Assassination Archives and Research Center

918 F Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20004

(202) 393-1921

The Digital A.A.R.C.

Preliminary Project Proposal

I. INTRODUCTION

The Digital A.A.R.C. Project will organize, scan and make accessible the JFK, and other, assassination-related holdings of the Assassination Archives and Research Center (A.A.R.C., pronounced "Ark").

The Project is planned to develop in four phases:

Investigational Phase	1. Creation of a detailed project proposal

2. Identification of principal participants

Proof of Principle Phase	1. Development of methods

2. Classification system

3. Prioritization of documents

4. Production of initial CD-ROMs

5. Enlistment of core topical experts

Implementation Phase	1. System installation

2. System documentation and training

3. Network of experts expanded

Production Phase	1. Production of CD-ROM sets

2. Establishment of on-line services

3. Expansion to other collections

4. Export of model to other projects

About the A.A.R.C.

The Assassination Archives and Research Center was co-founded in 1984 by two Washington attorneys, James H. Lesar, Esq., who has long served as its President, and Bernard Fensterwald, Esq. (deceased), for the purpose of establishing a permanent archive to "....acquire, preserve and disseminate information" that would deepen the public's awareness, understanding and knowledge with respect to the occurrence and implications of politically motivated assassinations. (See Appendix A for current brochure.)

From its inception, the A.A.R.C., in performance of its mission, has been renowned as housing the world's largest private archive devoted to that body of literature, including government records, which pertains specifically to political assassinations in general, and to that, in particular, of our 35th President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. To enable its members to remain well-informed, and abreast of relevant developments, it publishes a newsletter called the A.A.R.C. Quarterly. (See Appendix B for latest issue.)

The A.A.R.C. is an educational, 501(C)(3), tax-exempt organization, Employer Identification Number 52-1354369; donations in support of its work are tax-deductible under Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Project Objectives

The aims of this project are to:

1) facilitate fruition of the A.A.R.C.'s founding mission

2) serve the public interest by enhancing public access to important documents.

Fruition of the project's objectives will enable achievement of not only the A.A.R.C.'s founding mission, but would also fulfill the intent of the United States Congress as signified by its unanimous enactment of the "President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992" (A.R.C.A.; Public Law No. 102-526).

In compliance with the mandate defined in that legislation, the National Archives and Records Administration (N.A.R.A.) formally established the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection.

The Collections

The A.A.R.C. possesses numerous large and pertinent archival collections of declassified government documents. The centerpiece of its holdings, and the initial focus of the Digital A.A.R.C. Project is the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection. Under an exclusive agreement with the National Archives, the A.A.R.C. has obtained duplicates of all 400,000 records--over 4,500,000 pages--released to N.A.R.A..

From August, 1993, up till the present, a wide spectrum of national security, military, and intelligence agencies have complied with the mandate expressly stipulating "....full and immediate disclosure of all assassination-related records." Records release was administered by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board (A.R.R.B.). The Board's term expired September 30, 1998, but processing of the documents continues.

Photocopies of all records in the Collection are available to the public for the price of 10 cents per page if copied on-site at the N.A.R.A. facility in College Park, MD, by an individual researcher, or 25 cents per page, if sent via postal delivery. The A.A.R.C. also

sells photocopies of all of its holdings, including those made from the official Collection, at a (members only) rate of 12½ cents per page.

However, utilization of the Collection is effectively prevented by the lack of a descriptive index or categorization scheme. Therefore, full disclosure, as expressly addressed in the Records Collection Act, has yet to be realized: the documents are still not accessible. The Digital A.A.R.C. Project will accelerate the rate and optimize the manner by which records in this Collection reach the research community and the general public. The Collection is an invaluable resource for those who comprise an ever- growing, national and international "community of interest." The active participants of the Project are dedicated to research and analysis, and have embraced a commitment to enhancing understanding of politically motivated assassinations, most especially, that of our country's 35th President.

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II. PROJECT OUTLINE

[coming soon - Paul]