May 1996 1

Document Pricing Changes, Starting July 1

plan led by Mr. George J. Roncaglia,

formerly head of the Technical Library Branch, now the acting agency

STI Program operations manager.

At headquarters, Mr.Roland M.

Ridgeway, currently head of STI Information Services will become the

agency STI Program manager.

More information about the STI

Program’s new direction will be

announced in future issues of the

STI Bulletin. One thing is clear, an

exciting time has begun for the STI

Program and at the heart of the

changes is a concern for the best interests of the STI user community.

STI A publication for users of the NASA scientific and technical information program

BULLETIN

May 1996 Issue

RECONplus Tips and

Techniques

RECONplus Training

The STI Databases

In This Issue

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

Scientific and Technical 


Information Office


STI Program

Transferred to Langley

Research Center

On April 10, Benita A. Cooper, associate administrator for the NASA

Office of Management Systems and

Facilities (Code J) informed the

NASA community that the operational responsibility for the STI

Program was transferred from

NASA Headquarters to NASA’s

Langley Research Center (LaRC)

effective March 29, 1996. LaRC

assumes the leadership role in determining the future direction of the

STI Program, based on policy

from NASA Headquarters.

Responsibility for reviewing and

reengineering the STI Program’s

processes to acquire, catalog, and

disseminate NASA’s STI will be

assumed by LaRC in conjunction

with STI users. NASA Headquarters assumes a policy role and will

draft a new STI Policy Directive.

Headquarters will also continue in

the role of managing the international and interagency STI exchange agreements.

Langley has put together a team that

is preparing the initial reengineering

Beginning July 1, 1996 the NASA STI program will institute a new pricing

schedule for its Document Delivery Service.

Microfiche and Paper Copy Reports

Domestic Foreign Domestic Foreign

A01 $ 6.50 $13.00 A14 $49.00 $ 98.00

A02 10.00 20.00 A15 49.00 98.00

A03 19.50 39.00 A16 49.00 98.00

A04 21.50 43.00 A17 49.00 98.00

A05 21.50 43.00 A18 57.00 114.00

A06 25.00 50.00 A19 57.00 114.00

A07 28.00 56.00 A20 57.00 114.00

A08 31.00 62.00 A21 57.00 114.00

A09 35.00 70.00 A22 67.00 134.00

A10 38.00 76.00 A23 67.00 134.00

A11 41.00 82.00 A24 67.00 134.00

A12 44.00 88.00 A25 67.00 134.00

A13 47.00 94.00 A99 Contact NASA CASI

The $1.50 Domestic/$9.00 Foreign

shipping and handling fee currently

being charged will remain the same.

Foreign airmail is $27.00 for the first

1-3 items, $9.00 for each additional

item.

Additionally, a new processing fee of

$2.00 per each video ordered will be

assessed. The new pricing schedule

reflects the increase in labor and

resources.
2 STI Bulletin

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The STI Bulletin, published every other month, informs NASA

STI users about the products, services, and news of the NASA

Scientific and Technical Information Office.

Mark Jeschke, Editor

John Jones, Graphics

For additional information, contact

Roland Ridgeway

NASA Headquarters, Code JT

Washington, DC 20546-0001,

e-mail rridgeway@sti.nasa.gov.

RECONplus is the STI program’s new client\server based

retreival system accessing the three million records in the

STI Database. RECONplus is fast, flexible, and easy to

use. The menu driven Character Based Interface (CBI)

offers three search modes that allow increasing search

complexity. This issue reviews the databases available with

RECONplus and discusses break characters and special

characters that affect your search strategy.

The next several issues of the STI Bulletin will offer tips

and strategies to help you find the documents you need in

the fastest possible way. If you have specific search questions or want access to the database please e-mail the

NASA Access Help Desk at help@sti.nasa.gov, fax to

301-621 0134, or call 301-621-0390.

Break Characters

Break characters are characters that are not retained when

indexing a text string. For example, in the Abstract field

the term “angle-ply” is displayed with the hyphen. However, in the Abstract index, the terms angle and ply are indexed as two separate words. The system treats break

characters as “word” separators. The break characters are

listed in the table below.

Special Characters

Some characters and character strings have special uses

within the RECONplus command language. These must

be preceded by a forward slash (/) when they are used in a

search statement. For example, Texas A&M University

must be keyed as Texas A/&M University, because the

ampersand (&) is a special character for the AND operator. The character strings “And,” “Or,” or “Not,” when

Breaking Characters Special Charters

O( s pen Parenthesis O ( pen Parenthesi

C) s lose Parenthesis C ) lose Parenthesi

F/h orward Slash F / orward Slas

B\ h ackward Slash B \ ackward Slas

C: n olon C : olo

S; ) emi-colon S ; emi-colon (OR

H- n yphen L < ess Tha

Blank1 G > reater Than

A ' postrophe

E = qual to

A & mpersand (AND)

H - yphen

NOT2

1

 A blank space, entered using the space bar, not the

arrow keys.

2

 RECONplus uses no symbol for NOT.

RECONplus Tips and Techniques

they are used as index search tag values, must be preceded

by a forward slash (/). For example, when searching for research and development as a phrase, the word “and” must

be keyed as “/AND:” “research /AND development.” The

special characters are listed in the table below.

RECONplus Training Schedule

MONTH DAY TIME

August 30 (Friday) 9:00-4:00

September 9 (Monday) 9:00-4:00

September 27 (Friday) 9:00-4:00

October 7 (Monday) 9:00-4:00

October 25 (Friday) 9:00-4:00
May 1996 3

You can contact the NASA Access Help Desk at

(301) 621-0390, fax (301) 621-0134, e-mail at

help@sti.nasa.gov, or write NASA Access Help Desk, NASA

Center for AeroSpace Information, 800 Elkridge Landing

Road, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090-2934.

The STI Databases

The databases used by RECONplus are described below.

Your access priviledges determine the databases you can

search.

Main STI Database (STI)

Coverage: 1963-Present (Frequency of Update: Weekly)

The records in this database represent the NASA Open

Literature reports, and comprise globally published literature in the fields of aeronautics and space science. Included are periodicals, government sponsored journals,

books, and conference proceedings issued from professional and academic organizations. Also included are the

unclassified documents announced in the published

NASA Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports

(STAR). This includes NASA, NASA contractor, and

NASA grantee reports; reports issued by other Government agencies, domestic and foreign institutions, universities, and private firms; translations in report form; and

dissertations. These emphasize aeronautics, space science,

and supporting disciplines. Also included are Computer

Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC) documents, Tech Brief documents, and the Research and Development contract materials. COSMIC

documents contain manuscript abstracts of computer programs developed by NASA, the Department of Defense,

other Government agencies, and their respective contractors. NASA Tech Briefs are articles on the technical innovations that originate out of the NASA Centers. The Research and Development Contract materials contain

information about research and development contracts,

grants, and work orders. These items are not documents.

Controlled Distribution STI Database (STIL)

Coverage: 1968-Present (Frequency of Update: Weekly)

This database is composed of controlled distribution Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports, which include

references to NASA-funded classified and controlled distribution distribution documents. These items are significant and current, emphasizing space science, aeronautics,

and supporting disciplines. Also included are the Small

Business Innovative Research (SBIR) reports. The controlled distribution status of these references is updated at

designated intervals.

Older STI Database (STIO)

Coverage: 1962-1969 (Frequency of Update: Closed File)

The records in this database represent the NASA Open

Literature reports, and comprise globally published literature in the fields of aeronautics and space science. Included

are periodicals, government sponsored journals, books, and

conference proceedings issued from professional and academic organizations. Also included are the unclassified

documents announced in the published NASA Scientific

and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR). The documents

in STAR are composed of NASA, NASA contractor, and

NASA grantee reports; reports issued by other Government agencies, domestic and foreign institutions, universities and private firms; translations in report form; and dissertations. These emphasize aeronautics, space science, and

supporting disciplines.

Older Controlled Distribution STI Database (STIOL)

Coverage: 1962-1967 (Frequency of Update: Closed File)

This database is composed of includes controlled distribution Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports, which

include references to NASA-funded classified and controlled distribution distribution documents. The records

in this database are from the years of 1962- 1967.

Early Aviation Collection

The following files are not combined.

NACA Holdings File (CNACA)

Coverage: 1915-1960 (Frequency of Update: Quarterly)

The records in this database represent the documents

produced by the National Advisory Committee for

Aeronautics (NACA) and the documents collected by

NACA libraries, both foreign and domestic, about

early aviation research and development. These records

are converted from NASA ARIN records and include

an indication of where copies of the documents are located within NASA.

NACA Historical File (NACA)

Coverage: 1915-1960 (Frequency of Update: Closed File)

The records in this database contains more than

100,000 catalog cards and technical notes that served

as the library shelf list for NACA Committee Headquarters. The records contain reports from foreign and

domestic Government agencies and industries.
4 STI Bulletin

FIRST-CLASS PRESORT

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

NASA

Permit No. G-27

Is Your Mailing Label Correct ?

Please provide any changes below and return to: ATTN: Registration

NASA Center for AeroSpace Information

800 Elkridge Landing Rd.

Linthicum Heights, MD 21090-2934

CASI ID Number: _________________________

Phone: ___________________________________

ATTN: __________________________________

Organization: _____________________________

Address: _________________________________

_________________________________

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

Scientific and Technical 


Information Office


Center for AeroSpace Information

800 Elkridge Landing Road, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090-2934