Bibliography of scientific and industrial reports

The Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports (BSIR) is a catalog of documents made available by the Federal Government after World War II. In late 1945, President Truman set up a program to distribute the fruits of government and government-supported research which had been kept secret during the war. Shortly afterward the program was expanded to include distribution of knowledge gained by exploitation of German, Japanese, and other foreign military and industrial technology. The Office of the Publication Board was ogranized to distribute those documents. Beginning in 1946, The Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports (BSIR) was issued periodically to announce the reports available. The technical reports system pioneered by the Publication Board evolved into the National Technical Information System, and Government Reports Announcements & Index is a continuation of BSIR. Our concept of what a technical report is is based on what was found in Government Reports Announcements and other successors to BSIR over the years However, BSIR listed a large number of documents which would not be thought of as technical reports today, including military manuals, intelligence and interrogation reports, and articles from journals.