Change is not easy, but NARA staff members are doing it with enthusiam and we are seeing the results. Wireless internet is now available for researchers who use our Washington, DC and College Park, MD facilities. This service is free and available to registered researchers. On Monday, we launched the redesigned Archives.gov. With your help, … Continue reading Change You Can See and Experience
Earlier this fall, I was struck by the photograph below, located on the wall outside the Still Pictures Room in our College Park facility. Capt. Edward J. Steichen, USNR, (retired), photographic expert on island platform, studies his surroundings for one of his outstanding photographs of life aboard an aircraft carrier. Capt. Steichen held the rank … Continue reading History Through the Camera Lens
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
On July 26, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Federal Register Act by launching Federal Register 2.0. In a special event in the Rotunda of the National Archives, I will be joined by the Public Printer of the United States and distinguished guests from regulatory agencies and the open government community to introduce … Continue reading Coming Soon: Federal Register 2.0
Since June 2009, the National Archives has made videos available on its YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/usnationalarchives. We now have 292 videos available, which have been viewed over 160,000 times. Most videos are from our archival collections, including some from Presidential Libraries. Other videos represent current lectures and educational events. I hope you take some time … Continue reading My Top Ten YouTube Videos
If you're reading this, the following statistic from a recent Pew Internet report applies to you: Fully 82% of internet users (representing 61% of all American adults) looked for information or completed a transaction on a government website in the previous twelve months. It probably doesn't surprise you that increasingly Americans are relying on the … Continue reading Redefining Transparency in a Digital Age
One of my favorite strategic planning quotes is from Wayne Gretzky. He said, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." A recent Morgan Stanley report on Internet trends, gives us a lot of data on where the puck will be and the direction in which we should … Continue reading The Future is in the Palm of our Hands
Have you heard the news? This week, the Library of Congress announced that they are acquiring the digital archive of public tweets. On April 14, @librarycongress tweeted, "Library to acquire ENTIRE Twitter archives -- All public tweets, ever, since March 2006!" Congratulations, Library of Congress. In the world of electronic records, this is a historic … Continue reading Tweets: What We Might Learn From Mundane Details.
