If you are using PDF for Agency records, please let me know. I am trying to determine how many agency's are using it. Thanks! & Happy Holidays! C

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001

Answers

Perhaps a simple "Yes" will answer your question, but if more information would be helpful . . .

I am the records manager for the U.S. EPA's Reg 6 (AR, LA, NM, OK, TX) Superfund Program. For a number of years we have been using the Superfund Document Management System (SDMS) which started out as an imaging system. All 10 EPA regions use this application. In the Dallas office I am presiding over a conversion of the existing TIFF image collection to PDF. So far we've converted a few hundred thousand of the several million images inthe system. Simultaneously, I am accepting increasing numbers of PDF records in lieu of paper records from our numerous field contractors. The PDFs we have contain embedded OCR, many have been tagged to comply with the Section 508 accessibility legislation, and all of them have been optimized for fast Web loading. We are currently leveraging the flexibility of PDF to revise workflow, introduce more forms-based records creation, and move beyond PDF images to XML'ized content. Steve

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001

The FCC uses PDF extensively. PDF is used for the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) which contains all notice and comment proceedings for rulemaking and docketed proceedings, all coments and replies from 1992 to present. This database is about 180 Gigs, using Sybase, Websql, PowerBuilder, C++, and HTML. All paper to these proceedings is maintained to send to NARA. Other Electronic filing in the FCC use PDF for any documents needing to retain their exact format.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001

PDF is used for a limited number of records at the Federal Reserve Board. Records and IT staff have some concerns about the proprietary format.

I'm telling myself that use of PDF will be a temporary but culturally effective way to establish a "trustworthy source" for electronic records.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

The Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) has been creating dissemination copies of their tiff/text files into PDF format for quite some time now. We are retaining the preservation format for migration purposes and make both the TIF/txt and PDF files available to our customers.

CALL is currently creating html and pdf formats from native formats for dissemination purposes.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

I am not aware that we are using PDF for records, however I have heard that NARA is investigating the use of PDF for recordkeeping formats. You should probably contact the electronic records division. Mike Miller may be a good POC.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002

The Federal Courts have begun to accept PDF documents directly from citizens for permanent record retention. We have been engaged in this process for over three years. In the next three years we should have all courts actively receiving PDF documents or we will scan and store those documents presented on paper. This will be our official case folder.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002