Defense Technical Information Center

Background

The Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), serves the community as the largest central resource for DoD funded scientific and technical information (STI) available today. They decided to consolidate their ten existing Information Analysis Centers (IACs), each covering limited subject areas, into three IACs covering much broader subject areas. As part of this consolidation, DTIC decided to merge the classified hardcopy repositories from the IACs to a central location. DTIC routinely needed digital images for certain files, so they needed to establish a digitization on demand capability which then became a requirement that the entirety of the hardcopy collection be digitized.

Solution

PTFS offered a solution catered specifically to DTIC’s problem by managing over 35,000 cubic feet of material in our secure and environmentally controlled location. This process began with PTFS moving, inventorying and cataloguing classified hardcopy STI. Next, our Digital Library Solution (DLS) was set up to store metadata for the transferred STI. The final step required the trained staff at PTFS to retrieve, scan/digitize, and transmit digital images and associated metadata on demand to requests from the government. Digital images created were also ingested and managed by the DSL for future search and discovery. Transitioning to the digitization of the entirety of the STI, PTFS is currently converting all the assets to digital.

Benefits

DTIC reaped many benefits from undergoing this transformation including a significant cost reduction and process efficiencies. DTIC saves money by storing all of their materials in one location. Previously, much time was wasted when requesting materials due to the multiple storage locations. Now, with everything in one location, it’s easier to retrieve and send requested materials. PTFS’ DLS was provided in this project which enables the search and discovery across metadata and full text documents. DTIC initially reduced costs by digitizing only hardcopies that are requested on demand. With the new focus on the digitization of all DTIC STI, they will permanently eliminate their physical storage footprint cost as well as being able to expand the dissemination of STI information as they will have access to digital materials to share with their end users.