# Presentation: 914995

## Managing Geospatial Data at the USGS’ EROS Data Center

**RACO West**
**31 August 2004**
**Denver, Colorado**

## Outline

**Background & Context**
**Records Management at USGS / EDC**
**Appraisal Process**
**Accession Experience**
**Access / Finding Aids**
**Preservation Efforts**
**Disposition Procedures**
**Summary**

## Background & Context

**Then**
**1972**
**Landsat**
**Primarily Laser-Beam Recorder Film**
**Sioux Falls, SD**
**Now**
**Multiple Satellites – Mainly Digital**
**Aerial Photography – Still Analog**
**GIS**
**Topography / Elevation**

## Slide 4

## Background & Context

**Film**
**4 Film Types**
**Multiples Sizes**
**110,000 Rolls – 13,000,000 Frames**
**1937 to Present**

## Slide 6

## Background & Context

**Digital**
**1 to 2 Terabytes / Day**
**2 Petabytes – 3,000,000 Images**
**1972 to Present**
**National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive**
**Public Law 102-555 (1992)**
**Federal Advisory Committee Act**

## Slide 8

## Records Management at USGS / EDC

**No “Back Door”**
**Seeking Additional Relevance**
**Meshed With Other Agency Desires**
**Embracing Lifecycle**
**Creation / Acceptance**
**Maintenance & Use**
**Disposition**

## Records Management at USGS / EDC

**Appraisal**
**Accession**
**Arrangement**
**Description**
**Access**
**Preservation**
**Disposition**
**Outreach**

## Appraisal Process

**Evolving**
**Driven by **
**Archivist Position**
**Need for Mission Alignment**
**Re-Organizations**
**Budget Constraints**

## Appraisal Process

**Collection Policy**
**Appraisal Flow**
**EDC Science Council Support**
**Scientific Tool Development**
_**[http://edc2.usgs.gov/government/RAT/tool.asp](http://edc2.usgs.gov/government/RAT/tool.asp)**_
**USGS HQ and NARA Involved**

## Slide 13

## Accession Experience

**Collection Policy**
**Requirements**
**Checklist**
**Shipping Summaries**

## Accession Experience

**Experience**
**NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center**
**NASA / Ames & Houston**
**NOAA / National Climatic Data Center**
**Reciprocal Archive LOA**
**SPOT Image Corporation**
**Space Imaging Corporation**
**Future**
**NARA**

## Access / Finding Aids

**Organizational Commitment**
**Spatial & Temporal Criticality**
**Spatial Challenges**
**Contracts**
**New Techniques**

## Access / Finding Aids

**Textual and Spatial Characterizations**
**Federal Geographic Data Committee**
**Earth Explorer**
**Photo Finder**
**GloVis**
**EOS Data Gateway**
**Seamless / *****The National Map***
**Customer Service Unit**

## Preservation Efforts

**Macro**
**Environmental**
**Security**
**Micro**
**Molecular Sieves**
**AD Strips**

## Preservation Efforts

**Film**
**Vinegar Syndrome**
**Digital**
**Flaking**
**Obsolescence**
**Digital Transcriptions**
**Digital Migrations**

## Preservation Efforts

**Vinegar Syndrome**
**20,000 Rolls**
**1950s & Older Film**
**Not If, But When & at What Rate**
**Digital Transcriptions**
**22,000 Wide Band Video Tapes**
**1980 – Current, Landsat HDTs to DCRSi**
**DCRSi to LTO2 & 9940B**
**Migrations**
**CCT to 3480 to DLT to LTO2 to ...**

## Preservation Efforts

**Archive Media Trade Studies**
**http://edc2.usgs.gov/government/records/tools.asp**
**Long-Term Philosophy**
**Near, Off, and Off**

## Disposition Procedures

**Formal Appraisal Process Evolving**
**Scientist Involvement**
**Documented Recommendations & Actions**
**Follow Through**
**Relevant Agencies**
**NARA**
**Transfers or Destruction**

## Disposition Procedures

**Recent Dispositions**
**Landsat Return Beam Vidicon**
**SPOT High Density Tapes**
**Landsat Wide Band Video Tapes**
**NASA Apollo Hand-Held Photography**

## Summary

**3 Years in Records Management Processes**
**Formal Archivist Position**
**Legislative Mandate**
**Organizational Commitment to Archiving**
**Endorsement of the Lifecycle of Records**