, Panama City, Florida
Naval Construction Battalion Center, Port Hueneme, Calif.
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif.
U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.
Naval Undersea Center, San Diego, Calif.
Naval Electronic Systems Command, Crystal City, Va.
Naval Underwater Systems Center, New London, Conn.
Air Force
Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico
Air Force Avionics Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
Air Force Business Research Management Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
Rome Air Development Center, Griffiss AFB, New York
Air Force Armament Test Laboratory, Eglin AFB, Florida
Other
Defense Documentation Center, Alexandria, Va. DDC-TGN, DDC-TAR, DDC-SDD, DDC-TCA, DDC-TSR-1
Office of Director Defense, Research and Engineering, Pentagon
National Security Agency, Fort George G. Meade, Md.
Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, Va.
Defense Systems Management School, Ft. Belvoir, Va.
Metals and Ceramics Information Center, Columbus, Ohio
Nondestructive Test Information Analysis Center, San Antonio, Texas
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, College Park, Md.
The information stored in the DDC central computer includes:
► Technical Report Data Bank: 790,000 records of past RDT&E efforts
► Work Unit Information System Data Bank: 20,000 active records of on-going RDT&E programs in the Department of Defense (plus 50,000 completed or terminated records)
► Research and Development Program Planning Data Bank: 6,000 records on future programs currently being planned (DoD users only)
Terminal users may query the data banks in various ways, including the setting up of searches by personal author, report number, contract number, contractor name, responsible DoD organization, fiscal year funding, and others.
Briefly, here’s how a search works: The scientist, engineer, manager, or information specialist devises a search question by using the terminal keyboard. Response is immediate on the
terminal’s cathode ray tube. Once search statistics are presented, the user can browse through the data bank records of interest to him. When he discovers items of particular importance, he can make printouts on paper by pressing a button on the console.
In many cases, information centers at the facilities where the terminals are located either already have or can quickly get copies of documents cited in the searches.
Other DDC programs include:
► Automatic Document Distribution (ADD)—designed to automatically furnish DDC users microfiche copies of classified and limited documents in selected subject areas, with the objective to supply microfiche copies of documents to ADD registrants concurrent with the announcement made in the DDC Technical Abstract Bulletin (TAB).
► Automatic Magnetic Tape Dissemination (AMTD)—Provides the full TAB text on 400 or 600-foot standard minireels of magnetic tape, suitable for use on automatic data processing equipment.
► Retrospective Bibliographies on Magnetic Tape (RBMT)—bibliographies prepared by scanning DDC data files in the same manner that report bibliographies are assembled, except that the resultant information is transferred to 2400-foot magnetic tape reels.
For those whose geographic location permits, additional information may be obtained from orientation briefings, describing the DDC programs and services, which are conducted at the Cameron Station Center each Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 P.M.Persons desiring to attend may make arrangements by telephoning Area Code 202-274-6881 (Autovon 28-46881).
A 25-minute color-sound orientation motion picture of DDC is available on a loan basis with the only charge involved being the return shipping and insurance costs. Requests for the film: "DDC—Your Partner in R&D," (MF 38-5654) may be submitted to any Army, Navy or Air Force film library.
From even so brief a description of its functions and capabilities it will be recognized that in DDC there is a potential for the acquisition, storage and retrieval of information which, for the professional researcher and scholar, should prove as valuable as it is welcome. To this end, it is suggested that requests for full information kits, delineating all aspects of the DDC program, may be addressed to: Defense Documentation Center, Defense Supply Agency, Cameron Station, Alexandria, Virginia 22314.