Filling in the Gaps, Doing What We Have Always Done in TRAIL

Abstract

The Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL) identifies, acquires, catalogs, digitizes, and provides unrestricted access to US government agency technical reports. Technical reports describe the process of engineering or scientific research and often include in-depth details including raw data. TRAIL currently consists of over four-dozen member institutions whose annual membership fees and volunteered staff time further the efforts of the project. The mission of TRAIL is to ensure preservation, discoverability, and persistent open access to government technical publications regardless of form or format. TRAIL has been in existence for nearly seventeen years and has made 93,514 technical reports openly accessible in that time.

This article covers the work of TRAIL since its tenth anniversary in 2016. For the work and history of TRAIL up to that point, please read the article summarizing the first ten years of TRAIL in Documents to the People vol. 44, no. 2 (https://www.journals.ala.org/index.php/dttp/article/view/6070/7795). Additional resources include the TRAIL History page at https://www.crl.edu/grn/trail/about-trail/history-trail and the page on publications and presentations about TRAIL at https://www.crl.edu/grn/trail/current-activities/PapersPresentations.