Case Studies and Success Stories

U.S. Agency for International Development

United States Agency for International Development

The Challenge

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) library has more than 50 years containing over 155,000 documents of technical and program documentation.  All digitized and available online.  USAID is responsible for acquiring, cataloging, and making available electronically USAID-funded development documents from its field staff around the world. Over time,  physical paper, microfiche, large drawings, videos and audio files became backlogged.  To achieve part of its mission to disseminate information to the public and more than 100 of their missions located in more than 80 countries, USAID needed to digitize an entire library of more than 10 million documents.

library shelves

Our Solution

ILM crafted a solution to securely remove and transport the USAID documents located in the Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, DC to its secure facility in Fredericksburg, VA.  In a climate and access controlled location, the huge task of cataloging all of the items for chain of custody and tracking was first on the list.  Over a 2 year period, ILM prepped and scanned all of the different paper, microfilm, microfiche and oversized drawings into a Searchable PDF.  Media files such as video, audio, floppy disks, and a variety of other storage media were also converted from their legacy mediums to electronic files.

Throughout the entire project, materials and information was shuttled back and forth, with an eye towards accuracy and achieving the best possible scans.  ILM’s tracking and project management systems were up to the task ensuring the entire project was finished on time and under budget.

The Results

USAID experienced a massive increase in productivity from their missions not having to duplicate work and “reinvent” the wheel.  With access to the digital library, missions could access critical field notes, reports and documents that clearly identified past and current projects.  Having this information reduced time and money spent investigating projects as plans and documents were now readily available.  For several years afterward, USAID continued to use ILM’s services for digitization of audio cassettes, film, video, and additional paper documents.

Document Scanning button  Document Data Extraction button

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