According to Alexa.com, the internet traffic ranking company, there are only six websites that internet users worldwide visit more often than Wikipedia: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo!, Blogger.com, and Baidu.com (the leading Chinese language search engine). In the States, it ranks sixth behind Amazon.com. Over the past few years, the National Archives has worked with many … Continue reading GLAMorous
At the National Archives, we’re always trying to think of new ways to make our historical records more accessible to the public. We have only a small fraction of our 10 billion records online, so it’s clear we’ve got to get creative. It’s vital that we learn how other institutions address this challenge. One approach … Continue reading Crowdsourcing and Citizen Archivist Program
Artwork, silver, books, religious objects, antiquities, archival documents, and carvings. These are just a few of the types of cultural property that were stolen, looted, seized, forcibly sold, or otherwise lost to the Nazis beginning in the 1930s and continuing through World War II. After the war, documents about this cultural property were scattered across … Continue reading Together, We Can Turn Lost into Found
This week, public interest groups, media organizations, government agencies, and citizens celebrate Sunshine Week and the Annual Freedom of Information Day. As part of Sunshine Week the White House has launched a new "Good Government" portal as a resource for citizens. At public events and congressional hearings this week, leadership of the National Archives -- … Continue reading Sunshine Week 2011
I'm a big fan of Wikipedia. It's often the first place I go for information. According to a recent Pew Internet report, I'm also not alone. Forty-two percent of all Americans also turn to Wikipedia for information online. Every month, almost 80 million people visit Wikipedia and more than 91,000 active contributors have worked on … Continue reading Celebrating 10 Years of Wikipedia
In his State of the Union address last week, President Barack Obama said, "We can't win the future with a government of the past." He called for a reorganization of government to give the people "a government that's more competent and more efficient." At the National Archives, we are meeting the President's call to action. … Continue reading A National Archives of the Future
Federal agencies' Facebook posts, YouTube videos, blog posts, and tweets... are all of these Federal records? Increasingly, Federal agencies are using web 2.0 and social media tools to quickly and effectively communicate with the public. These applications, sites, and tools encourage public participation and increase our ability to be more open and transparent. The informal … Continue reading Are these Records?
Since my swearing in as the 10th Archivist of the United States less than a year ago, we've taken important steps to become a more open, transparent, participatory, and collaborative agency. I'm proud of our accomplishments: The development of our Open Government Plan A 300 percent increase in the use of social media tools to … Continue reading Open to Change
Recently, I read an article and book by Charlene Li, an expert on social media and former analyst and vice president at Forrester Research. In the book, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, she states that greater openness in organizations is inevitable and is a consequence of the increasing use … Continue reading Leading an Open Archives
I would like to congratulate the NARA volunteers of the Civil War Conservation Corps (CWCC) on reaching a significant milestone in the preparation of Civil War Widow’s Certificate pension case files for digitization. On June 2, these dedicated citizen archivists completed preparation of the 50,000th file, sending it on its way to the digital cameras … Continue reading Civil War Conservation Corps Reaches a Significant Milestone
