Requirements of USMS Archives to Serve Other USMS Committees

Some USMS Committees will want to manage that part of USMS Archives which includes information for which their Committee is responsible. For example, Awards & Recognition (A&R) has important information about key people which requires discretion and editing before being made public. The purpose of this page is to specify the requirements of the new archives database format that will make this possible. (These requirements also apply to any volunteer who takes responsibility for portions of archives.)

1. The maintenance software (PHP, ASP ?) will determine what portion of the database can be modified by anyone who is to participate in maintenance.
2. The database administrator will grant access based on responsibilities assigned by responsible persons, e.g. Committee Chairpersons.
3. Therefore, in this illustration, the A&R person will have the ability to add, change, or delete content in the portion of the database for which the A&R Committee is responsible.
4. If desired, content additions to the database can be expedited by people who are especially skilled at (or have tools for) rapid database work.
5. These procedures of who has what kind of access and when will need to be refined, and it is possible that they will be outside the scope of the H&A RFP. The original intent of the RFP was to convert the existing capability.

   Perhaps all content should be reviewed by H&A before posting. Perhaps changes to existing archival materials will need special permission or will be done by an H&A person. Similarly, read access, in some cases will require permission. While the responsible person or Committee will always have read access, others may be denied access because of the sensitivity of material. These policies may evolve through the USMS Database Committee and/or may be clarified by the H&A Committee at a later time.

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