Technical reports disseminate research findings (including data) focusing on a particular problem or research topic of an agency or organization. Technical reports can be produced by
- academic institutions, e.g., biological field stations
- governmental agencies, e.g., Illinois Natural History Survey
- corporations (from their Research and Development departments)
Here are some strategies for finding technical reports:
- Use the WorldCat database. WorldCat is a collection of the holdings of almost 20,000 libraries. If a library has cataloged a technical report, it will probably be in WorldCat. If you identify items in WorldCat that you want to obtain, use our interlibrary loan system to request them.
- Use Knox Primo, selecting "All I-Share Libraries" as the search option. Most technical reports from Illinois governmental agencies, and those produced by Illinois academic institutions will be listed in the I-Share portion of Knox Primo.
- Go to the web site of the governmental agency that you think might produce technical reports related to your topic. In many cases, reports from these agencies will be freely available.
In addition, try these gateways to technical reports and lists of agencies that produce technical reports:
