OPEN GOVERNMENT IS ALIVE AT NTIS

Don Hagen, NTIS’ Associate Director for Product Management and Acquisitions, is 

serving as NTIS’ Open Government Representative at the Department of 

Commerce. Don came to NTIS in 2006 and has a background in science, 

information management, and customer outreach. Let’s find out his views on 

Open Government and its future at NTIS.

 

Pat Moton: “Don, do you feel NTIS has been practicing the principles of Open 

Government for some time, or is this something new for the agency?”

Don Hagen: “We have been practicing it, Pat, and are expanding it. We are reinventing the National Technical Reports Library in an open and repository model. 

We are supporting ‘discovery’ of science and technical content and focusing the 

NTIS cost-recovery and sustainability process on a subscription model that allows 

access to the technical reports. We are taking a new approach to the NTIS 

Sustainable Business Model through Repositories as a Service to meet the 

growing need within the Federal research community to move toward an ‘escience’ solution that ‘enables’ science to work more effectively in applying 

science and innovation and creating jobs. Also, NTIS has identified seven private 

information organizations to support development of new-media to meet the 

needs of the science community—showcasing advanced processes in science 

communication, security, dissemination, and preservation.”

Pat: “What has NTIS done recently to make it more open to the public?”

Don: “It is important that NTIS pursues an open information environment

for discovery and access to Federal scientific content. The genesis of this

effort has been the expansion of the search option on our Web site, which

I NSI DE T HIS ISSUE

1 Open Government is 

Alive at NTIS

2 Final Report of the 

Department of Defense 

Task Force on the 

Prevention of Suicideby 

Members of the Armed 

Forces

3 Where’s NTIS Exhibiting?

4 The Effect of Food Away 

from Home on the 

Quality of the Diets of 

Children

5 What’s Working for Bed 

Bug Control in 

Multifamily Housing?

“It is important that NTIS 

pursues an open information 

environment for discovery 

and access to Federal 

scientific content.”

 Please see page 3.

 

National Te chnic al Information S ervice www.ntis.gov pmot o n@ntis. gov 

U. S. Dep art ment o f Co m merce 703-605-6103

5301 Sh aw nee R o ad

Alexandri a, VA 22312

 

 

 

 CUSTOMER

 ADVOCATE’S 

 Winter -January 2011 CORNER Volume 3, Issue 2

 

We at NTIS wish you a joyful and prosperous New Year 

and look forward to working with you in 2011. 
Page 2 NTIS CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S CORNER 

“The report includes the 

following quote by 

Colin Powell: ‘The day 

soldiers stop bringing you 

their problems is the day you 

have stopped leading them. 

They have either lost 

confidence that you can help 

them or concluded that you 

do not care. Either case is a 

failure of leadership.’ ”

Final Report of the Department of Defense 

Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by 

Members of the Armed Forces

Established in August 2009, the Department of Defense (DoD) Task 

Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces 

prepared a report for the Secretary of Defense that details the 

research, results, and recommendations of a year-long review of data, 

studies, programs, and discussions with Service Members, their 

families, and their caregivers. The intent of this report is to provide 

DoD leadership with actionable and measurable recommendations for 

policy and programs designed to prevent suicide by members of the 

Armed Forces. Ultimately, the Task Force arrived at 49 findings and 76 

associated recommendations. Military Services have taken a leading 

role during the past 15 years in the Nation’s suicide prevention efforts 

and, more recently, have coordinated with other federal agencies to 

advance that work. The report includes the following quote by 

Colin Powell: “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the 

day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence 

that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case 

is a failure of leadership.” This report may be ordered from NTIS as 

product number ADA529502. 

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, 2011, we will be exhibiting at the Association of 

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

Booth 109.

 * * * * * * *

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

Don (Cont.): “now goes back to 1964. Although NTIS is a self-sustaining agency and 

is required to charge for it products and services, we continually explore options to 

lower the costs to our customers. We have been digitizing our reports for quite some 

time to make them available to our customers as downloads, clearly a less costly 

approach than printing and shipping technical reports. 

A major initiative to improve accessto NTIS content is a pilot program begun in 2009 

to move to an electronic dissemination process through our National Technical 

Reports Library (NTRL). Today, this approach is well received by major universities, 

private companies, and Federal and State agencies through subscribing to NTRL. 

Their subscription allows all the students at a university or employees at a private 

company or Federal or State agency to gain access to the full electronic image of 

documents electronically available in the NTIS collection. The end-user gains access to 

the content of the documents at no charge, which multiplies and highlights Open 

Government discovery of Federal scientific, technical, and business information. As 

documents are added to the NTIS collection, they are automatically included in all 

subscriptions to NTRL, continually expanding the library of information available to 

subscribers and their end-users.”

Pat: “What major change do you envision in the future to make NTIS’ Open 

Government initiatives even more accessible and important to the public?”

Don: “We’ve met with numerous Government agencies to determine how NTIS 

should reposition its programs to support their needs. These meetings have resulted 

in NTIS establishing a firm preservation plan for NTRL. We’ve recently signed an 

agreement with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) which 

allows content added to the NTIS collection to be the equivalent of agencies having 

submitted the information to NARA. We also will be building collections and access 

based on the themes of science including cross-agency content. NTIS is also 

developing an Agency Repository concept to answer a growing need among Federal 

agencies for assistance in collecting, managing, controlling and disseminating their 

scientific and technical information and technologies. In addition, we have 

implemented private-public partnershipsto explore New Media initiatives to develop 

innovative processes in science communication, security, dissemination, and 

preservation.”

Pat: “If customers have suggestions on Open Government at NTIS, how should they 

let us know?”

Don: “They can send their comments to info@ntis.gov. We look forward to their 

input.” 

Pat: “Thank you for taking time to share your ideas on Open Government at NTIS and 

how we can be sure the public is involved as we explore future options for their input 

and accessibility to our collection.”

OPEN GOVERNMENT IS ALIVE AT NTIS

 From Page 1

 

 

 

“The end-user gains access 

to the content of the 

documents at no charge, 

which multiplies and 

highlights Open 

Government discovery of 

Federal scientific, technical, 

and business information.”
Page 4 NTIS CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S CORNER 

research report in October 2010 estimating how 

eating food away from home affects a child’s diet 

quality and calorie consumption. Prevention of 

childhood obesity has become a major public health 

objective. In their search for the causes of rising 

childhood obesity, researchers identified as a 

potential culprit the consumption of food prepared 

away from home. Children today, like adults, eat a 

larger share of their daily calories from foods prepared 

outside the home than they did 30 years ago. It was 

determined that each food-away-from-home meal 

adds 108 more calories to the daily total intake for 

children ages 13-18 than a snack or meal from home. 

Those meals most likely come from fast food outlets, 

restaurants, and schools. The effect of food from 

school on the caloric intake and diet quality of 

younger children, however, does not differ 

significantly from that of food from home. Younger 

children are more likely to eat a USDA school meal 

and face a more healthful school food environment. 

How Food Away from Home Affects Children’s Diet 

Quality is available from NTIS as product number ERSERR-104 or may be viewed at 

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR104/. 

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

and evaluates the methods used to control bed bugs 

based on published research, trade magazine articles, 

and interviews with researchers and practitioners. 

The report states: “There is no silver bullet for 

eliminating bed bugs. They present a challenge to 

modern pest control that the industry is still struggling 

to meet.” This report, designed for housing 

professionals, health professionals, and pest 

management professionals, covers what has been 

found to work in multi-family housing. 

The report includes a comprehensive chart entitled 

“Summary of Bed Bug Management Methods” which 

lists the method (such as laundering, pesticides, 

steam, etc.), the responsible individual or team, the 

cost, comments on the method, and its compatibility 

with other methods. The report can be purchased 

from NTIS as product number PB2010-115550. 

 

If you have not already subscribed to receive 

future copies of this free quarterly newsletter, 

please send an e-mail to:

customeradvocate@ntis.gov

Please include “Subscribe to NTIS Customer 

Advocate’s Corner” in the subject line of your e-mail.

To access previous issues, go to 

http://www.ntis.gov/help/overview.aspx#CACN

Previous issues are listed under the red highlighting.

 The Effect of Food Away 

from Home on the Quality 

of the Diets of Children

The Economic Research Service 

of the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture (USDA) issued a 

What’s Working for 

Bed Bug Control in 

Multifamily Housing?

The National Center for 

Healthy Housing created a 

report funded by the U.S. 

Environmental Protection 

Agency’s Office of Pesticide 

Programs that summarizes