WORLD NEWS CONNECTION® 

John Hounsell is a Program Manager at NTIS and has been with the agency

for over 30 years. Recently, an interview with John was published in the 

Wall Street Journal regarding one of the products John oversees—World 

News Connection®. In case you missed that article, the following 

interview highlights some of the areas covered in the Wall Street Journal

interview as well as additional information on World News Connection®. 

 

Pat Moton: “John, what is World News Connection®?” 

John Hounsell: “World News Connection® is a foreign news service 

available from the U.S. Government. It brings news from around the 

world to the subscriber’s desktop—usually within 24-72 hours from the 

time it is originally published or broadcast. And all of that news is 

translated into English in that short amount of time. Believe me, no 

other news source offers such a collection of unedited views and 

reporting from all over the world that informs users of what people in 

other countries really think and feel—instead of what U.S. reporters think

about them.” 

Pat: “How many international sources are covered by World News 

Connection®--and how many countries does that include?” 

John: “World News Connection® covers some 1,800 newspapers, blogs, 

and broadcasts in 130 countries.” 

Pat: “What Federal agency is involved in providing information for World

News Connection?” 

John: “We get all of our articles from the Open Source Center, the U.S. 

Government's premier provider of foreign open source intelligence. The 

Center provides information on foreign military, economic, political, and 

technical issues. 

Pat: “Would you give us a historical look at World News Connection®— 

when it was created, why it’s important, etc.?” 

I NSIDE T HIS I SSUE

1 World News Connection

2 FDA Investigations

Operations Manual

3 Where’s NTIS 

Exhibiting? 

4 National Cryptologic 

Museum Library

5 Banff Wildlife Crossings

Project

“Recently, an interview 

with John was published 

in the Wall Street Journal 

regarding . . . World 

News Connection®.” 

 Please see page 3.

 

National Technical Information Service www.ntis.gov pmoton@ntis.gov 

U . S . D e p a r t m e n t o f C o m m e r c e 703-605-6103 

5301 Shawnee Road 

Alexandria, VA 22312 

 

 

 CUSTOMER

 ADVOCATE’S 

 Spring - April 2011 CORNER Volume 3, Issue 3

 
Page 2 NTIS CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S CORNER 

“Examine stocks for

exposure to excessive heat,

physical damage from

flying particles and falling

debris, and lack of

refrigeration in down‐

power areas. Examine for

water damage from fire

fighting activities  . . .” 

FDA Investigations Operations Manual

The 2011 version of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 

Investigations Operations Manual is now available from NTIS as 

PB2011-100337. This manual is the primary source of procedures for 

FDA field investigators and inspectors. The manual includes many 

topics of interest to the general public. The following is quoted from 

the manual in the section on fires: “Examine stocks for exposure to 

excessive heat, physical damage from flying particles and falling 

debris, and lack of refrigeration in down-power areas. Examine for 

water damage from fire fighting activities and handle these as a 

flooding situation. Also, be alert for possible pollution from using nonpotable water in fire fighting. Fire fighting often involves use of 

chemicals, so examine merchandize [sic] for residues from possible 

toxic fire extinguishing materials, and question fire authorities 

regarding this issue.” The manual includes chapters on: Federal and 

State Cooperation; Sampling, including collection techniques, 

preparation, handling and shipping of samples, etc.; Inspection 

Procedures in the areas of food, drugs, devices, biologics, pesticides, 

and veterinary medicine; Import Procedures; Recall Activities; 

Investigations, including foodborne outbreaks, injury and adverse 

reactions, disaster procedures and counterfeiting and tampering. 

Currently, the 2010 version of this manual may be viewed at FDA’s 

Office of Regulatory Affairs Web site at

www.fda.gov/ora/inspect_ref/iom/.     

Where’s NTIS Exhibiting?

We hope you’ll be able to stop by whenever NTIS is exhibiting in your 

area. 

From March 30-April 2, we will be exhibiting at the Association of 

College and Research Libraries (ACRL) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 

Booth 109. 

From August 7-10, we will be exhibiting at the GovEnergy 2011 event 

being held at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, 

Booth 1511.

 * * * * * * * 

Are there upcoming conferences at which you feel an NTIS exhibit or 

speech would be a valuable contribution? 

Just e-mail me at customeradvocate@ntis.gov or call me at 

703-605-6103. I’ll be sure your suggestion is forwarded to the proper 

NTIS management staff. 
NTIS CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S CORNER Page 3

John: “In February 1941, President Roosevelt set up the Foreign Broadcast 

Monitoring Service (FBMS) to monitor the radio broadcasts of the Axis 

countries as part of intelligence gathering for the military and Federal 

Government. FBMS was renamed the Foreign Broadcast Information Service 

(FBIS) in 1947 and expanded slowly to cover television when that came into 

being, as well as newspapers and magazines. When the World Wide Web 

started to become a news source, it was added as well. Until 1995, FBIS 

information was produced in little booklets about 1⁄4 inch thick for each 

region that were distributed by NTIS to Government recipients identified by 

FBIS. In 1995, when the information was switched from printed copies to an 

electronic format, FBIS approached NTIS to make the information available to

the public through an online database. In response to that request, NTIS 

created World News Connection®.” 

Pat: “What is involved in making this information available to the public?” 

John: “In order to make articles available to the public, NTIS must obtain a 

Copyright Clearance Agreement from each source that is included in World 

News Connection®. At the moment, this covers about one-half of the 

material in the Open Source Center database. Some sources don’t want to 

grant clearance for various reasons. For some, it is not worth their while 

because it costs more to administer the copyright revenues than what they 

would earn; some have their own English news translation service and don’t 

want NTIS competing with them.” 

Pat: “How often is World News Connection® updated?” 

John:  “It’s updated hourly. Subscribers can search for information by 

subject, by country, by region, and by date.” 

Pat: “Why do people subscribe to World News Connection®?” 

John:  “Customers subscribe for numerous reasons: for the English 

translation of foreign language articles; use as a foreign news alert service; 

to obtain the local view; as a reference; as a secondary source of news; for 

teaching journalism and communication; preparing for travel; to make 

investment decisions; and for competitive business intelligence.” 

 

Pat: “How do customers subscribe to World News Connection®?” 

John:  “Customers can subscribe to World News Connection® through seven 

news services. A list of these news services, and more information about 

World News Connection®, can be found at 

http://wnc.fedworld.gov/wnc_dialog.html.”

Pat: “Thank you for providing us information on this excellent avenue of 

access to international news.” 

WORLD NEWS CONNECTION 

 From Page 1 

 

 

“How often is World 

News Connection® 

updated?” 

“It’s updated hourly.”
Page 4 NTIS CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S CORNER 

 

Then reading the journal article by Eugene 

Becker entitled The National Cryptologic 

Museum Library is a good place to start. The 

article describes the museum and its library as 

“becoming a world center of historical 

intelligence research.” The library was first 

opened on July 15, 1993, to National Security 

Agency (NSA) employees; then, in December of 

that year, the doors were opened to the public. 

In the years before World War II, resources for 

cryptologic study were scarce. The core of the 

library’s book collection was gathered during 

those years, regardless of the age of an 

individual book or the language in which it was 

written. The journal article reports that the 

library’s collection includes 6,000 books covering

all aspects of cryptology. Early in 2010, the 

Museum Foundation added a collection of 

children’s books on cryptology, including books 

on codes and ciphers as well as books on Native 

American Code Talkers. 

The National Cryptologic Museum Library article 

(product number ADA534887) is available from 

NTIS in several media types, or it can be 

downloaded from our Web site at no charge. 

Just click here. 

Written and Edited by:

Pat Moton

Customer Advocate

National Technical

   Information Service

5301 Shawnee Road

Alexandria, VA  22312

Phone:

703‐605‐6103

Fax:

703‐605‐6900

E‐mail:

customeradvocate@ntis.gov   

that bisects Yoho and Banff National Parks in 

Canada. For over 25 years, Banff National Park 

has been the focus of efforts designed to 

mitigate the impact of the Highway on wildlife 

mortality and habitat fragmentation. 

Overpasses, underpasses, and fencing have been 

designed to reduce wildlife mortality as well as 

increase population connectivity. 

Since 1982, these efforts have been incorporated

into the design of Trans-Canada Highway 

“twinning” projects (widening from two to four 

lanes). Twelve years of monitoring the use of 

these structures by different species have 

produced an enormous volume of valuable data 

on crossing frequency (185,000 times in 

12 years), species preference, and behavior. For

example, grizzly bear use of the new crossing 

opportunities went from one of every 2,000 

crossings to a little more than one in 100 

crossings. Also, the presence or absence of an 

alpha female wolf made a major difference in 

how the crossing structures were used, with use 

declining 13 percent in the month following the 

death of an alpha female wolf. 

This 166-page report can be purchased from NTIS

as product number PB2011-104000 .    

*     *     *

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Previous issues are listed under the red highlighting.

 National Cryptologic 

Museum Library 

Do you want to learn about 

writing in secret codes or 

deciphering that writing? 

Banff Wildlife 

Crossings Project 

Highways and wildlife 

are usually a dangerous 

combination—not only 

for wildlife but also for 

humans. The TransCanada Highway is a 

major east-west 

transportation corridor