Keeping the customer’s needs front and center is important when developing new digital tools. We recently developed a set of user personas as part of our work to establish a more robust—and data informed—understanding of the individuals that engage digitally with the National Archives (NARA). User personas are fictional, but realistic representations of key audience … Continue reading Improving Customer Experience with Digital Personas
The National Archives recently hosted a meeting of Senior Agency Officials for Records Management (SAORM) and agency records officers from across the federal government. This meeting covered progress and plans for modernizing Federal recordkeeping and implementing strategic records management mandates and priorities. I was pleased to greet so many Senior Agency Officials for Records Management … Continue reading Senior Agency Officials for Records Management
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has long had a special relationship with the incoming Presidential Administration, including providing archival and records management guidance and support to the White House upon request. This relationship continues throughout the Administration, until the Presidential records are transferred into the National Archives for permanent preservation in our President … Continue reading Guidance on Presidential and Federal Records
This week, the National Archives took yet another step toward the Open Government goals of transparency, participation and collaboration, by joining the wider archival community in adopting the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard for its authority records. The RDA standard was developed in 2010 as the successor to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition … Continue reading Reaching Out with RDA
With this week’s election, we Americans determined the next chapter in our country’s history. I am proud to have exercised my vote and I hope you did the same. As private citizens we participated in an act of living democracy. Today, we do the same as Federal employees dedicated to preparing our agency for a … Continue reading The Role of the National Archives in the Presidential Transition
The National Archives provides many “entrances” to our content. We have facilities located across the country to bring our records to you and you may find our records where you go to on the web, including Wikipedia, Facebook, Instagram, and many more. We know that nearly one third of you come to our website via … Continue reading Check Us Out!
I am proud to announce the publication of our fourth Open Government Plan. To get started, check out the Executive Summary, which provides an overview of the commitments the agency is making to make the National Archives and the Federal government more open over the next two years. We want to hear from you! This … Continue reading We want to hear from you! NARA’s Open Government Plan 2016-2018
This week I had an opportunity to address the World Library and Information Congress of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) on the work we have been doing here at the National Archives in support of the Administration’s Open Government Initiative. Thirty two hundred librarians, archivists, and other information professionals from 145 … Continue reading Sharing the Excitement about Open Government
Yesterday, I had the privilege to speak to my colleagues in the archival profession at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and the Society for American Archivists in Atlanta, Georgia, about an important topic to me and an ongoing focus for us at the National Archives: diversity and inclusion. … Continue reading Getting Our House in Order: Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace
Today, our Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) released online its Report to the President for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. This annual report covers government agencies’ security classification activities, shares cost estimates for these activities, and provides an update on the Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) program. This annual report was mandated by Executive Order 13526, Classified … Continue reading Information Security Oversight Office Releases its Annual Report to the President
