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Communications Reference Guide > Chapter 10

Chapter 10—Distributing Your Communication Products

Target Your Audience

You may customize your own distribution plan by identifying the audience you want to reach and providing a Microsoft Excel file with addresses in electronic format or submitting preprinted mailing labels.

Regardless of how you choose to disseminate your communication product, Federal law requires that all publications must be available for public distribution through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). When you process your communication product through HRTM for editorial review and publication, the appropriate numbers of copies are provided to NTIS. When the distribution is "by request only," it will be disseminated solely through NTIS.

Report and TechBrief Mailing Lists

HRTM maintains report and TechBrief mailing lists to reach targeted technical audiences. The mailing lists include entities that requested printed copies of all our products. They are generally libraries, researchers, State DOTs, and academic institutions such as the TRB Library, Texas Transportation Institute, and the National Network of Transportation Research Information Services (TRISNET) Repositories at Northwestern University. HRTM automatically adds these mailing labels to your distribution requirements.

Periodical Mailing Lists

The periodical mailing lists for R&T Transporter, FOCUS, and Public Roads maintained at TFHRC can be used to reach a large, broad technical audience of transportation public groups. The lists include:

FHWA Internal Distribution

For internal distribution, FHWA maintains a list of headquarters and field office addresses in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You may distribute your products to individual offices, teams, or field offices by specifying the number of copies for each on this spreadsheet. Target those offices that would benefit from your R&T product and identify copies needed. Obtain the spreadsheet from the HRTM team.

FHWA External Mail Lists

There are about a dozen official FHWA mailing lists that can be added to your distribution plans to reach yet another audience of highway transportation associations. The FHWA publishing office (HAIM-20) maintains and updates these official lists. As a standard practice, HRTM automatically adds list FHWA-16 (see list information below) to your distribution plans for the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Centers. The mailing lists follow; let HRTM know your preference for each communication product.

Table 9. FHWA mailing lists.

List No.

Recipients

# Copies

FHWA-1

Division environmental managers

63

FHWA-2

Transportation librarians

196

FHWA-3

Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs)

338

FHWA-4

Government agencies (motor fuel related)

718

FHWA-5

Greener Roadsides (publication)

2,475

FHWA-9

Government agencies (price trends related)

504

FHWA-10

Government agencies (highway construction usage factors)

154

FHWA-16

Technology transfer (T2) centers (LTAP)

58

FHWA-21A

FHWA retirees

1,174

FHWA-24

Mixed audience (government, association, and individuals)

1,469

FHWA-31

Mixed audience interested in FHWA's Traffic Control Program

10,221

FHWA-44

State highway agencies

53

FHWA-50A

National Highway Institute's (NHI) university contacts

323

FHWA-50B

Historically black colleges and universities

128

FHWA-50C

NHI FWHA field contacts

64

FWHA-50D

NHI State highway department contacts

69

FWHA-50E

Hispanic-serving institutions

44

FHWA-50F

NHI programs

65

FHWA-50G

County engineers

376

FHWA-50H

American Public Works Association

516

FHWA-50I

Tribal colleges

30

FHWA-53

Private concerns and Government agencies

369

Customized Mailing List

If you would like to submit your own mailing list for distribution, please provide mailing labels or a Microsoft Excel file containing the names and addresses of recipients. Please include the following field names for the headers in the Excel document:

Table 10. Format for customized mailing list.

Use this Field Name as the Excel Header

Enter This Type of Data in the Field

COMPANY_1

Company name or name of person (if desired)

COMPANY_2

Company name

STREET_1

Street address

STREET_2

Addition street address

CITY

City

STATE

State

ZIP

First 5 digits of zip code

ZIP_4

Last 4 digits of zip code

COUNTRY

Country code

Number of copies

Total copies to the person/company at the address

Electronic Database Submissions

As information managers for TFHRC R&T documents, HRTM will submit your products in print or electronic form for distribution through the appropriate transportation databases.

Limited Distribution

Sometimes it is necessary to have only a published record of a research document with a very limited distribution. In this case, HRTM has an NTIS-only distribution that consists of as few copies as possible to only those mandatory entities, including NTIS, R&T Product Distribution Center, the National Transportation Library, and Sweden.

Records Archives

Under the disposition authority granted by NC1-406-80-9, RD&T is responsible for transferring its technical report files, which have been determined by the National Archives and Records Administration to be permanent records, to the Federal Records Center 3 years after the cutoff date. Complying with this authority, HRTM is working with the TFHRC Technical Reference Center and the FHWA Records Officer to transfer a copy of all FHWA RD&T technical reports produced by TFHRC to the National Archives according to the disposition schedule detailed in FHWA Order M 1324.1, dated June 29, 1990.


Chapter 9—Guidelines for Media Relations
References and Appendices

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