June 02, 2016 

MEMORANDUM TO: File 

FROM: Anna Therese McGowan, Chief /RA/ 

 User Service Branch 

 Customer Service Division 

 Office of Information Services 

SUBJECT: ADAMS PUBLIC USER GROUP MEETING MINUTES, MAY 18, 2016 

This memo accompanies the summary of the public meeting held on Wednesday, May 18, 

2016, in the Public Document Room of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This was the 

31st meeting of the ADAMS User Group. 

CONTACT: Anna T. McGowan, OCIO/CSD/USB 

 (301) 415-7204 
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Wednesday, May 18, 2016 

2:00 P.M.–2:30 P.M. 

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Headquarters 

Public Document Room O-1 F21 

Agenda for ADAMS User Group Meeting #31 

1. General Announcements—Anna McGowan (2:00–2:10 P.M.) 

2. Member Issues and Questions—Anna McGowan (2:10–2:25 P.M.) 

3. New Business or Questions—Anna McGowan (2:25–2:30 P.M.) 

4. Adjournment (2:30 P.M.) 

Next Meeting: Autumn 2016 
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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Meeting Summary 

 

May 18, 2016 

Title: Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) User Group 

Meeting 

Meeting Identifier: ML16088A317 

Date of Meeting: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 

Location: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Document Room, Rockville, MD 

Type of Meeting: Category 3 

Purpose of the Meeting(s): 

To provide updates on the ADAMS system and answer questions from public ADAMS 

users. 

General Details: 

The meeting began at 2:00 p.m. with introductions and general announcements by Anna 

McGowan. Five NRC staff members were present. 

Approximately three members of the public participated in the meeting remotely using a 

teleconference line, and one attended in person. Four participants asked questions and 

provided comments. Meeting participants included representatives of Westinghouse 

and the Attorney General’s Office. 

The remaining portion of the meeting was dedicated to ADAMS User Group member 

issues and questions. The meeting ended at approximately 2:30 p.m. 

Announcements: 

Anna McGowan stated that the Branch staff has recently heard from some users that 

there is a problem seeing the full text of an ADAMS document for which they have 
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received a hyperlink to connect them to the document. There isn’t a problem if you 

search for the document directly in ADAMS but only when following a hyperlink. We 

understand that this problem is a result of some new, more secure connections that the 

agency has put in place to improve computer security of its systems. If you have 

experienced a similar problem in retrieving and seeing ADAMS documents, please let us 

know. 

Ms. McGowan also followed up on a problem which we had earlier this spring. We 

heard that there were some issues with searching PDF documents. We discussed this 

matter with the technical support staff and we understand that it has been resolved. As 

we understand it, the problem arose from the way that the document was saved in 

ADAMS. We have reviewed the procedures with staff so that they are familiar with the 

correct process to store documents. 

Public Participation Themes: 

During the public question and answer portion of the meeting, NRC staff received 

questions on the following topics. The following answers were either provided during the 

meeting or the questions were researched and the answers provided below: 

• Possible Impacts of the NRC’s Project AIM on ADAMS 

 

o Question: Will Project AIM have an impact on ADAMS? 

o Answer: Right now, beginning with the fiscal year 2017 budget, there will 

be significant and increasing budget cuts for ADAMS through 2020. 

These reductions in resources will affect ADAMS maintenance and slow 

system improvements. 

• Documents in ADAMS 

o Question: Why are some large industry documents classified as 

“Document Type: E-mail” in ADAMS? 

o Answer: Industry supplied documents, submitted as an e-mail with an 

attachment, should be segregated into two or more files and have 

individual accession numbers so that they can be profiled separately. 

Ideally, a package should be created for the overall submission (note with 

attachments), and each document within the package should be profiled 

separately. However, the handling and processing of each submission is 

the responsibility of the project manager, and project managers might not 
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all follow the same process. Agency staff members can add e-mail 

messages directly into ADAMS, so they may not search for the package 

or put all of the related documents in the same package. Entering the 

e-mail message (and its attachments) into ADAMS as a separate 

document also allows the project manager to assign a classification level 

to the e-mail message which might be different from the other documents 

in the package. 

o Question: Was there a presentation handout at the ADAMS training 

session at the 2016 Regulatory Information Conference? 

o Answer: No, there was not a handout distributed but, if users are 

interested, we can ask the presenter for permission to add the 

PowerPoint presentation to the meeting minutes when they are posted on 

the NRC’s Internet site. 

• ADAMS and Social Media 

o Question: Is there a forum for ADAMS users to communicate with each 

other about ADAMS? 

o Answer: Currently, there is not a specific forum for ADAMS users, but we 

have consulted with the NRC Office of Public Affairs regarding this 

question. They recommended that we write an NRC Blog post about 

using ADAMS, and then any member of the public will be able to post 

questions or make comments there about ADAMS at any time. As soon 

as we have posted this to the NRC Blog, we will also put a link to it on the 

ADAMS Web page and send a notice to the ADAMS User Group e-mail 

list. Anyone can subscribe to the ADAMS User Group e-mail list from the 

ADAMS User Group Web page. 

Action Items/Next Steps: 
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Anna McGowan asked the participants if there is still a need to hold the ADAMS User Group 

meetings twice a year, and, hearing no response, encouraged them to send an e-mail to 

PDR.Resource@nrc.gov with any comments on that or any other ADAMS-related question. 

 

The next ADAMS User Group meeting will be held in Autumn 2016.

Enclosure: 

 1. Meeting Announcement—ML16088A317