Technical Reports and Standards

The Technical Translations (TT) Series

The Technical Translations Series consists of English-language translations from 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 of 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:

Celebration of May Day 1960 in Moscow.

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 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.

         Additional Resources:

Subjects:

Science --Periodicals --Translations into English..
Technology --Periodicals --Translations into English..

Titles:

Bibliography of scientific and industrial reports [microform]. Washington: Office of Technical Services, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 1946-1949.

Bibliography of technical reports [microform]. Washington, D.C : Dept. of Commerce, 1949-1954.

Consolidated index of translations into English. New York: Special Libraries Association, 1969.

A guide to scientific and technical journals in translation. Compiled by Carl J. Himmelsbach and Grace E. Brociner. New York: Special Libraries Association, 1968 & 1972.

Translations of Scientific and Technical Literature: A Guide to Their Location. K. Wright. Performer: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, CA. Sponsor: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC. 1987. 32p. Report Number: N88236864.

World index of scientific translations. Delft, Netherlands: International Translations Centre, 1967-1971, 1972-1976.

World transindex : a joint publication of International Translations Centre, Commission of the European Communities, Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Delft, Netherlands: International Translations Centre, 1978-1986.

World translations index : a joint publication of International Translations Centre [and] Centre national de la recherche scientifique in co-operation with the National Translations Center at the John Crerar Library of the University of Chicago. Delft, Netherlands: International Translations Centre, 1987-1997.

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.