Syntactica Receives U.S. Department of State Contract

Sept. 29, 2009, Minneapolis, Minnesota USA Syntactica announced that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian to develop and maintain web-based applications related to the online publishing of historical studies and archival materials relating to the history of U.S. foreign relations and the Department of State. These applications are built on innovative storage and retrieval technologies that make it easier to publish historical materials in formats that can be searched and reused by other individuals and organizations.

The Office of the Historian currently uses a combination of open source and commercial databases to store and maintain historical documents in XML formats. These systems allow historians to add precise information to historical documents that encode items such as dates, individuals, and locations.

The contract covers support of the existing web site (http://history.state.gov) as well as the development of new tools to streamline the document publishing processes used with the Office of the Historian.

"We are very excited to be awarded this contract. It allows us to use advanced XML search and retrieval technologies to manage critical information systems," said Dan McCreary, one of the principal developers at Syntactica. "We intend to use the eXist native XML database and Mark Logic Server to build tools to support historical research tools that will be used by historians worldwide."

The Office of the Historian is responsible, under law, for the preparation and publication of the official historical documentary record of U.S. foreign policy in the Foreign Relations of the United States series. It researches and writes historical studies on aspects of U.S. diplomacy for use by policymakers in the Department and in other agencies, as well for public information. The Office also makes recommendations to other Bureaus regarding the identification, maintenance, and long-term preservation of important historical diplomatic records. Its outreach activities include educational videos for middle school and high school students, scholarly conferences, counseling private scholars and journalists on historical research issues, and responding to government and public inquiries on diplomatic history questions.

Syntactica is a subsidiary of ZH Computer, which is a leading developer of technology solutions for search and retrieval. Headquarters is at ZH Computer, 7400 Metro Boulevard, Suite 350, Minneapolis, MN 55439. For more information, visit http://www.syntactica.com, or call 952-921-9368.

For more information conatact:
Ward Johnson
Syntactica
7400 Metro Boulevard, Suite 350
Minneapolis, MN 55439
E-mail: ward@assessment.com
952-921-9368