Providing Internet access to Los Alamos National Laboratory technical reports: A case history in providing public access to previously restricted documents (1996)

Abstract: The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Research Library recently fulfilled a strategic goal of providing worldwide desktop access via the Internet to full-image files of the complete unclassified holdings of Los Alamos technical reports in its Report Collection. This effort began in late 1994 with the scanning of paper and microfiche format reports. Concurrently, the Research Library helped to initiate shifting the model for publishing new technical reports from paper to electronic; the files could then be directly mounted on the Research Library`s Web server. Providing desktop access to these reports was instrumental in expediting the development of internal policies that would better define what documents, previously restricted to the general public, could be publicly released. Undoubtedly, the most significant category of such reports were previously classified reports that had been declassified, but had not gone through a further review for public release. Collaboration with LANL`s Classification Group led to approval for public release of 97% of these reports. The LANL Research Library`s Web site now offers unique and unprecedented access to the world of a huge body of technical reports never available before anywhere in any form. This paper discusses the issues and steps involved in this achievement.