The resources listed in this section of the guide comprise the Library of Congress' holdings of published indexes for "technical manuals" from 1940-1949. These technical manuals and other War Department and Department of the Army publications were identified in FM 21-6, List and Index of Publications.

Of these the Library of Congress has identified the following issues in its collections, by date (see list below).

For a more in-depth discussion on locating technical reports see:

Robert L. Bolin. "The “Lost” U.S. Technical Reports: Obtaining Reports from the 1940s and ‘50s." External 1999. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports (BSIR)

Just after World War II, President Truman set up a program to distribute the fruits of government and government-supported research which had been bottled up by war-time secrecy. The Office of the Publication Board was organized to distribute reports and The Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports(BSIR) was issued to announce the reports available. The federal technical reports system and National Technical Information Service has grown out of that effort. The BSIR is a published catalog of documents made available by the Federal Government after World War II. It can also be a useful resource when researching Army manuals. This catalog exists in several formats: print, microfilm, and online (links below). In print there are several sets in the Library of Congress; one is held in the reference collection in the Science and Business Reading Room.

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.