ML20353A021
| ML20353A021 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 12/17/2020 |
| From: | Anna Mcgowan NRC/OCIO/GEMSD/FLICB |
| To: | |
| Anna Therese McGowan, 301-415-7204 | |
| References | |
| Download: ML20353A021 (6) | |
Text
December 17, 2020 MEMORANDUM TO:
File FROM:
Anna Therese McGowan, Chief /RA/
FOIA, Library, and Information Collections Branch Governance and Enterprise Management Services Division Office of the Chief Information Officer
SUBJECT:
ADAMS PUBLIC USER GROUP MEETING MINUTES, NOVEMBER 18, 2020 This memorandum accompanies a summary of the 36th meeting of the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) User Group. This public meeting took place virtually on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, through the Public Document Room of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Enclosures:
- 1. ADAMS User Group Meeting Summary
- 2. Meeting Announcement: ADAMS Accession No. ML20353A021 CONTACT: Anna T. McGowan, OCIO/GEMSD/FLICB (301) 415-7204
Wednesday, November 18, 2020 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Headquarters Public Document Room Agenda for Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) User Group Meeting #36
- 1. Welcome and General AnnouncementsAnne Goel (2:00-2:10 p.m.)
- 2. Member Issues and QuestionsStaff, Office of the Chief Information Officer (2:10-2:20 p.m.)
- 3. Updates to Web-Based ADAMS System (2:20-2:35 p.m.)
- 4. Digitization of ADAMS Public Legacy Documents (2:35-2:40 p.m.)
- 5. New Business or Questions (2:45-2:55 p.m.)
- 6. Adjournment (2:55 p.m.)
Next Meeting: Autumn 2021
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Meeting Summary
Title:
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) User Group Meeting Meeting Identifier: ADAMS Accession No. ML20353A021 Date of Meeting: Wednesday, November 18, 2020 Location: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Public Document Room (PDR),
Rockville, MDTeleconference Type of Meeting: Category 3 Purpose of the Meeting(s):
To provide updates on ADAMS and answer questions from public ADAMS users.
General Details:
The meeting began at 2:00 p.m. with introductions and general announcements by Anne Goel, Technical Librarian in the Library Team. Four NRC PDR librarians attended.
Approximately 15 user group members attended, two of whom were NRC staff (Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards). The members of the public represented Certrec; Energy Solutions; U.S. Department of Energy; University of Wyoming; Nuclear Energy Oversight Project; Baker Hughes; Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch &
Lawrence, PLLC; Harmon and Curran; and Spielberg & Eisenberg, LLP. All participants joined remotely, using a teleconference line. The public participants asked questions about ADAMS and the PDR and provided comments.
The remaining portion of the meeting covered ADAMS User Group member issues and questions. The meeting ended at 2:55 p.m.
Announcements:
The PDR is relocating to a new space at the Rockville headquarters complex. We will announce the new location through the distribution list and on the public Internet site once the move is complete and the building is open to the public.
Since the physical telephone will be disconnected during the move, e-mailing PDR.resource@nrc.gov is the best option to communicate with PDR librarians. The telephone number is still 1-800-397-4209.
ADAMS technical staff members were not able to participate in the meeting; therefore, the PDR librarians will send the ADAMS technical staff any pertinent questions from the meeting and provide responses to the participants.
Public Participation Themes:
Anne Goel explained that the librarians responded directly to several questions received before the meeting and included sample search strategies in the responses. She also stated that the librarians were open to discussing any additional information needed to supplement those responses during the question-and-answer portion of the meeting.
During the public question-and-answer portion of the meeting, the NRC PDR librarians addressed additional questions from the user group participants. Below are the questions, followed by the librarians answers. One question required further research after the meeting ended.
Question. How does a user quickly and effectively search daily submissions to the public ADAMS library (including retrofit items)?
The user clarified this previously submitted question. The newly digitized and retrofitted documents are NOT appearing in the Daily folders, and the Retrofit folder has not been updated since the end of September 2020. The user requested easy access to the total number of documents added to ADAMS each day. The user explained that this improves the transparency of what the NRC is releasing to the public and is necessary to easily browse daily additions to ADAMS for documents relevant to her job. The user also commented that ADAMS is the best Government database out there.
Concern. The display of search results in ADAMS is limited to 1,000 results. Sorting by the Date Added property was one option to view large numbers of results, but that strategy is no longer effective, as recently added documents may have been authored 30 years ago. The PDR librarians agreed that because the agency is adding older documents to the collection through the recent digitization project, using the Date Added property is no longer an efficient strategy. The librarians recommended using the Document Date property, under Advanced Search, to conduct a search for recent publications, such as by selecting a date range for the previous 10 years.
Question. Is there a help guide?
The NRC does have a help guide for ADAMS. Clicking on the blue circle with the question mark in the upper right corner of the screen opens the Web-based ADAMS (WBA) User Guide. The PDR librarians are also available to help.
Question. How do you locate a public legacy document in the public library after it has been digitized, if you have its accession number?
Copy the accession number and go to the WBA public library and select the Document Report property. Type in NUDOCS and the accession number, which should retrieve the digitized record. Note that some digitized documents have not yet been released to the public. Some documents may now require sensitive unclassified nonsafeguards information reviews, and the NRC staff will request those reviews. Please e-mail the PDR librarians if you have a question.
Question. Would it be appropriate to e-mail the PDR with a query on certificates of compliance under Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 71, Packaging and transportation of radioactive material?
The user would eventually like to search for the certificates issued monthly. Certificates are issued using NRC Form 618.
Development of an ADAMS search strategy requires determining how these particular documents are indexed. PDR librarians suggested using the Added this Month option in Advanced Search, saving the search strategy, and repeating that strategy at the end of each month. The librarians acknowledged that this would not work well if retrofitted documents that met the search criteria were added in the last month. They suggested that the user e-mail them for more search assistance.
Question. Are these materials being digitized in-house or contracted out?
The work is primarily done by contractors, but they are working on site at NRC Headquarters.
Suggestion. Add nonpublic document citations to WBA so that the public knows that they exist and can then request them through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
PDR librarians read the response from the 2018 ADAMS User Group meeting: It is NRC policy not to display non-publicly available documents in WBA. You can contact the PDR librarians, and they can check on a documents availability status for you. Some group members commented that one cannot ask a question when one does not even know the document exists; a citation is proof of the existence of a document. Another user suggested that not displaying nonpublic document citations demonstrates a lack of transparency on the part of the NRC. The user suggested WBA could use bibliographic headers, similar to what are used in the Licensing Support Network, to display this information for nonpublic documents without providing the full-text documents. Knowledge about a documents accession number makes it easier to reference when filing a FOIA request, for example. In the past, the FOIA team was able to respond more quickly with that level of information. The PDR librarians will send all concerns and suggestions to appropriate agency colleagues.
Question. How does one locate petition review board meeting minutes, specifically for 10 CFR 2.206, Requests for action under this subpart? Are these publicly available?
They should be if the petition process is a public process. User group members noted that a review board first meets in private, and if a petition is taken up, the deliberations become public.
PDR librarians asked the user to send an e-mail so they can develop a search strategy for the question.
Suggestions for Web-Based ADAMS Upgrade. There should be standardized wild card title searches since it is difficult to find & and and or other abbreviations. For example, matls is often used as an abbreviation for materials but, unless you know that, you cannot find the document with a title search. WBA should know that & and and have the same meaning and retrieve titles using either form, no matter which one is placed in the search box. Users suggested that user group members be included as beta testers for the upgraded WBA. User group members can detect glitches from the searchers perspective.
Action Items/Next Steps. Anne Goel thanked all participants for attending this meeting. The next ADAMS User Group meeting will take place in autumn 2021, given the anticipated WBA upgrade in 2021. The NRC will post an announcement of the meeting date and details on the ADAMS User Group Web page and in the NRCs Public Meeting Schedule. The PDR librarians will distribute an announcement through the ADAMS GovDelivery Subscription Service distribution list.
Enclosure:
- 1. Meeting Announcement: ADAMS Accession No. ML20353A021