US DOE Public Reading Room Catalog Richland Operations Office Office of River Protection

Important Reading Room/Catalog Messages

The DOE Public Reading Room will be closed December 23, 2024, through January 2, 2025
Message valid: 12/1/2024 to 1/3/2025

About the Catalog

What's in the Catalog

The Reading Room catalog database contains bibliographic records for the majority of items in the Reading Room collection, as well as the Declassified Document Retrieval System (DDRS). The collection consists primarily of technical reports related to current and historical operations at the Hanford Site. The catalog has some Hanford-related articles from various journals, but the Reading Room does not subscribe to any journals and rarely has any correspondence. For a more detailed description of what is in the Reading Room collection, see the Reading Room Home Page. Generally, all items with document numbers get added to the catalog. As soon as a document has been added, it appears in this database.

DDRS

The Hanford Declassification Project (HDP) was initiated by the Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (DOE-RL) to declassify to the maximum possible extent all previously classified Hanford operations information (documents and photographs). This effort culminated into the Declassified Document Retrieval System, which is now integrated with the DOE Public Reading Room's catalog. The intent is to provide easy and timely access to declassified information including that declassified in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Please note that NOT EVERYTHING in the Reading Room collection has been entered into the catalog. The types of materials in the Reading Room but NOT everything in the catalog are:

  • Unusual and Off-Normal Occurrence Reports
  • Newsclippings
  • Press Releases
  • Individual Plant Force Reviews
  • Newsletters
  • Factsheets
  • Materials Relating to the Hanford Advisory Board Meetings
  • Tri-Party Agreement Information Repository Materials Without Document Numbers
  • Historic Property Inventory Forms
  • Cultural Resource Reviews

For questions about these materials, please contact the Reading Room staff.

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Description of Fields in the Reading Room Catalog

Accession Number
A number given to an item that uniquely identifies the item within the Reading Room collection
DDRS Accession Number
A number given to an item that uniquely identifies the item within the DDRS collection
DDRS Keywords
Keywords given to a DDRS item that generally describes its content
Document Number
identifying number given to the report, usually by the originator; not all items in the catalog have a document number
Alternate Document Number
any alternate document numbers that the report may have
No. Pages
how many pages the document is (sometimes this field is blank, which means that the pages haven't been counted)
Document Title
the title, as it appears on the document; if a document is known by a common or unofficial title, that is listed in parenthesis or quote marks, i.e. "Tri-Party Agreement"
Date Published
date the document was issued, as it appears on the document; if only the year is given, that's all that's entered into the catalog; this field may occasionally be blank
Date Placed in Reading Room
date the report was added to the Reading Room collection; it is not necessarily entered into the catalog on that same day. This field was not used until January 1, 1998, so if there is no date listed in this field, it means the report was placed in the Reading Room collection before January 1, 1998.
Document Notes
any miscellaneous but pertinent information about the document (such as format); this field is NOT searchable
URL of the Document
if the Reading Room is aware of an electronic version of the document, the URL is listed here.
Document Category
a category assigned by Reading Room staff to selected records; this is an optional field, which is usually blank; currently there are 5 categories used:
  1. Hanford-related Environmental Impact Statements and Environmental Assessments
  2. Accident/Investigation Reports
  3. Human Test Subject Reports
  4. Requested Under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
  5. Finding Aids
Author
name(s) of individuals who wrote the document; currently all authors are entered, but in the past only the first 3 authors were listed; many documents do not have personal authors listed; author names are listed alphabetically, not necessarily in the order that appears on the document.
Corporate Author
entity that created the document; usually this is the organization that the writer of the report worked for, but not always
Journal Name
title of the journal if the document is an article from a journal
Shelving Location and Location Extension
location on the Reading Room shelves where the document is physically located; there may be more than one location if the Reading Room has multiple copies of the same report (usually these would be in different formats, i.e. paper or microfiche)
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Electronic Versions of Reports

Each URL listed in the Reading Room catalog is checked for accuracy at the same time it is entered into the catalog, but these Internet addresses are external to the DOE-RL Public Reading Room and the Reading Room is not responsible for the content, accessibility or currency of these sites. Attempts are made to include URLs for as many reports as possible. As of July 2009, there are links to over 8,700 full text reports. When possible, the specific URL for the actual report is provided. However, in some cases, the URL may only go to a preliminary page requiring either scrolling through a list to find the specific report or performing a search by entering the document number. Not every report in the Reading Room catalog that is available in full-text has a URL listed; despite continual efforts, it is impossible to keep up with all that are electronically available. Other resources of electronic versions of DOE-related reports can be found at the sites listed below:

To get a full listing of all the reports in the catalog that are available electronically, simply change the option to Electronically in the "Search for documents available" field.

Be aware that when clicking on a URL to go to the full text of a report, sometimes, depending on how a site is set up, it may not be possible to return to the list of Reading Room catalog search results by clicking on your browser's BACK button.

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How to Obtain Copies of Reports in the Reading Room Catalog

The Reading Room collection is non-circulating and all materials are intended for use within the Reading Room. The collection is not available for interlibrary loan. Although not a copy center, many of the items in the collection can be copied, usually for a duplication fee. Please contact the Reading Room staff for current prices. Some items cannot be copied because they are copyright protected or too large to handle. Currently, the Reading Room does not have the capability to duplicate large maps or plates. It is Reading Room policy to require payment in advance of sending out copies.

What information to include when requesting reports

The more complete the request is, the faster it can be responded to. Including the following information (for each document requested will expedite the process:

  1. Accession Number
  2. Document Number (if there is one)
  3. Title
  4. Page Count (if it's specified in the catalog)
  5. all the Document Locations (including Extensions) listed

Include a name and contact information with requests. Every attempt will be made to have requests ready to be sent out by the time payment is received.

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