National Transportation Library Collection Policy

September 2004

Library Mission

The mission of the National Transportation Library (NTL) is to increase timely access to the information that supports transportation policy, research, operations, and technology transfer activities. The NTL works with the transportation community to develop tools, techniques, and institutional relationships that carry out this mission.

As part of its mission to improve access to information, the NTL works with other transportation information leaders to identify useful and valuable materials for long-term retention. The NTL collects and catalogs digital documents for its repository and provides a virtual catalog of other significant Web resources. Although these two functions require the same expert skills and use the same metadata repository and tools, they have different requirements and scope. The digital collection is the permanent archive of electronic transportation resources that have long-term value, while the virtual collection provides a portal to current Web resources. The NTL also collaborates with other transportation leaders and libraries to promote physical and digital repositories and preservation.

Overview

The NTL focuses on collecting or linking to published transportation materials dating back to 1995. Older materials at risk or of particular significance are added to the digital repository as time and resources permit. Emphasis is placed on collecting documents, by priority, from the following publishers:

1. United States Department of Transportation agencies
2. State Departments of Transportation, local agencies, MPOs, tribal road agencies
3. Other federal agencies
4. Universities
5. Professional organizations
6. Private sector

A priority for the NTL is to collect materials that support the USDOT and BTS strategic goals:

• Safety-- Promote the public health and safety by working toward the elimination of transportation related death and injuries.
• Mobility-- Shape an accessible, affordable, reliable transportation system for all people, goods, and regions.
• Economic growth-- Support a transportation system for all people, goods, and regions.
• Human and Natural Environment-- Protect and enhance communities and the natural environment affected by transportation.
• National Security-- Ensure the security of the transportation system for the movement of people and goods, and support the National Security Strategy.
• Organizational Excellence Goal-- Advance the Department's ability to manage for results and innovation.

Standards

The NTL believes that standards are important for documentation, access, interoperability, and preservation. The NTL develops procedures and technologies for bibliographic access, collection, and preservation consistent with best practices and national standards, such as the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model.

Cooperation

The National Transportation Library facilitates cooperation among other national, regional, and special libraries in a nationwide effort to preserve information for the future.

The Digital Collection

The archival function of the NTL is to collect and maintain electronic copies of significant research and statistical documents that have long-term usefulness and value to federal, state, and local transportation decisionmakers, transportation analysts, and researchers. These materials may be at risk, and the provision of a secure, trusted digital repository for the transportation community is important for the long-term protection of that information.

Materials are routinely provided to the NTL for the digital archive by the publishers through agreements and are accepted and stored digitally. Priority is given to materials that have broad usefulness for planning and research for transportation decisionmakers. Materials may be born digital, or digitizied by the publisher or the NTL. The NTL is particularly interested in preservation of born-digital documents that may be only as permanent as the Web site hosting them. Print documents will be accepted for possible digitization based on NTL priorities.

The Portal Collection

The NTL provides a portal to other significant transportation resources by cataloging the current Web publications of U.S. and state DOTs, Transportation Research Centers and Associations, and other significant sites. Portal resources are cataloged as an additional electronic resource. These links are limited to sites that have significance to transportation decisionmakers or lead to additional resources stored by the sources cited. For example, the NTL will catalog MPO sites and may catalog Web pages within MPO sites that list publications or resources of the MPO. These resources may not be candidates for archival acquisition. These may consist of reports, policy statements, planning documents, white papers, and significant Web sites that provide access to further resources.

The NTL Virtual Collection does not index the contents of electronic journals or proceedings not maintained on the NTL server as these are indexed in TRIS Online.