December 6, 2013 

TO: File 

FROM: Anna Therese McGowan , Chief /RA/ 

User Services Branch 

Customer Service Division 

Office of Information Services 

SUBJECT: ADAMS PUBLIC USER GROUP MEETING MINUTES, 

OCTOBER 30, 2013 

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

October 30, 2013 in the Public Document Room of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

This was the 26th meeting of the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 

(ADAMS) User Group. 
AGENCYWIDE DOCUMENTS ACCESS AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ADAMS) USER 

GROUP MEETING 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 

2–3 p.m. 

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Headquarters 

Public Document Room O1 – F21 

Agenda for ADAMS User Group Meeting #26

1. General Announcements—Anna McGowan (2:00–2:10 p.m.) 

2. Member Issues and Questions—Anna McGowan (2:10–2:30 p.m.) 

3. New Business or Questions—Anna McGowan; Mark Evans (2:30–2:55 p.m.) 

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

1. General Announcements—Anna McGowan (2:00–2:05 p.m.) 

Anna McGowan, Chief, User Services Branch, Office of Information Services, opened the 

meeting at 2 p.m. She introduced the other U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff in 

attendance. Staff members from the Customer Services Division (CSD), Office of Information 

Services (OIS), were Karen Danoff, Mary Mendiola, Sardar Zuberi, and Jo Ann Resner. Mark 

Evans from OIS also participated. 

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

meeting: MPR Associates, Bechtel, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Westinghouse, Luminant 

Power, and Winston and Strawn. 

Minutes for ADAMS User Group (AUG) meetings are available for review on the NRC’s 

AUG Web page. This web page is accessible from the Web-based ADAMS (WBA) page. 

Anna McGowan notified the ADAMS User Group members about the OIS reorganization which 

took effect on April 7, 2013. Ms. McGowan explained that, with the reorganization, two librarians 

transferred to other branches in OIS and have not yet been replaced. 

Ms. McGowan also mentioned that the staff of the Public Document Room (PDR) has been 

posting the public meeting notices on the NRC Public Meeting Notice Schedule web page for 

almost 2 years. The program offices are scheduled to post the public meeting notices soon, 

which will allow the PDR staff more time to serve the public. 

2. Member Issues and Questions—Anna McGowan (2:05–2:20 p.m.) 

We have posted the answer to a question, which we received from some public users, about the 

correct docket number search format on the NRC Intranet site, under “Frequently Asked 

Questions” for ADAMS. The users asked that we provide searching guidance for entering the 

8-digit docket number, required for Web-based ADAMS, since it is often cited as a shorter 

number. We have added the method for searching a docket number, as requested. The site 

also has a list of licenses and docket numbers to make it easier to find that information as well. 

3. New Business or Questions—Anna McGowan; Mark Evans (2:20–2:40 p.m.) 

Mark Evans spoke about the plans to support a newer version of Internet Explorer (10) and any 

other new system enhancements that are planned for the next 6 months. 

Web-based ADAMS testing is now completed for the Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9 and 10 browsers, 

as well as the Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari browsers. Internet Explorer 6 

is no longer supported by the NRC. Supporting Web-based ADAMS on the Internet Explorer 7 

browser can limit the functionality; this could result in the NRC no longer supporting the Internet 

Explorer 7 browser next year. Mark asked the users which browsers they typically use to 

access Web-based ADAMS. 

The default view of Web-based ADAMS currently shows the daily folder view on the left and a 

blank screen on the right. NRC is researching whether to expand the default view to the current 
daily folder. Feedback from the ADAMS User Group indicated that this was not useful; 

defaulting to the previous day’s folder would be more helpful. 

Q1: Whom can we send questions to about ADAMS? 

A1: Contact the Public Document Room staff at 301-415-4737 or at pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The 

Public Document Room staff will forward the questions to the correct staff for a response. 

Q2: Are there any new developments with ADAMS? 

A2: The Agency wants to make it easier to access information on mobile devices. However, 

due to the sequestration, this will not happen quickly. Mr. Evans explained that some Web sites 

have a “device-ready” format option for smart phone users. The agency is working on a project 

which would allow the NRC Web site to be more mobile accessible with a “device-ready” format. 

He also asked the members if they would be interested in an ADAMS app for the Android and 

iPhone. Some users said this would be helpful in their work if it was available, especially for 

iPads. 

Q3: When we do a search in the Public Library, why does our search strategy disappear when 

we click on the Public Legacy Library box to search the same strategy there? Can the Public 

Library and Public Legacy Library be searched together? 

A3: The Public Library and the Public Legacy Library in Web-based ADAMS, Advanced 

Searches are two separate databases, so the first search would not be saved. We are 

identifying older popular key NRC documents to be digitized. As older documents are released 

under the NRC Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), they are being digitized and placed into 

Web-based ADAMS. 

Another example of the digitization effort is the Office of the Secretary documents (SECY 

papers). When digitizing the SECY papers, one of the AUG members recommended that the 

staff requirements memoranda (SRMs) and the voting sheets also be digitized into Web-based 

ADAMS. Ms. McGowan said this suggestion was very helpful. 

Q4: There are gaps in ADAMS for the SECY Commission Papers from November 1, 1999 to 

December 31, 2005. Do you have a complete record of these SECY papers? 

A4: We will research this further. SECY Commission Papers from January 1996 to the present 

are also available http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/secys/, but the 

documents on this web page are not in ADAMS. 

The NRC ensures the integrity of Web-based ADAMS by running a monthly comparison with the 

publicly available documents in the internal ADAMS with those in Web-based ADAMS. 

Q5: I paid for a copy of a 1991 SECY document to be made by the PDR’s document duplication 

contractor, Best Copy and Printing, Inc., from microfiche to PDF. Can this document be added 

to ADAMS? 

A5: Documents placed into Web-based ADAMS need to be Official Agency Records. The 

microfiche documents in the Public Document Room are not considered Official Agency 

Records. In addition, guidance needs to be followed from the National Archives and Records 
Administration when placing documents into ADAMS. Documents reproduced by Best Copy 

and Printing, Inc. do not fit this criteria, so cannot be placed into ADAMS. 

Q1: A user complimented the standardized titles in Web-based ADAMS. Another user agreed 

that the index in Web-based ADAMS is very useful. 

A1: Thank you. The indexing is done by the NRC Document Processing Center. 

Ms. McGowan concluded by thanking the participants for joining the meeting and reminded 

them that the next AUG meeting will be in the Spring of 2014. A call for agenda items will be 

sent out through the ADAMS User Group distribution list closer to the meeting date. 

3. Adjournment (2:40 p.m.)