Citation

Rogers L. Transp. Res. Rec. 1997; 1604: 170-174.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.3141/1604-20

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Professional documentation of transportation technology and project development from the past 12 decades is progressively being lost to the engineering and economic community. For more than three decades tons of books, reports, plans, and documents on myriad aspects of transportation have been discarded by local and national government agencies, university libraries, and private firms. Seldom have these groups sought alternative locations for their accumulated collections. The issues at the time of discard are not often related to proprietary aspects of the documents but rather appear to be based on the human reasoning that if the documents have no merit for the agency or firm in possession of them, then they have no interest for others. The issue is brought before professionals so that discussion and options may be explored. Given the electronic options in document retention and retrieval, the professional community has new opportunities to preserve and utilize the valuable insights of paper-based documents without incurring the expense of extensive floor space.

Keywordes: Document retention; Document availability

Language: en