The Scientific and Technical Information Program Office (STIPO) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

) collects, organizes, preserves, and releases the Agency's scientific and technical information (STI). STI is derived from NASA's research and development efforts and NASA projects, programs, and missions. Examples of NASA STI include technical papers and reports, contractor reports, conference papers and proceedings, journal articles, presentations, and technical information on websites. NASA STI also includes research information from NASA's predecessor Agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA

NACA

- Organizations :* National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the forerunner of the U.S. federal agency NASA* National Association for Campus Activities, an organization for programmers of university and college activities...

), which dates back to 1917. NACA transitioned to NASA at the advent of the National Aeronautics and Space Act

National Aeronautics and Space Act

The National Aeronautics and Space Act is the United States federal statute that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . The Act, which followed close on the heels of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, was drafted by the United States House Select Committee on Astronautics...

 of 1958 (Amended).

The STI Program Office is funded by the NASA Chief Information Officer (CIO) in Washington, DC. The NASA CIO establishes strategic policy and operational measurements for the STI Program Office, which is located at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In turn, the STI Program Office oversees the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI), a contractor-maintained and -run facility that collects the NASA STI, organizes it into a large database, ensures that it is preserved via the National Archives and Records Administration

National Archives and Records Administration

The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...

, and releases the STI or has the STI released through commercial or other venues, such as science.gov and USA.gov for NASA.

STIPO's charter exists so that NASA STI is as widely released and available as possible and can be leveraged by NASA, U.S. businesses, government, the public, and international entities. This allows NASA to comply with e-Government regulations. The STI Program Office also collects nonNASA STI that is pertinent to NASA's missions and activities, including information from NATO's (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's) Research and Technology Organization. The STI Program Office is also a member of CENDI

CENDI

CENDI is an interagency group of senior Scientific and Technical Information managers from 14 United States federal agencies. CENDI managers cooperate by exchanging information and ideas, collaborating to address common issues, and undertaking joint initiatives...

, which is a partnership of Federal STI managers.

NASA's STI is freely accessible to the public. At the STI website, one can:

• Search NASA STI collections for reports, conference papers, proceedings, journal articles, and other technical and peer-reviewed STI through the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS). NTRS has
  • More than 500,000 aerospace STI items
  • Approximately 90,000 full-text documents
  • More than 111,000 images and videos
  • Over 12,000 full-text documents from NASA’s predecessor, NACA
• Better understand NASA's technical accomplishments via its annual premiere publication Spinoff and the Spinoff database of successful commercialized NASA technology
• Sign up for RSS feeds (automatic alerts) for technical topics of interest
• Receive bibliographic alert products, such as "Scientific & Technical Aerospace Reports" (STAR) and "Selected Current Aerospace Notices" (SCAN)
• Access NASA's subsets of technical imagery and videos through the NASA Image eXchange (NIX)
• Understand NASA terminology with the NASA "Acronym Listing"
• Access the "NASA Scope and Subject Category Guide" to help you locate NASA information
• Locate publishing aids, such as the "NASA Publications Guide for Authors" and the popular guide, NASA SP-7084, "Grammar, Punctuation and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors"