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Date: December 21, 2011

To: File

From: Anna Therese McGowan /RA/

Chief, Technical Information Center Section

OIS/IRSD/ISB

Subject: ADAMS Public User Group Meeting Minutes, November 16, 2011

This memo accompanies the summary of the public meeting held on Wednesday, 

November 16, 2011, in the Public Document Room of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

This was the 22nd meeting of the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 

User Group.
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ADAMS USER GROUP MEETING

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

2–3 p.m.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Headquarters

Public Document Room O1-F21

Agenda for ADAMS User Group Meeting #22

1. General Announcements—Anna McGowan (2–2:10 p.m.)

2. Member Issues and Questions—Anna McGowan (2:10–2:15 p.m.)

3. New Business or Questions—Anna McGowan/Mark Evans (2:15–2:25 p.m.)

4. Questions (2:25–3 p.m.)

5. Adjournment (3 p.m.)
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MEETING MINUTES

1. General Announcements (2–2:10 p.m.)

Anna McGowan opened the meeting at 2 p.m. She introduced the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (NRC) staff in attendance. Staff members from the Information and Records

Services Division (IRSD) and the Office of Information Services (OIS) were Karen Danoff, Mark 

Evans, Adam Glazer, Behrouz Golchane, Jana Kruger, Mary Mendiola, Jo Ann Resner, Thomas 

Smith, John Stark, and Sardar Zuberi. 

Representatives from the following organizations used the telephone bridge to participate in the

meeting: Bechtel; Certrec Corporation; Dominion Engineering; MPR Associates, Inc.; Oak 

Ridge National Laboratories; Platts Newsletters; Progress Energy; and Westinghouse.

Minutes for the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) User 

Group (AUG) meetings are available for review on the NRC AUG Web page, which is linked 

from the Web-based ADAMS (WBA) page. 

2. Member Issues and Questions (2:10–2:15 p.m.)

Anna McGowan introduced Thomas Smith, who briefly explained the history of ADAMS and the 

AUG meetings. This was the 22nd meeting of the AUG; the first meeting was on July 18, 2001. 

Thomas Smith thanked the ADAMS users who have been attending the meetings from the 

beginning. He said, “Your feedback makes ADAMS better, and makes us better regulators.”

Anna McGowan thanked Thomas Smith for all of his work on ADAMS and extended best wishes 

to him on his upcoming retirement at the end of 2011.

Anna McGowan asked Karen Danoff to speak about the copy service that copies documents 

from the Public Document Room (PDR) for the public. Karen Danoff stated that if any AUG 

members have concerns or questions about the copy service’s orders or pricing, they can 

contact her. If they have a concern, they can send her a copy of their invoice.

Anna McGowan stated that if there is a contact person listed on an ADAMS document, it is 

permissible for members of the public to contact the person directly for any questions about that 

document. It is also permissible for AUG meeting participants to record the AUG meetings

since they are public meetings.

Anna McGowan summarized the comments submitted by users before the AUG meeting. She 

stated that all of the comments and requests received were incorporated in the new version of 

WBA. 

One ADAMS user commented that the Advanced Search function is not reliable for finding 

documents to satisfy the search criteria. The introduction of the new WBA should resolve the 

difficulties with the Advanced Search function. The current search engine uses old technology,

which will be replaced in the new version. Another ADAMS user requested that the “Contains” 

search function also be added for searching case numbers and report numbers. The “Contains” 
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search option has been added to the current version of WBA and will be an option in the new 

version. 

3. New Business or Questions (2:15–2:25 p.m.)

Anna McGowan stated that the current version of WBA has been in operation since 

October 2010 and has been running well. The new version will have a much better search 

capability and a better crawler for doing advanced searches. The new version is slated to be 

introduced over the weekend of December 9–11, 2011. WBA will not be available to users 

during that time. The platform supporting the current WBA will be replaced by the ADAMS P8 

platform, which will be more flexible and faster. For most of the existing search and reporting 

functions, users will note no difference in the new version, but in the Advanced Search and 

Content Search, there will be many improvements and new features, such as the following:

• The page size will be increased.

• In the new WBA, users will be able to save a search strategy as a URL. One caveat is 

that users will have to reenter any current saved searches in the new version.

• The Simple Search will be known as the Content Search.

• WBA will have the capability to export a list of documents into Excel or CSV (Comma 

Separated Values). A CSV file is a specially formatted plain text file which can be used 

to export data to a spreadsheet, database, e-mail address book, or word processing 

program.

• WBA will also have the capability to search specific folders by right-clicking.

• Users will be able to “hide package contents,” which will hide redundant copies of 

documents.

• In Advanced Search, users will be able to edit queries in Standard Query Language 

(SQL). This will eliminate the need for the current “Add to Query” function.

• In searches for NUREGs, the issue of whether to type a dash or a slash after “NUREG” 

and before the NUREG number has been resolved. 

• The ADAMS Public Library and Public Legacy search functions will be separated, as in 

the earlier versions of ADAMS. It is more effective to search the Public Library and 

Public Legacy Library separately rather than together because of the differences 

between the two databases. The format of records in each database is different. This 

will also prevent overloading the system resources. 

With this new version, the ADAMS platform will be settled after 2 years of change. In the new 

version, the separation of the Advanced Search and Content Search functions will support more 

effective content searches. The Content Search option will search for data assigned to the 

document at indexing. The Advanced Search option will use the metadata fields found in the 

documents’ profiles. The new WBA will still have the date/time stamp function, for users who 

search WBA for new records throughout the day.
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4. Questions (2:25–3 p.m.)

Anna McGowan invited the participants to ask any questions.

Q1: I found NUREG-0103 in the Energy Citations Database, but it is not cross-linked to 

ADAMS. Can this be done for these older documents?

A1: We have not investigated that. Federated searching is an issue we will have to look at in 

our long-range planning.

Q2: I am working on upgrades to Standard Review Plans (SRPs), and I am finding that 

there are lots of references in SRPs to documents that are not in ADAMS.

A2: In the NRC OIS, we have been talking about “scan on demand,” meaning that documents 

would be scanned and put into ADAMS as they are needed. Accomplishing that is difficult right 

now—due to both the mechanics of getting it done and the funding.

Q3: I’ve heard that the Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical 

Information (DOE/OSTI) cannot share documents with the NRC.

A3: Staff in the NRC Technical Library has been talking to OSTI about this. The documents 

require a review for sensitive information before they can be put into ADAMS.

Q4: Will the same metadata properties be available in the new version of WBA, or any 

new ones?

A4: The same metadata properties will be available in the new version.

Q5: We had been able to do a word search on the Regulatory Guides Web page. Will the 

new search engine allow this?

A5: You could do content searches for them in WBA, but currently this search can’t be done on 

the Regulatory Guides Web page. We will ask the NRC Web Team if this search can be added 

on the Regulatory Guides Web page.

Q6: Will there be a new WBA User Guide?

A6: Yes, and it will be easier to find. Users will be able to click on the question mark on the 

WBA search page to open the User Guide. Also, there will be a new URL for WBA, which will 

be http://adams.nrc.gov/wba. WBA will no longer use Port 8080, which caused problems for 

some users.
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Q7: Which browsers will the new WBA support?

A7: The new version should support more browsers. We have tested many browsers, but not 

all of them. The new WBA works fine on Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, as well as 

Internet Explorer.

Q8: Does that include Internet Explorer 7?

A8: Yes.

Q9: Will there be an official NRC press release the Thursday before the new version of 

WBA is introduced?

A9: Yes, the press release is planned for that week. It will also be posted on the NRC Web 

site.

Q10: I would like some clarification on the Content Search. Will the Simple Search 

become the Content Search?

A10: Yes.

Q11: Will we be able to combine it with the Advanced Search? Will we be able to limit 

Content Searches by date?

A11: There have been problems with combining the two types of searches. You can use dates 

or type in the docket number in the Content Search. It is not the same view as the Advanced 

Search, which we’ve reserved for the properties (metadata) searching. In Content Search, it is 

more of a “free form” search than the more formal searching of metadata in Advanced Search.

In the Advanced Search, the results sets will be 100 percent accurate and a lot faster, and 

AND/OR statements will be included.

Q12: Will the User Guide have search examples? And does the term “document 

properties” mean the metadata?

A12: Yes, the User Guide will have search examples, and “document properties” means the 

metadata. The new version will be very intuitive and easy to use. It will be similar to how you 

have been searching. Feel free to e-mail a screen shot to the PDR staff if you have any 

questions or problems with the new version.

Q13: Can you post the User Guide before the new version comes out? 

A13: The User Guide is mostly finalized. It is becoming a public document on the date that the 

new version is released, but we will look into it to see if it can be released earlier than that. 

Perhaps the User Guide could be published with the press release about the new version. We 
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will ask the Web team if this can be done. Also, we could possibly give you a draft copy of the 

User Guide—please e-mail the PDR to request it. 

Q14: Can you create an e-mail subscription for new results in WBA? If a user has a 

search string, can he subscribe to receive new documents from that search? 

A14: This function is not available now, but maybe in the future it could be.

Q15: Will we still need to use wild cards while searching in the new version?

A15: You shouldn’t need to use them in Advanced Search, but you can use them in Content 

Search. Information on using wild cards will be in the User Guide.

Q16: Will we still need to put an asterisk at the end of the NUREG number when 

searching for NUREGs?

A16: No, that has been fixed.

Anna McGowan thanked everyone for their participation in the meeting. The next AUG meeting 

will be in spring 2012. The date will be posted on the AUG Web page, and an announcement 

will also be made via the AUG distribution list.

5. Adjournment (3 p.m.)

Update to ADAMS Public User Group Meeting Minutes:

The release date for the new version of WBA has been postponed to later in December 2011. 

ADAMS users will be notified of the new release date by an NRC press release before the 

change occurs.