Arizona Geological Survey Mining Records Digitization Project

The Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) achieved its annual goals of inventorying the mining records previously held by the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Twenty-eight out of 31 collections of mining records are inventoried and will have finding aids available online at the AZGS repository by mid-August. Seven of these inventories are currently available via the AZGS Document Repository as of July 11, 2012, http://repository.http://http://http://azgs.arizona.edu////collection/1322. A librarian was hired to direct and coordinate this project in October 2011. Since then a number of cataloging efficiencies for the project have been implemented. Microsoft Access was chosen as the database to better control typographical errors and reduce data entry redundancy. This database is in use to create inventories of all the collections. Once fully completed, the inventories can be built upon to create geographic metadata for each item. Development of full geographic metadata for 10,000 records is targeted for Fiscal Year 2013. The initial inventory of ADMMR collections identified by AZGS includes: 23 Special Collections containing approximately 13,500 folders, with 836,553 pages of records 6 Photo Collections containing approximately 7,400 images 1 Theses Collection with 371 papers 1 Map Collection containing approximately 10,000 maps A state vendor specializing in comprehensive document management systems and file scanning services was retained to assist with the scanning and digitizing of mining records. The estimate to scan each report, photo, slide, and map in the mining records totaled $185,455. This past year, AZGS contracted with state vendor OSAM Inc. to scan the ADMMR Map Collection of approximately 10,000 maps. It should be noted that the OSAM work only includes scanning and does not include the metadata creation or cataloging of the files; this work remains the primary focus of the AZGS in FY13.Documents in the AZGS Document Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact azgs-info@email.arizona.edu