TRAIL would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals, organizations, and institutions. If we have missed a contribution of which you are aware, please let us know. Email us at trail@crl.edu [14].

 

FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTORS

TRAIL Member Institutions [2]

University of Hong Kong

 

CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS

University of Arkansas    

University of Arizona

Auburn University

University of California at Davis  

California Institute of Technology

Cleveland Public Library

Colorado State University

University of Connecticut        

Dallas Public Library

Georgia Institute of Technology    

Iowa State University

Lehigh University             

Michigan State University

University of New Mexico            

University of Notre Dame

Oklahoma State University           

Princeton University

Rice University  

San Francisco Public Library

Southwestern Research Institute

State University of New York at Stony Brook

University of Tulsa

USGS Fort Collins Science Center

University of Washington

Washington State University

 

ADDITIONAL SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTORS

University of Arizona - Project idea originator

Linda Hall Library - Project idea support

Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) - Pilot project sponsorship

Center for Research Libraries (CRL) -  Continued development and support of TRAIL as part of the Global Resources Network

University of Hawaii at Manoa - Hosting of pilot search interface

University of Washington -  Hosting of TRAIL search interface

 

This glossary was created to explain terms and concepts used by TRAIL. It is intended as an explanatory guide for current and potential members.

Agency  A specific entity of the United States Government as defined by the United States Government Manual (http://www.usgovernmentmanual.gov [35]).

Central Processing Unit  The institution receiving collections for digitization from the Nodes. This Unit assembles collections and inventories the collections in the TRAIL Collection Processing Database. Catalog records for each technical report are created and the cataloging is supplied to OCLC. The appropriate Stream is determined and collections are shipped to be digitized.  

Content Contributors  The institution(s) providing technical reports to a Node. A Content Contributor’s responsibilities include creating an inventory of the reports, taking the necessary steps to have the reports removed from their collections, and shipping the reports to the appropriate Node.

Member Organization  Any organization interested in supporting the work of TRAIL that has submitted a signed member agreement and has paid the annual membership fee.

Member Representative  The person designated by the Member Organization to have voting authority in elections, bylaw revisions and other governance issues. This person is responsible for being the primary contact between TRAIL and the Member Organization.  The Member Representative may also elect to participate in TRAIL activities such as standing for elected offices and serving on the Steering Committee, working groups and/or task forces. This person must be employed by the Member Organization and not be a student.

Member Participants The employees of a Member Organization participating in TRAIL project activities. Member Participants, other than the Member Representative, do not have voting authority, but can participate in all other TRAIL activities.

Node  An institution responsible for soliciting and collecting from Content Contributors a copy of reports in a series to form a collection to be digitized. The Node adds information about the reports to the Central Processing Unit inventory, and ships them to the Central Processing Unit.

Personal Members  Personal Members are individuals who are interested in supporting TRAIL, but work at non-member institutions. Personal Members do not pay a yearly membership fee and are encouraged to participate in TRAIL’s Working Groups and activities. The TRAIL Bylaws were amended to include Personal Members in 2015.

Series  A defined publication with a unique SuDoc call number that is numbered or unnumbered. Note: Title changes without SuDoc changes do not constitute a new series. 

Streams  The destination of the technical reports to be digitized after processing at the Central Processing Unit. Presently there are two main streams; the Google Stream and the University of North Texas (UNT) Stream. The Google Stream is in collaboration with University of Michigan Digitization Project. Reports entering this stream must be in print and all components (maps, foldouts, etc.) of the report must be of a uniform size. Reports entering the UNT Stream may be print or microform. Print reports entering this path will be those where all components are not of uniform size. If a Content Contributor is loaning reports and therefore wants them returned, those reports will also enter the UNT Stream.

TRAIL Annual Meeting  The in-person meeting of the Steering Committee, that is usually held in spring and open to all Member Representatives and Member Participants of TRAIL. The meeting is a venue for acquainting everyone with TRAIL and also to discuss the direction of the project including strategic planning.

TRAIL Collection Processing Database (http://traildb.library.arizona.edu/ [28])  The online tool created to record and provide access to pertinent information about digitization progress of series. This includes information about collections being processed, shipment of collections, institutions providing support and contacts for each institution.

2003–Mid-2005

Discussion began at the University of Arizona (UA), followed by meetings at the American Library Association (ALA) [36] and the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) [37] on a possible project to digitize U.S. federal technical reports to make them more visible and searchable. Maliaca Oxnam of UA led these discussions.

A letter of interest was sent to Judy Russell at the Government Printing Office.

The discussion group wanted to create a pilot to explore potential problems and successes of a national, collaborative technical report digitization, access, and preservation project. The demonstration project would be small (less than 500 reports or 50,000 pages), but large enough to identify and work out some technical and user problems.

Maliaca Oxnam started a TECHREPORTS e-list at UA to communicate with other interested parties.

Late 2005

GPO showed interest in the project but had no funding. UA received word that Bernie Reilly at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) [38]was interested in the project. A group from UA met with Bernie, who agreed to gauge the interest of CRL libraries in the project.

The Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) [39] opened discussions on possible new strategic directions. In response, UA submitted a proposal to develop a collaborative project with CRL to identify, digitize, and provide open access to federal technical reports.

A straw poll over the TECHREPORTS list asked subscribers which agencies' reports would attract the most interest.

Early 2006

Maliaca Oxnam and Bernie Reilly talked again at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Reilly reiterated CRL’s interest in the digitization project. Results of the straw poll were reported.

GWLA announced that the UA proposal had been accepted as one of four strategic initiatives for the Alliance. A small group of GWLA Deans and Directors met to expand each initiative into a program outline and suggest next steps.

Mid-2006

GWLA approved the outline for the technical report digitization project and the GWLA/CRL Federal Technical Reports Task Force was created to move the project forward. At this point the Task Force was primarily composed of engineering librarians. Maliaca Oxnam became Chair of the Task Force.

The Linda Hall Library [40] in Kansas City expressed particular interest in the project and agreed to assign an individual to work on the Task Force as well as to do a 200–500 report digitization test to identify costs.

The University of Arizona agreed to provide seed money for the project; funds were transferred to CRL to avoid fiscal year spending deadlines at UA.

The Task Force met for the first time; over two days, members reviewed the entire project and outlined questions and next steps for each stage. The Task Force also:

• identified next steps that subgroups could work on in the short term
• created a Gantt chart that outlined tasks and timelines
• decided on a number of small collections that could be used for the pilot/demonstration project
• developed preliminary cost model frameworks that were submitted to GWLA/CRL members for feedback.

These efforts were followed by:

• development of interface and metadata requirements
• creation of lists of agencies and institutions with interest in being involved in the project
• investigation of digitization vendors
• scanning of the first collection: the Monograph Series of the National Bureau of Standards.

Late 2006

The Task Force:

• carried out the above projects
• sent out calls for interest on various e-lists
• developed long-term digitization plans
• developed a prototype system at the University of Hawaii
• identified publication of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) collections for scanning.

Early 2007

Task Force members met in January at the Linda Hall Library to continue intensive planning for the pilot and for a longer-phased project. They also developed digitization quality control checks.

AEC collections were scanned and added to the pilot site.

Pilot project was named TRAIL (Technical Report Archive and Image Library).

GWLA Deans and Directors agreed to support the project with $4,000 per GWLA institution (about $120,000 total). GWLA added a Digital Collections Program Officer to its staff, who joined the Task Force as the GWLA representative/liaison.

Mid-2007

The University of Arkansas received a gift of the U.S. Bureau of Mines technical report series, which became the next major set of materials to be digitized. The University of Arkansas became the first “node”.

The University of Michigan Digitization Project (Michigan) [12] offered to become involved. Michigan would funnel the technical reports the Task Force to be included in the project into the stream of materials that Michigan supplies to Google as one of its partners. Michigan would receive a copy of all scanned documents it sends to Google. Development of a separate interface that would allow searching of just the technical-report content was proposed, leading to much discussion between the Task Force and Michigan.

Late 2007

The Task Force met again at the Linda Hall Library to develop a process and workflow for a much larger volume of material, since Michigan had offered to do the scanning. The Task Force was recharged to address a production system (as opposed to a pilot) and added two new members, who were both government documents librarians. The Task Force created and assigned new task lists after this meeting.

Stanford expressed an interest in joining the project to design a user interface to the scanned documents.

The group agreed on a permanent project name—TRAIL—and the name of the group became the TRAIL Task Force.

Early 2008

Discussion began about having OCLC create collection sets of records for each series (or group of series from a particular agency) digitized by the Task Force.

Linda Hall Library bowed out of participation in the project since its commitment was only for the pilot. The Task Force welcomed four new members, three of whom were government documents librarians. The updated version of the Task Force met in Chicago to bring the new members up to speed, decide on future directions, and identify tasks.

The Task Force identified point people and groups to complete these tasks:

The “Collection Group” subgroup would define the collections to be included in the project.

The “External Communication” subgroup would develop a project Web site to inform the public and project partners about the work of the Task Force and how to become involved.

Mid-2008

A skeletal Web site [41] was launched using free Google space for hosting and creation, and much background work to populate the site with content.

UA developed a project internal tracking system.

The group made a final decision on the TRAIL logo.

Late 2008

Work began at the second “node” to process of all remaining report series of the National Bureau of Standards.

2009

The University of North Texas (UNT) became a partner for hosting TRAIL content. UNT had a strong track record with content hosting and digital projects with the Government Printing Office and was very familiar with the unique needs of the technical report literature.  The University of Washington initiated to develop the web interface and federated search between UNT and the Hathi Repository.

Early 2010

TRAIL won the ALA/GODORT/LexisNexis Documents to the People Award [42]. The Award “is a tribute to an individual, library, institution, or other non-commercial group that has most effectively encouraged the use of government documents in support of library service.”

In the spring of 2010, TRAIL became part of the Global Resource Network (GRN) within CRL. A new administrative structure was formed, bylaws were created and a funding structure established. TRAIL began soliciting institutional members who would provide support via a membership fee and also be willing to assist with the work of TRAIL.

Late 2010

The latter half of 2010 saw the creation and initiation of an orientation program for new members, increased participation in TRAIL from new member institution representatives, and the release and rollout of the new TRAIL search interface.

Early 2011

In spring of 2011, the first election of officers within TRAIL's new organizational structure occurred. The new officers began planning how to build an expanded member base as a Global Resource Network within CRL. A membership working group was formed to actively solicit new TRAIL members

Late 2011

The membership working group met with modest success as TRAIL's institutional member total finally eclipsed in 2011 what it had been when it was a GWLA initiative. The TRAIL Steering Committee determined that a major bylaws revision was needed and a small task group was formed to draft a reworking of TRAIL's bylaws. 2011 also saw a significant push to increase content available in TRAIL. A pilot to digitize microfiche and microcards was begun at the University of North Texas.

2012

TRAIL’s new bylaws were approved. The retirement of the primary TRAIL cataloger caused a disruption in content processing. The first significant adjustment to the composition of the TRAIL Steering Committee occurred after the bylaws went into effect. The pilot project to digitize microcards and fiche was successful and 174 reports were added to the TRAIL collection consisting of 14,207 pages of content as a result of that pilot at the University of North Texas.

2013

TRAIL search widget created by staff at Iowa State.  In an effort to boost membership, a new Membership Working Group was created and new members were solicited.

2014

The next significant bylaws revision, which allows for personal memberships within TRAIL (in addition to the standard institutional/organizational variety) was passed by the TRAIL membership.  Although the pre-1976 focus for TRAIL content had not been a priority for years, at this point TRAIL dropped that focus completely.

2015

TRAIL began to look more strategically and closely at harvesting content from other sites, including costs for metadata creation and/or clean-up when necessary.  TRAIL content at UNT crested 1,000,000 pages.  Overall number of TRAIL reports surpassed 50,000.  TRAIL was in the top 25 of content suppliers to the Hathi Trust.  The first non-educational institution became a member when the Government Publications Office joins TRAIL.

2016

Number of TRAIL institutional members surpassed 40 for the first time.

2016 marked the 10th anniversary of TRAIL, recognized as the “10 Years of TRAIL” promotion.

By February 2016, TRAIL deposited over 39,000 volumes in HathiTrust.  This placed TRAIL in the Top 25 of HathiTrust content contributors.  Most top-rated contributors are universities, with notable exceptions being the Library of Congress, Getty Research Institute, and TRAIL.

TRAIL Tech Talk – Maliaca Oxnam did the first one on Persistent Identifiers and DOIs in August 2016.

TRAIL completed the digitization of Research and Development Progress Reports issued by the Office of Saline Waters (1955-1972). These technical reports are valuable for the study of thermodynamics, engineering, economics, and water resource policy.

2017

TRAIL has made over 61,500 federal technical reports discoverable and searchable.

New members - UCLA, Colorado School of Mines, John Hopkins University, University of Wyoming.

 

Current partner institutions of TRAIL are listed here http://www.crl.edu/grn/trail/member-list [2]

The original member institutions of TRAIL:

University of Arizona
University of Arkansas
Center for Research Libraries
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Kansas State University
Linda Hall Library
University of Washington

The Global Resources Network [43], based at the Center for Research Libraries [38] in Chicago, welcomes the active participation of institutions interested in facilitating access to U.S. federal technical reports through the TRAIL project.

Institutions wishing to participate in TRAIL should fill out the TRAIL Participant Agreement [44]. As of FY19, TRAIL members pay an annual membership fee of $3,000.

Individuals who work at institutions that are not institutional members may join TRAIL by filling out the Individual Participant Agreement [45]. There is no membership fee for Individual Members of TRAIL.

TRAIL is looking for additional partners to participate in the project. Institutions, whether large or small, can participate in many ways, including (but not limited to):

• Contributing, soliciting, or acquiring content that can be used in the project’s digitization streams
• Identifying and analyzing proposed content for inclusion in the project’s collections
• Providing technical support and expertise for the digitization, quality control, interface, or digital archiving
• Sharing need and opportunity to pursue particular collections
• Collaborating with federal agencies to determine digitization strategies for selected public domain content
• Reviewing scanned documents to ensure quality control and accessibility
• Assisting with communications about project activities and needed items
• Answering reference questions regarding access to particular requested documents.

Additional questions about participation in TRAIL may be answered in the Frequently Asked Questions [46] document.

I. Name

The name of the body is the Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL). TRAIL is an unincorporated association, with the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) acting in the capacity of fiscal and legal agent.

II. Purpose

The purpose of TRAIL is to lead a collaborative effort to identify, digitize, archive, preserve, and provide persistent and unrestricted access to US federal technical reports. Emphasis is placed on legacy collections authored and distributed prior to approximately 1976.

III. Membership

Membership in TRAIL is open to organizations and individuals with an interest in facilitating access to US federal technical reports in a manner consistent with the purpose of TRAIL.
Organizations need not be members of CRL to participate in TRAIL.
There are two categories of membership: Institutional and Personal.

A.     Institutional members are organizations that join TRAIL via submission of a participant agreement signed by an authorized representative of the organization and after payment of the appropriate annual membership fee. Membership is subject to approval by the Steering Committee.

All non-student employees, staff, faculty, and associates of a member organization are eligible to participate in project activities, stand for elected offices, and serve on the Steering Committee and other working groups and task forces of TRAIL.  Students are allowed to participate in project activities and to serve on TRAIL working groups and task forces.

Institutional TRAIL member benefits include:
•    the paid shipping of member-donated materials
•    a voice and vote in TRAIL current and future directions
•    input into choice and priority of collection digitization and harvesting

B.     Each Institutional Member shall designate at least one Member Representative to serve as the official contact and voting representative of the organization.
1. Member Representatives are eligible to propose, enact, and otherwise participate in project activities and derive benefit therefrom, stand for elected offices, serve on the Steering Committee and other working groups and task forces, elect officers to the Steering Committee, amend bylaws, and vote on governance issues and other matters requiring membership approval.
2. Institutional Members may designate a new representative at any time upon notification of the CRL Representative.

C.     Institutional Members shall have equal votes on matters requiring a formal approval. Each Member Representative shall be accorded one vote.

D.     Votes shall be conducted by mail or electronic ballot. A Member Representative may designate, at least a week in advance of the commencement of voting, another staff member to represent the organization, should the Member Representative not be available at the time of voting.

E.     Personal Members are individuals interested in contributing to the objectives and activities of TRAIL, but who may not be affiliated with an institutional member.  Individuals interested in TRAIL may join as Personal Members upon completion of a participant agreement signed by the individual.  There is no membership fee for personal members. Membership is subject to approval by the Steering Committee.
Personal members of TRAIL are eligible to participate in project activities and derive benefit therefrom, but are not eligible to run for elected positions on the Steering Committee.  Personal members may serve in non-elected positions on the Steering Committee and serve on working groups and task forces. Personal members are not eligible to vote on governance issues and other matters requiring TRAIL membership approval.

IV. Steering Committee

A.     The TRAIL Steering Committee is the principal body that shall consider and formulate the policies and procedures governing TRAIL in accordance with the recommendations of the membership.

B.     The Steering Committee is empowered to conduct the business of TRAIL, including but not limited to; approve and enact project activities; discuss and recommend future policy or changes in policy to be adopted by the membership; make budgetary decisions for TRAIL; approach funding agencies; conduct periodic membership drives; and maintain communication with scholarly and professional associations, government agencies, and other cooperative projects.

C.     The Steering Committee shall consist of four (4) elected officers, Working Group Coordinators, additional representatives appointed from the membership, and ex officio members. The Steering Committee shall be comprised of not fewer than eight (8) members.
1. The Chair of TRAIL shall chair the Steering Committee.
2. Coordinators of standing Working Groups shall serve on the Steering Committee for the period of their appointed terms.
3. Additional members of the Steering Committee shall be appointed by the Chair as needed.
4. A representative of CRL shall serve as an ex officio non-voting member of the Steering Committee.

D.     All elected and appointed voting members of the Steering Committee, including the Chair, shall have equal votes on matters requiring a formal approval by the Committee. Each voting member shall be accorded one vote, regardless of the number of elected/appointed positions held.

E.     Steering Committee members shall generally serve two-year terms, with appointments beginning immediately after the TRAIL Annual Meeting; re-election/re-appointment is permitted. Steering Committee member elections shall be staggered to ensure a measure of continuity within the Steering Committee each year.  Individuals should serve on a Working Group for a minimum of one year before being considered for the Steering Committee.

F.     In the event a member is unable to serve a full term, the Chair shall appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of the term. (see V.B.4. for the special case involving the Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect).  In the event the Chair is unable to serve a full term, the Chair-Elect shall fulfill the remainder of the Chair's term.

G.     Any appointed or elected Steering Committee member may be removed from office by the Steering Committee whenever, in their judgment, he or she does not fulfill the duties of the office. Removal may be enacted by a majority vote of all Steering Committee members.

V. Officers

A.     Chair
1. A Chair of TRAIL shall begin his/her term in office after having served for two years as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect.  The Vice-Chair/Chair Elect is elected from among the Institutional Members in accordance with the procedures in Section VII. The Chair automatically becomes a member of the Steering Committee.
2. The duties of the Chair are to provide overall leadership on the direction and activities of TRAIL.  In this capacity, the Chair should arrange, prepare for, and lead meetings of the Steering Committee and membership; implement, coordinate, and/or distribute responsibilities for projects and activities of TRAIL; regularly report to and communicate with the membership; undertake correspondence and represent TRAIL to external parties; approve the annual budget; and act as liaison to CRL and other appropriate governing bodies.
3. The Chair shall serve a term of two years.
4. The Chair shall serve as an ex officio voting member of the Steering Committee for one year following his/her term of office.
5. In the event a Chair is unable to serve a full term, the Vice Chair will serve the remainder of the Chair's term of office.

B.     Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
1. A Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of TRAIL shall be elected from among the Institutional Members in accordance with the procedures in Section VII. The Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect automatically becomes an ex officio voting member of the Steering Committee.
2. The duties of the Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect are to carry out the duties of Chair in the absence of the Chair, arrange for elections and ballots on matters of official project activity or governance, and to otherwise assist the Chair as called upon.
3. The Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect shall serve a term of two years. Following the two year term as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, the Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect becomes Chair of TRAIL.
4. In the event a Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect is unable to serve a full term, the Chair shall appoint a temporary replacement.  A special election will then be held to elect a new Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect to serve the remainder of the term of office.

C.     Secretary
1. A Secretary of TRAIL shall be elected from among the Institutional Members in accordance with the procedures in Section VII. The Secretary automatically becomes an ex officio voting member of the Steering Committee.
2. The duties of the Secretary are to keep all minutes and records of meetings of the Steering Committee (or arrange for the minutes to be recorded if unavailable), be custodian of the Bylaws and manage the process of amending the Bylaws if needed, and to exercise all other duties incident to the office of Secretary.
3. The Secretary shall serve a term of two years; reelection is permitted.
4. In the event a Secretary is unable to serve a full term, the Chair shall appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of the term of office.

D.     Treasurer
1. A Treasurer of TRAIL shall be elected from among the Institutional Members in accordance with the procedures in Section VII.  The Treasurer automatically becomes an ex officio voting member of the Steering Committee.
2. The duties of the Treasurer are to keep the records of all TRAIL financial obligations and transactions and to report, upon request, on the financial status of TRAIL.  In consultation with the CRL liaison, the Treasurer reconciles TRAIL financial records with the TRAIL budget held by CRL.  Each spring, the Treasurer consults with the Chair on a proposed budget for the coming year and prepares a budget presentation to the Steering Committee at the TRAIL Annual Meeting.  The Treasurer works with the Chair to suggest ongoing adjustments to the current year's operations and wages budget.
3. The Treasurer shall serve a term of two years; reelection is permitted.
4. In the event the Treasurer is unable to serve a full term, the Chair shall appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of the term of office.

VI. Working Groups and Task Forces

A.     Working Groups: The Steering Committee shall establish Working Groups as needed to enact TRAIL business on a continuing basis.
1. Working Groups shall be chaired by a Coordinator, who shall be jointly appointed by the Chair and Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of TRAIL in consultation with the Steering Committee. Working Group Coordinators shall normally serve a term of two years; reappointment is permitted.  In the case of newly formed Working Groups, the Coordinator shall serve until the second TRAIL Annual Meeting after the appointment was made.  In all other cases, appointments begin immediately following the TRAIL Annual Meeting.  The Chair of TRAIL shall stagger the appointments of the Working Group Coordinators to ensure a measure of continuity with the Steering Committee each year.
2. Working Groups shall be comprised of participants from Institutional Members and Personal Members who elect to take part in the activities of that Group.
3. A Working Group can be established, dissolved or suspended by a majority vote of all Steering Committee members.
4. Working Group Coordinators serve on the TRAIL Steering Committee and are expected to participate in the TRAIL Steering Committee’s meetings, as well as the TRAIL Annual Meeting each spring.

B.     Task Forces: The Chair, in consultation with the Steering Committee, shall appoint necessary Task Forces to accomplish projects of limited duration.

VII. Elections

A.     Elections for the Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer shall be conducted by mail or electronic ballot.
1. The Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee shall appoint members to a Nominating Committee which shall solicit nominations from the membership, compose a slate of candidates, and obtain their agreement to serve.
2. No later than ninety (90) days before the TRAIL Annual Meeting, held in the spring, the Nominating Committee shall forward the slate of candidates to the CRL representative to conduct the ballot.
3. Election shall be decided by a simple majority vote by voting members. Any ties shall be broken by a vote of the incumbent Steering Committee.
4. The Vice Chair shall inform the candidates and shall announce the election results to the membership.

B.     Elected members begin their term of office immediately following the annual meeting.

C.     In addition to the special election circumstance outlined in V.B.4., special elections to address other needs may be authorized by a majority vote of all Steering Committee members.

VIII. Meetings

A.     TRAIL Annual Meeting:
The Steering Committee shall conduct the TRAIL Annual Meeting, generally held in the spring, the specific date, time and location of which will be designated by the Chair.  This meeting shall be open for attendance by representatives of all Institutional Members and by Personal Members of TRAIL.  All Members will be provided with date and location information well in advance of the meeting date.  At the TRAIL Annual Meeting, the Steering Committee shall receive any required reports, review the TRAIL budget, and discuss such matters of project direction and governance as may arise.

B.     Steering Committee Meetings:
The Steering Committee shall meet periodically to conduct the business of TRAIL.  Meetings may be held in conjunction with any meeting or event convenient or appropriate for the incumbent Steering Committee, at a time and place designated by the Chair.

C.     Working Group and Task Force Meetings:
Meetings of Working Groups and Task Forces shall be arranged as necessary.

IX. Administration, Finance, and Ownership

A.     Administration: TRAIL shall be administered by CRL. CRL shall assist with fiscal management (e.g.- accounting, disbursements, invoicing, financial reporting and audits); procurement of necessary legal services (review of contracts, agreements, templates for partnerships and collaborative activities, execution of cooperative agreements); project logistics (meeting arrangements, communications, including project reporting, notifications, shipping and delivery of materials, etc.); rights acquisition and management; licensing/managing subscription access to materials; and other project management activities as appropriate and feasible. Fees to cover costs of activity and base expenses of administration may be assessed to TRAIL by CRL.

B.     Financial Reports: CRL shall provide financial reports to the Steering Committee on an annual basis and at the request of the Steering Committee.

C.     Fiscal Year: The fiscal year of TRAIL begins on July 1 and ends on June 30 of the following year.

D.     Management and Disbursement of Funds: Projects and activities shall be funded by monies raised by TRAIL, whether through grants, contributions, donations, fees, or other means. The Chair and Steering Committee are responsible for fiscal decisions dealing with monies allocated to or raised by TRAIL. These officers shall consult with the membership on a regular basis concerning disbursement of funds.

E.     Earnings of TRAIL: No part of the net earnings of TRAIL shall be distributed to the benefit of any member or officer of TRAIL nor any private individual (except that of reasonable compensation which may be paid for services rendered to or for TRAIL).

F.     Fees: Institutional Member Fees shall be used to support project initiatives, value-added services such as may become available, and/or activities that are funded through subscriptions, use fees, or mechanisms for cost-recovery.

G.     Ownership: Assets acquired by TRAIL shall be the property of the Center for Research Libraries, unless otherwise specified and agreed to in writing.

H.     Dissolution: In the event of the dissolution or termination of TRAIL, assets and property of TRAIL shall remain with CRL. In the event of the dissolution of CRL, all remaining assets and property of TRAIL, after payment of necessary expenses thereof, shall return to TRAIL, to be disbursed at the discretion of the Steering Committee.

X. Amendments

A.     Amendments to the Bylaws
Amendments to the Bylaws may be proposed by any Institutional Member of TRAIL. Amendments must be submitted in writing to the Steering Committee and shall be considered at the subsequent Steering Committee meeting. A majority vote of all Steering Committee members ensures that the amendment will be taken to the Institutional Membership expeditiously for a vote.
Voting on amendments to the Bylaws shall be conducted by mail or electronic ballot. A proposed amendment is considered adopted if it receives a two-thirds affirmative vote from voting Member Representatives. The Secretary shall arrange to add the adopted amendment to the official copies of the Bylaws.

B.     Amendments to the Addenda
Amendments to the Addenda may be proposed to the Steering Committee by any Member of TRAIL. A proposed amendment is considered adopted if it receives a two-thirds affirmative vote from the Steering Committee members.

XI. Implementation

A.     These Bylaws shall come into force upon adoption by a two-thirds affirmative vote from voting Members.

B.     Following the adoption of these Bylaws, a provisional Steering Committee shall serve until the next Annual meeting.


Addenda

1. Working Groups & Descriptions
TRAIL will have designated Working Groups.  Current TRAIL Working Groups are described below:

• Processing Working Group - The Processing Working Group will focus on all aspects related to the cataloging, scanning, and deposit of the resulting electronic materials into the appropriate archive.
• Collections Working Group - The Collections Working Group is responsible for all aspects of the project related to the identification, selection and acquisition of report series for scanning.
• Technology Working Group - The Technology Working Group is responsible for all aspects related to the digital archives and TRAIL public search interface.
• Communications Working Group - The Communications Working Group is responsible for all general communication and promotion regarding TRAIL, including but not limited to descriptive project content on the TRAIL Web pages, assisting other working groups with communication development, and oversight and general help with reference questions sent to TRAIL.
• Membership Working Group - The Membership Working Group is responsible for recruiting additional organizations to become members of TRAIL, for creating and conducting orientation sessions for new TRAIL member institutions, and for all member-specific communication within TRAIL.
• The Metrics Working Group - The Metrics Working Group is responsible for coordinating the collection and distribution of all TRAIL metrics.  The Working Group will ensure that all recommended metrics are collected, tabulated, and disseminated appropriately and in a timely fashion.

2. Responsibilities of the Working Group Coordinators
Duties of the Working Group Coordinators include:

• Serve on the TRAIL Steering Committee as a representative of the Working Group
• Provide overall leadership and direction for the Working Group
• Lead and organize the meetings of the Working Group, ensuring that appropriate committee documentation and notes are kept and made accessible to the project as a whole
• Ensure the work of the Working Group is accomplished
• Attend the TRAIL Annual Meeting

Revised March 2015

Current members of the TRAIL Steering Committee:

 

George Porter, Chair 2017-2019
Engineering Librarian
California Institute of Technology

Mel DeSart, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect 2017-2019 & Membership Working Group Coordinator 2017-2019
Head, Engineering Library
University of Washington

Judy Alspach, ex officio member from Center for Research Libraries
Area Studies Program Manager
Center for Research Libraries

Dan Barkley, Appointed At-Large Member 2018-2020
University of Arizona

Paula Johnson, Processing Working Group Coordinator 2018-2020
Engineeering Librarian
University of Arizona

Chelsea Leachman, Secretary 2018-2020
Science and Engineering Librarian
Washington State University

Lisa Nickum, Treasurer 2018-2020
Metadata Technologies Librarian
Colorado School of Mines

Judy Pasek, Metrics Working Group Coordinator 2018-2020
STEM Liaison Librarian
University of Wyoming

Tom Rohrig, Appointed At-Large Member 2018-2020
Government Information Librarian
Texas Tech University

Laura Sare, Communications Working Group Coordinator 2017-2019
Government Information Librarian
Texas A & M University

Roberta Sittel, Collections Working Group Coordinator 2017-2019
Department Head, Government Information
University of North Texas

Alice Trussell, Appointed At-Large Member 2018-2020
Academic Services Librarian
Kansas State University

Sinai Wood, Appointed At-Large Member 2017-2019
Government Documents Librarian
Baylor University

 

TRAIL Widget

The TRAIL widget is a search box that can be added to your LibGuides or webpages allowing users to search the TRAIL archive easily. It brings the search interface to your users!

Librarians using Springshare’s LibGuides software are familiar with the availability of many search widgets and the customization features available. 

Example of the TRAIL Widget used in a Technical Report LibGuide at Iowa State University [47].

The TRAIL Widget Code can be found on the right side of the TRAIL LibGuide [48].

If you need technical assistance regarding this widget, contact Norma Dowell at njdowell@iastate.edu [49].

 

TRAIL Search Interface

The TRAIL Search Interface is the free search engine for finding TRAIL digitized content: http://www.technicalreports.org/trail/search/ [4].  Please feel free to add this link to any guides, webpages, or instructional material where it would be useful.

[4]

 

 

TRAIL Guides [50]

Series information can be found on our Series Processing Inventories Guide [18].  This guide also lists information on the reports we need in order to complete our work on various series.

[50]

 

July 2017:  Craig Rosenbeck Approaches Developed to Ensure Accuracy and Consistency of Metadata for TRAIL Reports (link [53]) poster at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries.

July 2017:  Isabel Altamirano TRAIL Documents - Evaluate Scientific Works. (link [54]) Presentation at the STEM Librarians South Conference.

July 2017:  Daureen Nesdill TRAIL Update. (link [55]) Utah Academic Library Consortium Retreat

October 2016:  Scott Curtis Office of Saline Waters Progress Reports Digitized and Available through TRAIL (link [56])

October 2016: Laura Sare and Sinai Wood Providing Open Access to Government Information Federal Technical Reports (TRAIL) Presentation at the Federal Depository Library Conference. Audio recording: http://bit.ly/2dGx5Py [57] and Slides: http://bit.ly/2ereNAb [58]

October 2016: Altamirano, Isabel. (2016, October 13). TRAIL - The Road to Search for Technical Documents (link [59]).

Summer 2016:  Daureen Nesdill, Laura Sare, Alice Trussell, Marilyn Von Seggern, Ten Years of TRAIL. (link [60]) DttP: Documents to the People. 44:2 (Summer 2016).

June 2016:  Ted Baldwin, Daureen Nesdill, TRAIL:  A Labor of LOVE Expanding Open Access to Government Information. (link [61]) Poster presented at Special Libraries Association 2016 conference, June 12, 2016, Philadelphia, PA.
Won Best Poster.

February 2016:  Maliaca Oxnam and Dan Barkley TRAIL at 10. (link [62])  Presentation at GWLA Membership Meeting.

July 2014:  Lee Fulton and Ashley Montez, Tracking on the TRAIL: Digitizing the Technical Report Archive and Image Library, Considerations in the Digital Workflow. (link [63]) Presented at the Cross Timbers Library Collaborative (CTLC) Conference, July 25, 2014, Dallas, TX.

 

Series information can be found on our Series Processing Inventories Guide [18].  This guide also lists information on the reports we need in order to complete our work on various series.

[50]

 

 

The Collections Working Group is responsible for all aspects of the TRAIL project related to the identification, selection, and acquisition of report series for scanning and placement in the print archive.

Current members of the Collections Working Group:

Roberta Sittel, Coordinator 2017-2019
Roberta.Sittel <at> unt.edu
University of North Texas

Larayne Dallas
University of Texas, Austin

Mel DeSart
University of Washington

Suzanne Ebanues
U.S. Government Publishing Office

Mary A. Gilbertson
University of Arkansas

James Jacobs
Stanford University

Patricia Kirkwood Edmondson
Personal Member

Naomi Lederer
Colorado State University

Megan Minta
U.S. Government Publishing Office

Maliaca Oxnam
University of Arizona

Zack Painter
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

Suzanne Reinman
Oklahoma State University

Mary Schlembach
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

David Schmitt
University of California, San Diego

Beth Wagner

Sinai Wood
Baylor University

Your institution must be a member of TRAIL or you must be on Individual Member in order for you to join a TRAIL working group. For more information, visit How to Join [92] or Contact TRAIL. [93]

The Communications Working Group is responsible for all aspects of external communication regarding TRAIL, including but not limited to descriptive project content on the TRAIL Web sites, assisting other working groups with communication development, and oversight and general help with reference questions sent to TRAIL.

Current members of the TRAIL Communications Working Group:

Laura Sare, Coordinator 2017-2019
lsare <at> tamu.edu
Texas A&M University Libraries

Isabel Altamirano
Georgia Institute of Technology

Ted Baldwin
University of Cincinnati

Scott Curtis
University of Missouri, Kansas City

Mel DeSart
University of Washington

Paula Johnson
University of Arizona

Kari Kozak
University of Iowa

John Napp
University of Toledo

Daureen Nesdill
University of Utah

Alice Trussell
Kansas State University

Michael White, TRAIL Historian and Archivist
Queens University

Sinai Wood
Baylor University

Your institution must be a member of TRAIL or you must be an Individual Member in order for you to join a TRAIL working group. For more information, visit How to Join [90] or Contact TRAIL. [91]

 

The TRAIL Membership Working Group is responsible for:

• recruiting additional organizations and individuals to become members of TRAIL
• creating and conducting orientation sessions for new TRAIL members, and
• all member-specific communication within TRAIL.
   

Current members of the Membership Working Group:

Mel DeSart, Coordinator 2017-2019
desart <at> UW.EDU
University of Washington

Willie Baer
University of Notre Dame

Carol Brach
retired from University of Notre Dame

Lorrie Pellack
Iowa State University

Tom Rohrig
Texas Tech University

Your institution must be a member of TRAIL or you must be on Individual Member in order for you to join a TRAIL working group. For more information, visit How to Join [34] or Contact TRAIL [32].

The Metrics Working Group is responsible for coordinating the collection and distribution of all TRAIL metrics.   The Working Group will ensure that all recommended metrics are collected, tabulated, and disseminated appropriately and in a timely fashion.

Current members of the Metrics Working Group:

Judy Pasek, Coordinator 2018-2020
jpasek <at> uwyo.edu
University of Wyoming

Judy Alspach
Center for Research Libraries

Dan Barkley
University of Arizona

Craig Beard
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Lisa Nickum
Colorado School of Mines

Anna Ren
Northwestern University

Tom Rohrig
Texas Tech University

Roberta Sittel
University of North Texas

 

 

Your institution must be a member of TRAIL or you must be on Individual Member in order for you to join a TRAIL working group. For more information, visit How to Join TRAIL [34] or Contact TRAIL [32].

The Processing Working Group focuses on all aspects related to the cataloging, scanning, and deposit of the resulting electronic TRAIL materials into the appropriate archive.  The Processing Working Group convenes as needed to revise processes or to address issues at hand.

Current members of the Processing Working Group:

Paula Johnson, Coordinator 2018-2020
University of Arizona
Email:  pcjohnson <at> email.arizona.edu

Daniel Barkley
University of Arizona

Sharon Knowlton
University of Arizona

Mark Phillips
University of North Texas

Your institution must be a member of TRAIL in order for you to join a TRAIL working group. For more information, visit How to Join [34] or Contact TRAIL. [32]

The Technology Working Group is responsible for all aspects related to the digital archives and TRAIL public search interface.  The Technology Working Group convenes as needed to ensure timely loads of new records, to revise processes or to address issues at hand.

Maliaca Oxnam, Coordinator
University of Arizona
Email: maliaca <at> email.arizona.edu

Mark Phillips
University of North Texas