Earlier this year, the National Archives, the State Department, and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board formalized a partnership to establish the first-ever Fulbright-National Archives Heritage Science Fellowship. Together with Marie Royce, then-Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, and Paul Winfree, Chair of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, I signed a memorandum of … Continue reading Fulbright-National Archives Heritage Science Fellowship
The National Archives (NARA) provides a broad range of services to internal and external customers, including researchers, visitors, educators, genealogists, students, veterans, information technologists, federal agencies and more. Research Room at the National Archives in Washington, DC Our records are critical to the American public, but our work to preserve and provide access to the … Continue reading Your Experience Matters
The University Libraries at Virginia Tech (VT) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), are working on a collaborative planning project, the ultimate goal of which is to ensure future access to the massive and ever-growing collection of government records in NARA’s digital Catalog. A planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has … Continue reading Exploring the Future Together
The next Decennial (ten-year) Census of the United States will be available online next year. In 1978, Public Law 95-416, also known as the “72-Year Rule,” restricted access to decennial records to everyone except for the individual named on the record for 72 years. The National Archives will release the 1950 Census records in April … Continue reading Preparing for the 1950 Census
Sunshine Week, an annual initiative to educate the public about the importance of open government and the dangers of unnecessary and excessive secrecy, begins March 14, 2021. One year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancelation of Sunshine Week events across the country, including ours, we invite you to join us (virtually, of course) on … Continue reading Celebrating Sunshine in Government!
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large portion of NARA has been teleworking 100%. Even with limitations on our ability to conduct work on-site and despite the incredibly challenging circumstances, our employees have continued to demonstrate their creativity, initiative, and commitment to moving our mission forward. Across the nation, staff from the Office … Continue reading Moving our Mission Forward
Communicating with our customers is key to achieving the mission and goals of the National Archives. In fact, as part of the National Archives Strategic Plan, 2018-2022, NARA established a strategic goal to Connect with Customers along with the specific objective of having one million records enhanced by citizen contributions to the National Archives Catalog. … Continue reading News You Can Use: Subscribe to the National Archives Catalog Newsletter
Today is a celebration of the creation of the world's largest online encyclopedia and the radical idea that information can be created by and open to everyone. This concept resonates with our work at the National Archives, where we strive to support open government values of transparency, collaboration and participation. We believe in government that … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Wikipedia!
The National Archives Strategic Plan for FY 2018-2022 contains a goal to “Maximize NARA’s Value to the Nation.” One of the performance measures of this goal is to collaborate with external platforms and organizations to use NARA’s digitized holdings, or data sets, from the Catalog as a primary source. In fulfilling our mission to drive … Continue reading Maximizing NARA’s Value to the Nation: Wide Scale Use of NARA’s Data
Twice each year, I have the delightful task of giving grants to projects across the country to make access to historical records happen. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), which I chair, funds archivists, records managers, and documentary editors to preserve and make public collections vital to our cultural heritage. At the end … Continue reading Supporting Public Access to Historical Records
