The Technical Reference Center at the Volpe Center was established in 1970 when the Transportation Systems Center opened. Today as part of the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, a staff of nine responds to a broad range of information needs from the 1500 Volpe Center Federal and contractor staff, its Federal sponsors, and the surrounding community. The library is run by Susan Dresley who has directed the Technical Reference Center for fourteen years. She is active in the international transportation library community and has helped establish the library as an important national resource.

The library is considered by the transportation library community as housing one of the most significant transportation collections in the country. The collection consists of 32,000 books and technical reports covering all modes of transportation, as well as the fields of computer science, economics, engineering, environment, management, operations research, psychology, public policy, and statistics. The library receives over 250 professional journals and general interest periodicals. The TRC Bulletin is published regularly and provides a selected acquisitions list. In addition a Conference newsletter and Bibliography of Final Technical Reports are published in both paper and electronic formats (www.volpe.dot.gov/library/trdb.html).

The Reference Center houses all the formal publications of the Volpe Center. A selection of recent reports published by the Center appears in the Published and Presented section of this journal.

John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
Technical Reference Center