Public access to transportation research results at the National Transportation Library

Abstract

The National Transportation Library (NTL) at the US Department of Transportation (US DOT) provides national and international access to the crucial transportation information which falls within the realm of grey literature, including the results of US government funded research. Founded as an all-digital library in 1998, NTL’s collections include full-text born digital and digitized publications, data products, and other resources. All items are in the public domain and available for reuse without restriction. Since 2016, NTL has led the implementation of the US DOT’s Official Public Access Plan issued in response to the February 22, 2013 Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies entitled Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research. This paper discusses the effect this plan has had on a grey literature library and the efforts to create and maintain a public access repository, as well as exploring relationships between repository platform, content and people.