This collection contains the non-book portion of Bellcomm's Technical Library. The material in the collection consists of technical reports prepared by NASA subcontractors and/or NASA facilities during the first decade of space exploration (1960-1970). The collections also includes some reports issued by the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) at Pasadena, CA, including Space Program and Research Summaries, as well as technical and engineering documents.

Author

Processing Information Note

The collection, as it now exists, consists of engineering study reports and other documents covering all aspects of the United States space program, but relating primarily to the manned space flight program and the Apollo program in particular. Some portions of the original Bellcomm library, most notably books, were placed in the library collection of the NASM, now part of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The remaining material was turned over to the NASM Astronautics Department.(1)

At that time some of the material in the collection was dispersed among the departmental files and some extraneous material was interfiled. Most notably, all reports originating at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) were removed for interfiling with a collection of JPL reports being assembled by the Astronautics department staff. During the processing of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Publications Collection (now NASM Archives Accession XXXX-0612) in 1999, some 5½ cubic feet of material which could be positively identified as belonging to the Bellcomm Library was removed from the JPL Collection and returned to the Bellcomm Collection. During the processing of the Bellcomm Collection, items which could be determined not to have originated with Bellcomm were removed from the collection and some effort was made to retrieve Bellcomm material from several other collections of Astronautics/Space Science and Exploration/Space History materials.

The determination of whether to retain or retrieve an item was based primarily on date and markings on the document. Items postdating the transfer of the Bellcomm material to NASM (ca.1972) were automatically removed from the collection. Items bearing one of the several "Bellcomm Technical Library" stamps in use over the lifetime of the company were automatically included in the collection, while items bearing stamps from other NASM collections were removed. If no such stamps were present, a judgement was made based upon other markings. Some -- but not all -- stamped Bellcomm materials also have the report number or title hand-written on or near the spine; unstamped documents bearing similar hand-written report numbers have been retained or replevened, as appropriate. Therefore it is impossible at this date precisely to determine what documents were or were not present in the Library at the time of its transfer to the NASM; in addition a number of multi-volume reports remain incomplete.

Endnote:

1. The Astronautics Department later became the Department of Space Science and Exploration (SS&E). Currently it is the Department of Space History (DSH).

Immediate Source of Acquisition note

Bellcomm, Inc, transfer, XXXX-0093, unknown

Conditions Governing Access note

No restrictions on access

Conditions Governing Use

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permission Requests.

Preferred Citation

Bellcomm, Inc Technical Library Collection, Accession XXXX-0093, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.