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The North American Astronomical Photographic Plate Center: Phase I.

J. D. Cline, M. W. Castelaz, T. Crowley (PARI
E. Griffin (DAO)
W. Osborn (CMU)

Astronomical photographic plates constitute an important and, for the large part, unrepeatable resource for research.  International pressure is mounting to preserve and catalog scientifically valuable plate collections and capture their information through digitization.  At the same time, many institutions holding plates now lack the space, funds and expertise to adequately preserve this important material.  In response, the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute has established the North American Astronomical Photographic Plate Center (NAAPPC).  NAAPPC is intended as a long-term repository for unwanted direct and objective prism plate collections currently stored in North America. PARI is a natural location for such a center.  It offers physically secure and abundant environmentally controlled space for plate storage as well as Internet 2 infrastructure and instrument space necessary for the eventual digitization and Internet distribution of images.

     Phase I of this initiative is to collect unwanted plate collections, store them in an appropriate manner, prepare catalogues of their relevant information and establish a laboratory for on-site examination or measurement of the plates.  This is currently underway.  Phase II will be the eventual digitization and development of a public web accessible database of images.  We will describe the procedures for placing plate collections in NAAPPC, the infrastructure in place for plate storage and measurement, and our preliminary plans for making the plate archive a public image library with Internet access.