Ask a Librarian: Science & Technical Reports

Immediately following World War II, the Publications Board (PB) of the Department of Commerce began to issue unclassified research reports .

How do you find the publishing date/author for your website articles, so I can site the source?

What is the tallest flowering plant ?

Especially for small businesses?

The pre-recorded/on-demand videos can be found in three places:

• National Book Festival website:  https://www.loc.gov/events/2020-national-book-festival/schedule/video-on-demand/  
• Library of Congress Event Videos  https://www.loc.gov/collections/event-videos/ 
  • This collection contains National Book Festival videos and other presentations from the Library of Congress.
  • Search by presenter name or keyword.
  • Browse only the 2020 Festival videos in this interface, starting here:  https://www.loc.gov/collections/event-videos/?dates=2020/2029&q=%22national+book+festival%22
  • Note: The videos may be saved from this location for later play offline.
• Library of Congress YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/LibraryOfCongress 
  • Note: be sure to use the search option inside the channel, rather than the one for all of YouTube.  In the laptop/desktop interface, this is next to "ABOUT" and just above the video window.

Live Q&A: Not every NBF presenter in 2020 had a live Q&A session.  For one who did, find a link on the presenter’s biography page to a recording.  The biography pages  are linked from here:  https://www.loc.gov/events/2020-national-book-festival/authors/  .

Other 2020 National Book Festival-related videos, including the PBS television special are listed and linked here: https://www.pbs.org/show/library-congress-national-book-festival/ .  The PBS Special and its promotional clips may also be streamed on the PBS Video App, available from the Apple Store and Google Play.

What happened to this resource from the former Ask a Librarian site?

Yes. The Teachers website provides instructions and examples for citing primary sources from the Library's collections.

No. The Library does not provide classification, subject analysis, or other bibliographic description for books except as part of the standard cataloging process.

Yes. It is possible to pre-register online for a Reader Identification Card, but the process must be completed in person at the Library.

Yes. Screening takes place at all entrances to the Library of Congress, and many public reading rooms also restrict the materials that researchers may bring with them?

Yes. Free wireless service is available in most areas of the Library's research centers and buildings.

Yes. The Library provides photocopying and printing services and scanners in most public research areas.

No. While the Library of Congress collections contain over 162 million books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources, the online catalog contains 17 million records describing these collections. 

Yes. Assistive technology is available to researchers in the Library's public reading rooms.