The Penn State Libraries have many technical reports but we know many are difficult to locate in our catalog. Below are some of the major collections available at Penn State:

• NASA technical reports - print collection in storage, cataloged by the series, e.g., "NASA technical report". Some NASA reports were issued as part of the NTIS collection using the "N" prefix, e.g., "N93-12636".
• NACA technical reports (NACA is the predecessor to NASA) - print collection in storage, cataloged by the series, e.g.," NACA technical note".
• Department of Energy reports - typically begin with "DE" followed by a two-digit year and six digit numbers, e.g., DE89-????. These are mostly in the NTIS collection on microfiche, housed in the Annex.
• Department of Defense technical reports - typically begins with "AD" followed by a letter and six or seven numbers, e.g., ADA228233. These are mostly in the NTIS collection on microfiche, housed in the Annex.
• Bureau of Mines report series - e.g. BUMINES - available on microfiche in the Annex. Print items can be located by searching for the series, e.g., "Report of investigations"
• Atomic Energy Commission - These reports do not always bear the AEC designation but we have a large collection (over 200,000 titles) in microformat in storage. They are gradually being added to the catalog. 
• NTIS collection - This large collection in microformat is at the Annex. Most reports in this collection begin with the alpha code "AD", "DE," "N", or "PB" but various miscellaneous report numbers are included. Consult with an Engineering Librarian about the holdings. This collection is not yet cataloged.

• Aeronautical Research Council (Great Britain)  - print in storage at Annex.
• AGARD - both print and microfiche. In storage at the Annex.
• Artificial intelligence reports collections - on microfiche in the Annex. These are collections of reports from universities  including Carnegie-Mellon, Yale, Texas, Stanford and others.
• Electric Power Research Institute - Issued with "EPRI" prefix. Print collection, mostly in storage with call number TK1.E24 no.[]. 

Conference papers that look similar to technical reports:

Some organizations issue technical or conference papers that appear similar to technical reports due to their numbering schema. Some of the more common occurrences include:

• AIAA papers - Issued by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, their conference papers are assigned a year and number, e.g., AIAA 1975-487.  Some are available in the AIAA database (?). Others must be searched in the catalog by the name of the conference.
• ASME papers - Issued by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, their conference papers are assigned a year and alphanumeric code, e.g., ASME 97-WA/DE-15 or ASME 93-JPGC-EC-3. The "WA" indicates that the paper was presented at the Winter Annual meeting (see TJ1.A713). Those without the "WA" probably were issued at the spring meeting (see TJ1.A7133). Many may also be available in the ASME online library.
• SAE papers - Issued by the Society of Automotive Engineers, we have both print and microfiche holdings. Example: SAE 92176.
• SME papers - Society of Manufacturing Engineers. We have these on microfiche in storage (catalog record).
• SME - Society of Mining Engineers, available mostly in paper under "preprints". Many available online via OneMine database.
• SPE papers - Society of Petroleum Engineers technical papers are available in mostly on microfiche in the Annex and also online via One Petro database.
• TMS papers - Published in their proceedings.

Standards that look similar to technical reports:

Standards can look similar to technical reports due their numbering schema. Determining whether the item is a standard or a technical report is important in figuring out where to look.

For example:

• ASTM standards appear as "ASTM D4004-1993"
• Military standards appear at "MIL-DTL-125605"

Consult the guide to standards for locating these materials.