ADAMS USER GROUP MEETING

January 21, 2004

1:00-3:00 p.m.

NRC Headquarters

Room T2 B1

Agenda for ADAMS User Group Meeting #8

1. Opening remarks - Tom Smith, Moderator (1:05-1:10 p.m.)

General announcements (1:10-1:15 p.m.)

How the meeting will be conducted for

 persons present

 persons on the telephone bridge

 introduction of Francine Goldberg, Division Director, IRSD

2. Action items from the 08/06/03 meeting update (1:15-1:45 p.m.)

a) There were several discussions about document security and the filling of orders

sent to the PDR. I was asked to place this on the agenda for discussion.

b) A request was made to have Docket lists placed so users can more easily

determine Docket 40, 50 and 70 licensees similar to what the PDR did for Docket

50’s in April 2003.

c) Is it possible to create additional report formats similar to the old BRS system?

d) What is the status of the Web-based problem in which specific documents cannot

be located because the text was incorrectly spaced?

3. Issues related to ADAMS (1:45-2:00 p.m.)

a) Who should we contact in case of emergencies when the NRC is closed? Who do

we call when either Citrix-based or Web-based ADAMS is down?

b) How do you stop a display (opening a document) in Citrix-based ADAMS? Once,

you click on the document to open it you get the “Document Warning” box there’s

no way to cancel the transaction in case you really don’t want to open the file. This

is true if you belatedly realize the document is large.

c) In the Web search, you can refine a search once but you can't refine it a second

time - is there a way to make it drill down to a second level refinement?

d) What does it mean to be the “Official Agency Record”?

Break (2:00-2:10 p.m.)

e) What is the status of the Web-based Legacy Library?
f) Can you discuss the print quality of scanned documents?

g) Why does Web-based ADAMS return so many apparently false hits on simple text

searching for a given NUREG or NUREG/CR?

h) What effort will the NRC make to improve the usefulness of titles in ADAMS? What

is the priority will be given to fixing existing titles?

i) For PARS, describe any changes in the processing of text words by OCR since the

shift from TIF to PDF format was made in May 2003. Is searching better now or the

same as before? 

j) From a user involved in the NRC decommissioning at Mallinckrodt in St. Louis. In

November, the NRC had a public meeting concerning the decommissioning. Some

members of the public who have access to a computer and the Internet, tried to

access the Mallinckrodt D&D Plan on the NRC web site and were unable to find the

document(s). There was a lot of frustration at the meeting because the 

public was unable to review the document before comments were due by the NRC

and could not discuss issues at the meeting. How can we make it easier for the

public to access these documents?

4) Mention Upcoming ADAMS Public Survey 

5) New business (2:55-3:00 p.m.)

• Plans for next meeting

• Set a date (June 16,2004–earlier or later?)

6) Adjournment (3:00 p.m.)

Meeting Minutes

The ADAMS User Group (AUG) met on January 21, 2004. The proposed agenda was noticed in

the Public Meeting Notice System, and the agenda was sent to members by e-mail.

Opening remarks (1–1:15 p.m.)

The eighth meeting of the AUG was held on Wednesday, January 21, 2004. Thomas Smith called

the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. Three AUG members were present along with Bill Reckley, NRR,

Mindy Landau, EDO, and Linda Kilgore, PDR, and Francine Goldberg, OCIO. At least eight

members participated via the phone bridge. Mr. Smith asked the attendees present, then the

members on the phone bridge, to introduce themselves. Mr. Smith introduced Francine Goldberg,

Director, IRSD, to the group. Ms. Goldberg said that she appreciated everyone’s attendance and

would respond to all comments by group members and address their concerns.

General announcements

Mr. Smith explained how the meeting would be conducted and described procedures for use of the

phone bridge for offsite attendees so all could participate. Meeting minutes for this meeting will be

posted on the AUG page of the NRC Web site.
Action items from the 8/6/03 meeting update (1:15–1:45 p.m.)

The following action items from the last AUG meeting were presented and discussed with the AUG

members.

There was a discussion of document security and the filling of orders sent to the PDR. Mr.

Smith was asked to place this on the agenda for discussion.

A number of questions about this issue have been raised, and Mindy Landau in EDO and Bill

Reckley in NRR addressed these issues at the meeting. Ms. Landau made reference to the 9/11

terrorist attacks and the temporary shutdown of the public Web site. Each office gathered

information regarding what to withhold, and a task force created a list of documents and

information that terrorists should not be able to locate on the Web site or obtain from the PDR.

About 1,000 pages were on the Web. About 90% of that information is now back on the Web.

Mr. Reckley referred users to the Staff Requirements Memo for COMSECY 02-15, ADAMS

accession ML021630416, which describes the criteria the staff is now using for withholding

information. Most documents have now been released. Only a few categories of documents in

ADAMS were changed from public to nonpublic. It’s not practical to search in ADAMS for

documents already released and then to change their status. 

An attendee on the phone bridge inquired how the public can obtain access to the FSARs, which

are being withheld as a category. Mr. Reckley explained that the staff reviews chapters or

completes FSARs upon request from PDR staff. That information is treated like proprietary

information, since it does not meet the criteria for safeguards information. The licensees are

accustomed to handling proprietary information. 

Another phone bridge participant inquired about how a decision to withhold information could be

appealed. Currently, no system is in place for appeals. Mr. Reckley suggested working through

the PDR, and mentioned that the FOIA process could be used for this purpose. COMSECY-02-15

is currently being reviewed, a consensus will be reached, and regulatory criteria will be issued.

A request was made to have docket lists placed on the Web so users can more easily locate

Docket 40, 70, and 72 licensees, similar to the link the PDR added for Docket 50’s in April

2003.

On 10/2/03 the PDR staff sent Tom Smith the following e-mail: “There is now a link on the main

ADAMS page at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm./adams.html which takes users to the licensee

listings on the ADAMS Help and reference page at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/help-reference.html#ListofLicenses.”

Is it possible to create additional report formats similar to the old BRS system formats?

The existing formats in Citrix-based ADAMS were based on the report profiles in the former BRS

system. Reports can be created that include the profile properties of a group of selected

documents. This process generates a text data file that is displayed on the screen. It is a

bibliography that describes the documents which met the search criteria. Currently, the report

formats are Custom, LL Custom, LLShort, LL SkimDkt, LLSkimRpt, PARS Custom, PARS Short,

PARS SkimDKT, PARS SkimRpt. 
Creating a new report format is possible but it would require programming. We would need to

know exactly what fields would be needed before proceeding.

A member of AUG asked how to determine which fields are in each report format. Ms. Kilgore

suggested that users create a report and view the results. 

What is the status of the Web-based problem in which specific documents cannot be

located because the text was incorrectly spaced?

This problem was discussed at the last meeting, and a correction has been identified. Many of the

records have been fixed. The PDR staff checked a listing of ML numbers and verified that most of

the records on the list have been corrected.

A member of AUG mentioned a problem related to the quality of certain Adobe Acrobat files. Mr.

Smith replied that these were older records which had been scanned. He did not have an answer

but would check into it further. 

Mr. Scott asked, “When two documents are the same, which is considered the official record?

What is the process used to delete the second record? Mr. Smith replied that the final version is

the official agency record. Ms. Kilgore explained that duplication does occur. If duplicates are

encountered, they can be reported to PDR staff, and the ADAMS staff will follow up on it.

New issues related to ADAMS (1:45–2 p.m.)

Who should we contact in case of emergencies when the NRC is closed? Who do we call

when either Citrix-based or Web-based ADAMS is down?

The PDR’s hours of operation are Monday–Friday 7:45 a.m.–4:15 p.m. As a rule, Mr. Smith is here

from 4:15 to 4:45 and can be contacted if there is a problem with ADAMS. He will do whatever is

possible to alert the technical staff. During the evenings and weekends, the servers should be up,

but there is no emergency number to call. All of the systems are checked regularly to verify they

are operational. Here is what is currently done by the Operations team and by automated methods:

1. www.nrc.gov is checked automatically every 5 minutes to ensure it is operational.

2. Web-based ADAMS is checked automatically every 20 minutes.

3. PARS is checked every 2 hours using Citrix and a print test is done of at least one document.

4. Several functionality tests are done every morning.

5. An in-depth functional test of PARS is performed once daily.

If an error is encountered, operations staff will verify the existence, or not, of a problem and call the

appropriate personnel 24/7. Typically, the calls go through Mr. Smith first, and then to one of our

systems administrators if it cannot be resolved. There are no guarantees of fix time, since it may

be a simple reboot or a problem that can be resolved remotely, or it may be a more in-depth

problem that requires onsite diagnostics and vendor assistance.

We have never offered 24/7 service to the public even during the 20-year period that BRS was in

operation.

How do you stop a display (opening a document) in Citrix-based ADAMS? Once you click

on the document to open it you get the Document Warning box and there’s no way to cancel
the transaction in case you really don’t want to open the file. 

This is true. The only known way to prevent a record from displaying or stopping the transaction

is to terminate the ADAMS session.

In the Web search, you can refine a search once but you can not refine it a second time—is

there a way to make it drill down to a second level refinement?

This is correct. There currently is no way to do a second refinement. NRC will add this to the wish

list of enhancements for the second release of Web-based ADAMS.

What does it mean to be the “Official Agency Record”?

On Web-based ADAMS, if users click on the underlined title of a document, a red warning notice

at the top of the file directs users to “See the image file for the Official Agency Record.” This notice

was added to avoid any confusion between the text and the image file, especially since the OCR

“dirty” text file may be messy.

Break (1:40–1:50 p.m.)

What is the status of the Web-based Legacy Library?

Currently, there have been no changes since the last meeting. A statement of work has been

completed, but Mr. Smith has not been asked to do anything yet. 

An AUG member asked how often the Legacy Library in Citrix is used. There are currently no

statistics captured for this.

Can you discuss the print quality of scanned documents?

The DPC scanning software and hardware were upgraded last year with the acquisition of Ascent

Capture and a production quality color scanner. The quality of the source documents we scan can

vary from high quality to poor quality. Efforts are made to obtain good quality source documents

for scanning, but in many cases they are the best available copies.

A member mentioned that the new PDF scanned document is inferior to the TIF file of a year ago.

An AUG member asked what resolution was used. Is it 150 dots per space? Can the scanner be

set at a lower resolution? Mr. Smith will find out the answer to this question.

A member asked if we could investigate the quality of the scanner. 

A member on the phone bridge suggested that AdobeForms.com could help.

Another member commented from the bridge that she located a large document and pulled up the

first 80 pages. In that case, the print was white and the background black. There was also a

problem with the print quality.

Why does Web-based ADAMS return so many apparently false hits on Simple text searching

for a given NUREG or NUREG/CR?
Context searching can retrieve a lot of unrelated material. It was recommended that the members

use the Document Type field in the Advanced search mode to search for NUREG reports. 

Mr. Smith suggested using quotation marks around the report number in order to retrieve only a

specific NUREG or document.

Concept Search was discussed further.

What effort will the NRC make to improve the usefulness of titles in ADAMS? What priority

will be given to fixing existing titles?

Mr. Smith is not aware of an effort to make changes to existing titles. The structure of a title

depends on both the author of the document and the DPC staff who create the titles. The title field

has 256 characters. There is a format for some titles but no template exists. A few have a general

format, LERs, inspection reports, etc. Some QA work has been done in the past.

Mr. Smith asked that e-mails regarding examples of offending titles be sent to the PDR. 

A member of the AUG group mentioned inconsistencies in title formats. When using a template,

what words and phrases go first?

An AUG member mentioned that if anyone had a question regarding a document, open it and this

will weed out unnecessary documents.

Another member mentioned the inconsistency problem with releasing contents of packages. Mr.

Smith replied that some parts of a package may have a later release date.

A user suggested that there is a conflict between needs of users and staff. Can we have a second

package for public users?

A user suggested that there should be a better way to identify who the documents pertain to

without having to open the document.

Mr. Smith has not visited the DPC to see how documents are processed. He will check on this.

A user mentioned that if a title concerns a facility, the plant name should be in the title. She has

a similar issue with ACRS letters and enclosures. She also would like the staff to include

transmittal letters with documents. 

For PARS, describe any changes in the processing of OCR text since the shift from TIF to

PDF format was made in May 2003. Is searching better now or the same as before? 

The DPC improved the quality of its OCR output by moving to Prime Recognition for its OCR

software. This should enable improved text search capability in PARS.

This is from a user involved in the NRC decommissioning at Mallinckrodt in St. Louis. In

November, the NRC had a public meeting concerning the decommissioning. Some

members of the public who have access to a computer and the Internet tried to access the

Mallinckrodt D&D Plan on the NRC Web site and were unable to find the document(s). There

was a lot of frustration at the meeting because the public was unable to review the
document before comments were due by the NRC and could not discuss issues at the

meeting. How can we make it easier for the public to access these documents?

Results from a recent update to the 7/22/03 public meeting:

Efforts have been made to better train the staff in document handling processes,

including checking for valid accession numbers of documents in PARS before reporting that the

documents are publicly available.

There are three principal sources that cite documents as being publicly available: Federal Register

notices, press releases, and the Public Meeting Notice System (PMNS). The NRC has improved

its procedures in document handling processes as described below.

Federal Register Notices: The Office of Administration (ADM) staff check the ADAMS accession

numbers that are referenced in the Federal Register and have provided staff added guidance in

this area.

Press Releases: The Office of Public Affairs (OPA) checks to ensure that accession numbers

referenced in a press release are publicly available and accessible.

Public Meeting Notice System (PMNS): The internal procedures for submitting meeting notices for

posting on the external Web have been revised. The revised procedures state that all meeting

notices, including agendas and supporting documentation, must be declared in ADAMS as official

agency records before being submitted for posting on the external Web. Staff has been informed

they are responsible for ensuring that all accession numbers, links, and/or Web addresses being

referenced in the document are tested to ensure that they can be accessed by the public. The

NRC will provide information on the Public Meeting Web site explaining how the public can obtain

assistance if they are unable to access information cited in the meeting notice or its attachments.

Publicly Available Records System (PARS): The Public Document Room is the agency point of

contact for questions related to documents in PARS. The PDR staff will investigate and attempt to

resolve any problem that may arise with regard to public access to documents referenced in the

Federal Register, meeting notices, or other public documents. Members were encouraged to

contact the PDR staff for a document search, and if it is available in ADAMS the PDR can y provide

the accession number.

In addition, NRC is scheduling sessions with individuals within offices that submit documents to the

NRC’s Document Processing Center to review procedures for adding documents to ADAMS and

making them publicly available.

A member of the AUG group commented that documents are referenced in the Federal Register

and accession numbers given that are not yet available. NRC staff need to be more sensitive on

this. This has happened within the last 6 months. Mr. Smith asked if he had called the PDR about

the problem and he confirmed this fact.

Upcoming ADAMS Public Survey

Mr. Smith alerted members of the AUG that the PDR staff will be posting an ADAMS Satisfaction

Survey on the Web site for people using Citrix- or Web-based ADAMS to comment on. The date

it will be posted is uncertain. It will be the first such public survey since ADAMS was deployed to
the public in November 1999. The PDR staff and Mr. Smith worked on the questionnaire in

November and December, and it is currently being reviewed by OMB. It will take less than 4

minutes to fill out and should not be a burden to respond for those who choose to do so. The

questions were evenly divided between Citrix-based and Web-based ADAMS. There is a comment

box for those members of the public who wish to give extensive feedback. The survey is

anonymous. If there is a specific question to which an answer is requested, e-mail the question to

the PDR and someone will respond.

New Business (2:30–2:35)

Topics for next meeting:

A user has a problem with FOIA releases. Can a FOIA request be attached to

a FOIA release? Mr. Smith will bring this up as an agenda item for the next meeting.

Mr. Smith asked the AUG members if June 16, 2004, would be an acceptable date for the next

meeting and AUG members agreed that it was. The PDR staff will make arrangements for a

meeting room, phone bridge, and conference room. AUG members will be notified and the

information posted on the NRC Web site.

Adjournment (2:35)