A coordinated effort between Defense Logistics Agency headquarters, DLIS' MEDALS program manager and the Tech Data Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, led to the cancellation of MIL-HDBK-331 and the transfer of responsibilities to MEDALS.
The change will make information on data repositories available in the most efficient electronic format.
To ensure the highest standard in data quality, a review was conducted of the MEDALS database in search of erroneous data. A series of Structured Query Language edits against the MEDALS tables identified a total of 1,453 errors in the production region and four in the test region, which were rectified by the staff.
The database size totaled 36.7 assets indexed in six different tables as of July. Compared to the size of the database, this represents less than a one percent error ratio. All MEDALS information is tested on a quarterly basis to ensure established edits and rejects are operating properly.
A future enhancement to the MEDALS program will be the creation of an on- line, high-volume search capability. This will enable MEDALS customers to build and submit between 20 to 200 queries per submission. Results will be returned to the customer by e-mail. This new feature is scheduled to be available in late October.
Meanwhile, the new directory can be viewed at https://www.dlis.dla.mil/medals/. For additional information about MEDALS, call Warren Scott, MEDALS program manager at (269) 961-5509.
A field activity of the Defense Logistics Agency, DLIS creates, obtains, manages and integrates data from a variety of sources.
It shares this data through user-friendly products and services that support logistics operations throughout the Defense Department, other federal agencies and elements of the private sector.
DLIS' expertise in federal, U.S. military, NATO and other international cataloging and information management makes it an important contributor to electronic commerce between the U.S. government and its many suppliers.