Description:
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.azgs.az.gov/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.