Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS) Migrated to GaleNet Interface (Linda Kennedy, UCD)

The Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS) has migrated from its original Primary Source Media (PSM) interface to a more fully functional GaleNet interface.  Gale involved CDL staff and the DDRS resource liaison heavily in the development of the functionality of the new interface.

DDRS is a full-text database of more than 75,000 digitized declassified documents obtained from presidential libraries.  These libraries receive declassified documents from the White House, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department, and other agencies.

CDL pages now point to the new DDRS interface.  The CDL directory page at [http://www.cdlib.org/hlp/directory/ddrs.html] directs you to a specific address per campus that facilitates collection of campus-level statistics.  Campus addresses have been disseminated by CDL for use on campus web pages.  The old DDRS interface will remain up at [http://www.ddrs.psmedia.com/] through the end of 2002 to allow other subscribers to transition.

Features of the new interface:

The new interface enhances displays and searches with subject descriptors (using an uncontrolled vocabulary).  The descriptors are important because most documents don’t have a true title, and because they often provide needed context. For example, a document about the Vietnam war may not refer to “Vietnam War.” A document discussing Secretary of State Kissinger’s point of view may refer to him only as “the Secretary.”
The subject descriptors form what DDRS refers to as the “Document Abstract,” which also displays in the list of hits.

The new interface offers both keyword and full-text searching.  Full-text searches Author, Document Classification Level, Document Title, Document Abstract, Document Text (the full text of the document), and Subject descriptors.  Keyword searches the same fields as Full-text, except it searches just the first 50 characters of the document text.

Basic Search and Advanced searches continue to be offered.  The Basic Search offers search by keyword or full-text.  In the advanced search, you may search title, keyword, full-text or source institution and also limit by date issued, date declassified, document type, classification level, source institution, completeness, and by number of pages.  The date limits include both specific date and date range capability.

The Results or hit list offers more complete citations, and it is easy to navigate between pages of hits.  Results are no longer limited to 300 hits.
The default display sorts by issue date, most recent first.  You can also sort by relevancy, limited to the top 200 records. The user may now view and print the page images in PDF mode (Adobe Acrobat) in ten page increments.
The text version can be printed only page by page.

The Help section and Search Tips are significantly improved, and the database is far more usable than in the PSM version.

A backlog of digitized documents is in the process of being added to the DDRS web database; currently, the database includes documents declassified between 1948 and 2000.

Please direct comments and suggestions about the new interface to Linda Kennedy, DDRS Resource liaison, at lmkennedy@ucdavis.edu.