No-Fee Access to NTIS Online Reports Through the FDLP The Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) are pleased to announce that Federal depository libraries now have access to online technical reports from NTIS. The pilot project, first announced last October, provides access to bibliographic records for approximately 240,000 publications from 1964-2000 from the NTIS data storage and retrieval system. Through "DARTS: Depository Access to Reports, Technical & Scientific," depository libraries are able to download at no charge the full-text electronic documents for which links are available and, in the near future, they will have the option to purchase print, microfiche or CD/DVD copies from NTIS. This is the first time that NTIS content has been available to the entire depository library community. The technical reports found in this NTIS collection span more than 35 years and provide depositories with unique online content. Through DARTS it is believed that a substantial number of fugitive documents are now available through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). As was explained when the announcement was made last fall, the responsibility for providing this content to depository libraries lies with the publishing agencies and not with NTIS as an aggregator. NTIS is exempt from FDLP obligations by the provisions of Title 44, United States Code, Section 1903 because its products and services "must necessarily be sold in order to be self-sustaining." NTIS receives no appropriations and must recover all its costs from sales. During the pilot, information will be gathered and reviewed, including any impact on the financial stability of NTIS. Some adjustments may have to be made in the pilot if a negative financial impact is realized, since we cannot undermine the financial stability of NTIS. However, both NTIS and GPO expect that the pilot will validate the assumption that NTIS can participate in the FDLP with its electronic content without suffering an economic loss that would be in violation of its legal requirements to be self-sustaining. GPO is very pleased that NTIS has such a positive view of the value of participating in the FDLP. Now that the beta test period is over, DARTS is open to all regional depository libraries and all libraries that volunteered to participate in the beta test. Instructions for signing up will be available to other selective depositories by the end of next week and will require submission of a verification form signed by the library director. Libraries signing up for access to the NTIS database will be placed in a queue based on the date and time of GPO's receipt of the signed verification form. NTIS will provide access instructions to approximately 200 libraries every other week until all selecting libraries have access. This schedule will allow NTIS staff sufficient time to establish the depository library accounts. If you need more information about the NTIS pilot project, the initial FDLP-L posting is available at: http://listserv.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0611&L=gpo-fdlp-l&D=0&P=721