Technical Reports and Standards
The Technical
Translations (TT) Series
The Technical
Translations Series consists of English-language translations
of scientific and technical material produced during the Cold-war
period. The series was the result of two foreign translation
efforts: one sponsored
by
the National
Science
Foundation
(NSF); and the other by the Special
Libraries Association (SLA).
The NSF-funded Scientific Translation Center included Russian typescripts
and technical reports that were then deposited at the Library of Congress.
The SLA
Translations Center (founded in 1953 under the name SLA Translations
Pool) contained translations from other languages.
This Center was for many years located
in the John Crerar Library at the University of Chicago, but became
part
of
the
Library
of Congress' National Translations Center (NTC) in 1989 (see Ildiko
D. Nowak's brief history of the Center).
Bibliographic Resources:
Translations held by the Scientific Translation Center were first
announced in the Bibliography of Translations from Russian Scientific
and Technical Literature, published from 1953 until 1956. SLA issued
its own publication in 1953, the SLA
List of Translations. Two years later this publication changed
names to Translation
Monthly, and began including the list of translations from the
Scientific Translation Center. The Department of Commerce’s
Office of Technical Services (OTS) replaced Translation Monthly
with its own announcement bulletin, Technical Translations,
published from 1959 through 1964. This
publication used
the form “TT“ followed
by the year expressed in two digits, then a hyphen and the accession
number. This identifier was used to order each specific item.
In 1965, OTS changed its name to the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific
and
Technical Information and continued to publish the Technical Translations
announcements bulletin until 1968.
The issuing of documents in the “TT” series continued
for many years for translations performed under contracts with the
Federal government. But as the popularity of the technical
report format for the release of contract research grew,
many government agencies began issuing their own technical report
series. As a result, the “TT” series
slowly dwindled -- as a scan of the later issues of the Technical
Translations announcement bulletin demonstrates. The Clearinghouse
and its successor, the National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
discontinued producing microfiche copies of TT series reports in 1974.
Still, the Department of Energy occasionally used
the TT designation into the 1990s. The National Translations Center
continued with its own index, the
Translations
register-index, through 1986.
TRS Holdings:
The Technical Reports and Standards Unit has in hardcopy and on microfiche
the “TT” series
from 1959 to 1975. The hardcopy
reports, most of which only cover a 4-year period (1959-1962),
are translations of monographs, technical reports,
journal
articles,
patents and theses that were of interest to
the U.S. Government
and industry. The majority of the translations in the TRS hardcopy
collection are from the Russian and German languages.
The Library of Congress closed the National Translations Center on
September 30, 1993. Library of Congress holdings for the Center from
1989-1993 (30,000 translations) were transferred to the Canada Institute
for Scientific and Technical Information in Ottawa, Canada, and can
be obtained from CISTI.
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United States Copyright restrictions prevent copying entire copyrighted
documents. However, the fair use provision does permit reproduction
of relevant portions (small parts) of these documents. Photocopiers,
microform reader/printers and computer terminals are available
for patron use in the Science
Reading Room. TRS materials are non-circulating and are not
to leave the Science Reading
Room area.
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