Scanning Thousands of Scientific Publications

The Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

 The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is responsible for the administration of scientific publications as a matter of records, access, history, and scientific merit.

The Problem and Solution: Scan over 75,000 reports since 1879

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Publications Warehouse needed support in converting printed scientific reports and maps to an electronic format. The goal of this project is to scan all scales and all editions of the more than 75,000 reports published by the USGS since 1879.  Xentity provided staff intimately familiar with the processes, standards, toolsets and technology.

The Outcomes: New data.usgs.gov launched and other parts in work

The project was completed on-time, on-budget including scanning all reports and completing metadata accurately referencing Geographic Names Information System and Topographic map metadata and data dictionaries for project completeness. Also, the project implemented tools and workflows to audit, validate, and process incoming files from page-scanning vendors. This automated and simplified previously unmanageable processes and improved the quality of data.