James H. Lesar, President	(202) 393-1921

Assassination Archives and Research Center

918 F Street, NW,

Washington, D.C. 20004

Lenny Mather	(781) 595-6184

Digital A.A.R.C. Project Coordinator

P.O. Box 391138

Cambridge, MA 02139

The Digital A.A.R.C.

Preliminary Project Proposal

INTRODUCTION	2

About the A.A.R.C.	3

Project Objectives	3

The Collections	4

The Project Team	4

PROJECT OUTLINE	5

Investigational Phase	5

Proof of Principle Phase	5

Organizing the Documents	6

Digitization and Recognition	6

Access and CD-ROM Production	8

Implementation Phase	9

Search Strategies	9

Production Phase	10

Facilitated Analysis	10

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 as planned will develop in four phases:

The Investigational Phase will focus on the creation of a detailed project proposal and the identification of principal participants.

The Proof of Principle Phase will research and develop the methods for achieving the goals of the Project: the classification and prioritization of documents, the production of initial CD-ROMs and on-line databases, and the enlistment of core topical experts.

The Implementation Phase will install and document the systems that comprise the Project. Personnel will be trained on these systems and the network of experts expanded.

The Production Phase will be ongoing. As documents are digitized, access will be provided through on-line data servers and CD-ROM sets. As interest indicates, the resources of the Project may be partially applied, or with sufficient support expanded, to process other collections of the A.A.R.C. The primary technical consultants for the Project actively participate in professional dialog and will co-operate in adapting this model for use in similar non-profit projects of other organizations.

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 inform and enlighten public awareness concerning the occurrence and implications of politically motivated assassinations. (See Appendix A for current brochure.)

The A.A.R.C. is renowned as housing the largest private archive in the world devoted to literature, including official records and documents, which pertains 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 all current and pertinent developments, it publishes a newsletter called the A.A.R.C. Quarterly. (See Appendix B for a sample issue.)

The A.A.R.C. is an educational, 501(C)(3), tax-exempt organization; its 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; and,

2. serve the public interest by enhancing public access to critical records of our social and political history.

Fruition of the project's objectives will enable achievement of not only the A.A.R.C.'s founding mission, but also the apparent intent of the 102nd United States Congress, 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 set forth and defined in that legislation, the National Archives and Records Administration (N.A.R.A.) formally established, on December 28, 1992, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection.

The Collections

The A.A.R.C. is in possession of several large collections of declassified government documents, many obtained through successful litigation under the Freedom of Information Act. The centerpiece of its holdings, and the primary focus of the Digital A.A.R.C. Project, is the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection. By an exclusive agreement with the National Archives, the A.A.R.C. has obtained duplicate copies of all 400,000 records--over 4,500,000 pages--released to N.A.R.A.

From August, 1993, to the present, an array of U.S. national security, military, and intelligence agencies have acceded to the mandate of the Records Collection Act, expressly stipulating the "....full and immediate disclosure of all assassination-related records." The formal procedure of records release was administered by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board (A.R.R.B.), also established by the Records Collection Act. The Board's term expired on September 30, 1998, but records are still being released and administrative processing of the documents continues.

Photocopies of all records in the Collection are available to the public at the N.A.R.A. facility in College Park, MD, for the price of 10 cents per page if copied on- site by an individual researcher, or 25 cents per page, if sent via postal delivery. The A.A.R.C. also sells photocopies of all its holdings at a member's rate of 12½ cents/page.

Utilization of the Records Collection has been greatly impeded by the lack of both a descriptive index or useful scheme of categorization. Thus "full disclosure," insofar as much of the records have not become fully accessible, has yet to be achieved. The Digital A.A.R.C. Project will accelerate the rate and optimize the manner by which all records comprising this Collection, may become truly accessible to the research community and the general public. The Assassination Records Collection is a priceless and invaluable resource for those who comprise a growing national and international "community of interest."

The Project Team

All of the active participants in this project are dedicated to facilitating the research and analysis of the key historical events documented by the Collection. The Project is co-ordinated by Lenny Mather (Cambridge, MA). It receives strategic and technical support from Paul Eagle (Amherst, MA), Rex Bradford (Ipswich, MA), and Anthony Marsh (Somerville, MA). Mr. Mather and Mr. Marsh also provide political insight and are actively engaged with the research community.

PROJECT OUTLINE

Investigational Phase

The Project has evolved to its current development by the volunteered service of an informal team of those who are contributing their specific expertise: in hardware and software system design; information management; and late 20th century American history. Preparing a complete, and formal, Project Proposal will entail an effort which is beyond our economic capacity, in the absence of adequate financial compensation. Once funding has been arranged, discussions may ensue with product vendors, service bureaus, and subject experts, to engage their professional input and participation. After two months of focus on these issues, the Project's participants, components, and options will be clear and formally presented in the final Proposal.

Requirements:

1.	Salary for those participants under contract to perform the work of coordination, investigation, and documentation will be necessary to proceed.

2.	No additional equipment is required; all participants have the necessary computer and telecommunications resources.

Proof of Principle Phase

The purpose of this phase is to develop methods and procedures capable of achieving the goals of the Project. The following areas will be addressed:

1. Classification system

2. Prioritization of documents

3. Digitization and recognition

4. Production of initial CD-ROMs

5. Enlistment of core topical experts

Organizing the Documents

Before digitization can begin in earnest, the millions of pages in possession of the A.A.R.C., must be inventoried and organized into a customized system of classification. Each document will be labeled in a machine-readable manner, automatically fed into scanners, and both the electronic and paper versions tracked thereafter by their individually unique identification codes. The codes will be as fully congruent as possible with N.A.R.A.'s own Records Identification Form numbering system.

Specifically, document preparation is necessary to:

1)	Verify that the documents are physically appropriate for automated scanning equipment; that they have legible ID numbers assigned, etc.

2)	Organize the documents chronologically in short, high-level subject categories (e.g., "Oswald in Mexico," "New Orleans," "Dallas," "the E.R. at Parkland Hospital," "the autopsy at Bethesda," and so forth) to elaborate further on their current simple delineation by issuing agency (e.g., CIA, FBI, HSCA).

Requirements:

This phase requires no special equipment and only a cursory knowledge of the subject matter, since categorization at this stage will be at the highest level only. This work will be performed at the A.A.R.C., in Washington, DC.

Digitization and Recognition

Once organized, a prioritized list of document sets to be digitized can be prepared. Document sets judged most critical to the research community will be scheduled for the initial phase of digitization.

The output of the scanning process would be electronic files in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF); each file containing a one or multi-page document. Adobe's "Image with Hidden Text" format variant is most appropriate for this Project, since a high-quality image of the page is available for viewing while the text is also available to search engines. In its unedited form, the text might only be 95% or even 90% accurate. Yet, the gist would be instantly available for full-text searching (something not possible at all at the National Archives) and that would be a great boon to many researchers. Once identified, a high-quality image of the actual document is easily retrieved and viewed.

Requirements

Digitizing a collection of documents of this size was, until recently, a daunting technical challenge. Such feats are becoming increasingly common as the performance of both hardware and software advances. The current options for this Project are:

1.	Two or three Pentium-class computers dedicated to scanning located at the A.A.R.C. or nearby. Each station consists of a PC running Windows NT, a sheet-fed scanner, and appropriate software (probably Adobe Acrobat Capture). The cost of each station would be less than $5000, with more than half this cost the scanner itself. Alternatively, one high-speed scanner could feed one high-powered workstation for about the same total cost.

2.	A "turn-key" integrated scanning station capable of even greater throughput, perhaps 5-10 pages per minute. The cost of such systems is quite high but it is expected that a significant savings of time as well as designer's and operator's salaries would ensue from their use.

3.	Out-source the scanning process to a service bureau is the least desirable option. Presumably, each box of documents would have to leave the A.A.R.C. for a period of time, which would increase the potential for loss and the amount of labor involved. Also, the scanning process would not be entirely within the control of the Project's own technical consultants. It may well become clear that a customized system is required to satisfy the unusually demanding needs of our material and its intended uses.

Storage: Each page could require up to 100K for storage (if scanned at 300 dots per inch, which provides excellent visual detail). Thus the entire A.A.R.C. collection would reside in roughly a few hundred gigabytes of storage, a scale now practical with DVD-ROM or hard-drive arrays.

Web Server: In order to provide widespread access to the digitized documents, a web server would be set up. The hardware for this is fairly straightforward, consisting of a high-end PC workstation, connected to the internet via a high-speed T1 connection, and appropriate software. While eventually a moderately expensive optical jukebox or hard disk array would be needed to hold the entire collection, at first this server could simply be outfitted with a large hard disk or two.

Access and CD-ROM Production

Soon after the initiation of scanning, access to the data via the Internet and CD- ROM publication, could begin. (Note that "CD-ROM" as used in this proposal, also refers to the various DVD-ROM media, from the existing 4.7 Gigabyte standard to the planned double-layered, double-sided 17 Gigabyte standard.) Researchers will be able to identify relevant documents by reference either to the A.A.R.C. classification scheme or to N.A.R.A.'s RIF numbers. Topical experts will be able to identify subject groupings, or sets of documents, as special collections, and CD-ROM copies of these sets could be made in quantity and then widely distributed.

Pricing

Presuming that payments to the A.A.R.C. for this service should cover the ongoing production costs (not for development of the entire system), charges would be on the order of $10 per request plus a few cents per page.

Requirements

1	On-line distribution will incur the following costs:

a)	Web server PC with large storage capacity

b)	On-going costs of high-speed Internet connection.

2.	Dedicated computer for CD-ROM production, networked to the server. Up to 5000 pages may fit onto a single CD-ROM, making this distribution mode ideal for large requests.

3.	This aspect of the project can be performed at any location, i.e, proximity to the A.A.R.C. in Washington is not important. Personnel will be needed during this phase to:

a)	Manage the computer system (at A.A.R.C. and off-site)

b)	Oversee the scanning of documents (at A.A.R.C.)

c)	Operate the scanners (at A.A.R.C.)

d)	Process requests for CD-ROMs (at A.A.R.C. or off-site)

e)	Develop and maintain the web site (off-site).

Thus, a small staff of 2 or 3 people could run the entire project, assisted by interns or volunteers to help run the scanning stations. One of the staff members should be a skilled computer administrator and programmer.

Implementation Phase

After the best methods to achieve the goals of the Project have been determined, those systems and procedures will be installed and documented. Advanced search capabilities will be developed. Personnel will be trained to operate and maintain these systems and the network of topical experts expanded.

Search Strategies

While the initial access services that the Project will be able to provide are useful to some researchers, the sheer volume of documents demands more organization and sophisticated access methodologies.

The textural component of the scanned images (output from optical character recognition software) is probably best managed by applying commercial search software (such as the Dataware Suite) to build a full-text index of the collection.

Additionally, short summaries of the most important documents would be very useful, but labor intensive. Some aspects may be automated however: software could look for "To" and "From" fields in memos, for instance, and extract this information to a summary field that would accompany the document.

We envision a system somewhat similar to the NAIL system set up at N.A.R.A., wherein users may type in search parameters and receive the results. This system is more useful than that at N.A.R.A., however, because:

a)	The document keyword and summary information is more useful. The "hits" of a given search can be identified more readily as being relevant.

b)	For researchers needing only a few pages, documents may be downloaded on demand directly over the Internet. Researchers who have cable modems or ADSL connections could download many more pages in a practical amount of time.

c)	Documents identified as desired through this system may be "check-
marked" and put into a list submitted to the A.A.R.C.. High-quality document images of each page could then be shipped on CD-ROM to the recipient.

d)	Multiple classification schemes can co-exist and complement each other. One scheme might use originating agency as the highest level grouping, whereas another might use the investigative phase (Warren Commission, Garrison investigation, Church Committee, HSCA, etc.). The search engine envisioned would combine full text search and keyword search in one interface.

Production Phase

The Production Phase will be ongoing and concerned primarily with processing documents into the system and providing access to the ever-growing database through on-line services and CD-ROMs (both customized and with predefined sets of documents). As interest indicates, the resources of the Project may be partially applied, or with sufficient support expanded, to process other collections of the A.A.R.C.

Facilitated Analysis

The Digital A.A.R.C. system can easily go beyond being a mere repository and facilitate scholarly analysis of these documents in several ways. Depending on how much the A.A.R.C. views its role as a document archive versus an active education and research center, and how much money and resources can be applied to these tasks, possibilities include:

a)	Works published on-line could hyperlink each reference to the actual documents being discussed.

b)	Researchers can be invited to select and write summaries of sets of related documents. These sets could be presented in the form of a sequential "walkthough" of linked HTML pages, with commentary.

c)	Unsolicited help with the task of interpretation and decoding may be received over the Internet.

d)	The A.A.R.C. could host discussion threads among researchers, and again enhance them by the ability for a given posting to be able to reference documents directly.

e)	The A.A.R.C. could aid researchers and educators in creating multi-media documentaries on-line. The body of photographic and audio exhibits for instance, could be available as source material for educational presentations on a given topic. The A.A.R.C might make available a "kit" which could be used by authors to put together such presentations in the proper format.

Requirements

No extra equipment is needed for this phase, except to the extent that the A.A.R.C. web site becomes a heavily-trafficked site and needs upgrading for that reason.

Additional activities and services may entail software programming and moderator duties.