In partnership with the United States Air Force (USAF), the Shaw Air Force Base (Shaw AFB) in South Carolina and Avon Park Air Force Range (Avon Park AFR) in Florida archaeology archives were recently added to tDAR. Each archive contains documents, images, and other data from archaeological and other cultural resource research conducted at both bases. The creation of these digital archives is part of a pilot program to investigate the feasibility of the USAF using tDAR as a long-term repository for archaeological information important for the management and protection of important archaeological resources on USAF bases. The records in the Shaw Air Force Base Archaeology Archive are organized as a collection within tDAR which includes 512 files. The Avon Park Air Force Range Archaeology Archive also is organized as a tDAR collection and includes 219 files.
Most of the information in the archives is generally available. However, due to confidential information, mainly specific site locations, included in some of the files, the collections’ material are accessible according to three categories depending on their content. Confidential records contain sensitive USAF information and are available only to the USAF officials responsible for the archaeological resources or others authorized by these Air Force officials; confidential with redacted copy available are files from which USAF sensitive information has been removed and a redacted version is available to registered tDAR users; and, available to all users are files that contain no confidential information and are available to all registered tDAR users.
The USAF digital archives project demonstrates how staff at the Center for Digital Antiquity can work under contract or cooperative agreement with public agencies to provide digital curation services directly to agencies. Some of these services include: organization of materials, drafting of metadata, examining files for potentially confidential information, and uploading files to tDAR. The USAF project to date has been funded by a contract administered through the CRM consulting firm GMI (now part of Versar). USAF staff worked closely with experts at Digital Antiquity to review draft metadata and redacted versions of files before final versions were made public in tDAR. At Digital Antiquity we look forward to working with the USAF on more digital archives for facilities and with other agencies on similar projects.
Have questions about the USAF pilot, or a similar project you would like to start, contact us.