CREST: CIA Records Search Tool

[Michael Best]

I spoke to someone from the list privately and did a little digging - it
looks like the files can't be downloaded or saved electronically, at all,
period. They have to be printed instead, from one of four computers which
are located in College Park, MD (transparency!). So now I'm working on a
plan to print and scan files from CREST. Given the scale (11+ million
pages)...

I plan to be down there on Tuesday; I'll get more information and solid
numbers (document counts, print speeds, etc.) and see where things are from
there. Keep your fingers crossed, I may actually be able to get something.

--Mike

On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 7:18 PM, Michael Best <themikebest at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'll take notes on the access and interface when I'm there next, hopefully
> next week.
>
> On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 7:16 PM, Martin Becze <mjbecze at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> How exactly is the accesses setup? Can we arbitrary software that
>> accesses DB?
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 7:07 PM, Michael Best <themikebest at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone can access it, but only from NARA II at College Park, MD. I'm
>>> there on a semi-regular basis and want to figure out a way to efficiently
>>> liberate the docs that are only accessible from there....because that's
>>> some weird-ass censorship.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 7:05 PM, Martin Becze <mjbecze at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Can anyone access the CREST db? Do I need any specail permission?
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 2:55 PM, Michael Best <themikebest at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm spending a fair amount of time at NARA II. Any thoughts on how I
>>>>> might be able to automate retrieval of documents from the CREST database?
>>>>> There are about 10 million pages of CIA docs that haven't even been
>>>>> accessed, much less made their way online.
>>>>>
>>>>> Since 2000, CIA has installed and maintained an electronic full-text
>>>>> searchable system, which it has named CREST (the CIA Records Search Tool),
>>>>> at NARA II in College Park, Maryland. *Over 11 million pages have
>>>>> been released in electronic format and reside on the CREST database, from
>>>>> which researchers have printed about 1.1 million pages. **In order to
>>>>> directly access CREST, a researcher must visit the National Archives at
>>>>> College Park, Maryland.*
>>>>> http://www.foia.cia.gov/collection/crest-25-year-program-archive
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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