This week I had the honor of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on behalf of all of us who work here at the National Archives and Records Administration. The invitation came from Tim Franks, Historian at Arlington, who has been a friend for many years through … Continue reading Laying a Wreath at Arlington
Last year, OCLC’s Rachel Frick and Merrilee Proffitt convened a group of experts, practitioners, and community members to discuss reparative and inclusive descriptive practices, tools, infrastructure, and workflows in libraries and archives. Staff from the National Archives participated and were energized by the conversations. Last week, OCLC published a report based on the convening, “Reimagine … Continue reading Learning and Growing with the Library and Archival Community
It’s been a very good week for the 1950 Census! Our goal for the 1950 Census website was to provide a simple, intuitive site as well as bulk download capabilities for users and make it available as soon as we legally could. The National Archives’ Census team stayed up late on the evening of March … Continue reading This Week in the 1950 Census
At midnight, the National Archives launched the 1950 Census website. Staff from across the agency have been working over the past decade to prepare the records and provide them to you. I am very proud of how their work has fulfilled our mission to make access happen. NARA and Amazon Web Services experts working together … Continue reading The 1950 Census is Here!
Numbers never tell the whole story, but they do provide insights that are useful for understanding the scope and impact of our work. Here are some of the numbers we have tracked that indicate how we have grown to make access happen, connect with customers, and maximize our value to the nation from 2010 to … Continue reading By the Numbers: 2010-2022
Each year, Sunshine Week honors and promotes a dialogue about the importance of open government, access to information, and unnecessary secrecy—values that are central to the mission of the National Archives and Records Administration. More than 100 years ago, Justice Louis Brandeis wrote: “Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant. If the broad light … Continue reading Celebrate Sunshine Week with the National Archives
The clock is ticking down to the April 1, 2022 launch of the 1950 Census and NARA staff have been buzzing with activity in preparation for the date. The Big Count National Archives Identifier 178688266, p. 15 The data for each Census is restricted for 72 years, and the earliest it may be made available … Continue reading Countdown to the 1950 Census!
Over the years, NARA’s GIPHY Channel has been surprisingly popular with the public. We first launched our channel on GIPHY in 2016, not knowing if the public would be interested in this way of sharing our records. We quickly learned that we were on to something when we received nearly 32 million views that year. By … Continue reading Meeting You Where You Are
The current administration has called on federal agencies to focus on transforming federal customer experience. In response, the National Archives is embedding customer experience initiatives and principles into the strategic goals for the agency. We are also developing an agency-wide customer experience program. As exciting and energizing as our new efforts are, focusing on customer … Continue reading Consistently Customer Centered
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility at the National Archives and Records Administration The White House recently released a government-wide Strategic Plan to Advance Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) for the federal workforce. NARA will use this plan to develop an agency-specific DEIA Strategic Plan in spring 2022. This Strategic Plan follows President Biden’s Executive … Continue reading DEIA at NARA
