Animated Archives: Meeting People Where They Are

Our recently released social media strategy focuses on creating engaging digital content, while expanding digital storytelling to make records increasingly available and relevant with online audiences. The National Archives GIPHY channel does just that: combining our staff’s knowledge of new and emerging technologies with the rich content of the Archives showcases our holdings in fun … Continue reading Animated Archives: Meeting People Where They Are

Welcome to the New ClintonLibrary.Gov!

The National Archives’ Presidential Libraries and Museums preserve and provide access to the records of 14 presidential administrations. In support of this mission, we developed an ongoing program to modernize the technologies and designs that support the user experience of our Presidential Library websites. Through this program, we have updated the websites of the Hoover, … Continue reading Welcome to the New ClintonLibrary.Gov!

Democratizing Access to our Records

The National Archives has a big, hairy audacious strategic goal to provide public access to 500 million digital copies of our records through our online Catalog by FY24. When we first announced this goal in 2010, we had less than a million digital copies in the Catalog and getting to 500 million sounded to some … Continue reading Democratizing Access to our Records

Digital Transformation: Exploring AI

Have you seen the administration’s 2020 Federal Data Strategy? It emphasizes the need for federal agencies to leverage our data as strategic assets. Action 8 of the plan specifically speaks to improving data in order to support artificial intelligence (AI) research in federal agencies. Good data is a critical building block for AI. As you … Continue reading Digital Transformation: Exploring AI

By the Numbers 2019

National Youth Administration (NYA) Photographs showing Projects in New England and New York, 1935 - 1942. National Archives Identifier 7350922 Number of Record Group descriptions in the National Archives’ Catalog: 569*Number of Collection descriptions in the Catalog: 4,752Number of creating organization authority files in the Catalog: 100,714 Number of person name authority files linked to descriptions: 23,709Number of geographic authority files … Continue reading By the Numbers 2019

Making Access Happen: NARA’s Leadership in the Digital Decade

The history of the National Archives records our longstanding commitment to the mission of preserving and providing access to the permanent records of the federal government. However, in no decade in our history have we provided greater access than in the one that is drawing to a close this month. Together, our staff developed values … Continue reading Making Access Happen: NARA’s Leadership in the Digital Decade

Apollo 11: One Giant Leap for Mankind

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade, striking a responsive chord with the American people. The Apollo program was created to meet this goal, and on July 20, 1969, astronauts of the Apollo 11 Mission became the first … Continue reading Apollo 11: One Giant Leap for Mankind

Making Access Happen in the Digital Era

This is a story about valuing the hard work that has come before us and thinking innovatively about how we can share that hard work in new ways, using new and emerging digital platforms.  Back in 2006, we launched a short feature on our website, which we called Today’s Document. We featured a particular document … Continue reading Making Access Happen in the Digital Era

History Hub: A 21st Century Model for Archival Reference

When the National Archives launched History Hub in January 2016, we hoped it would be a game-changing way to provide access to information and diverse sources of expertise.  I’m pleased to share that what started out as an experimental project has become an active community of researchers and experts. The idea for History Hub began … Continue reading History Hub: A 21st Century Model for Archival Reference

NHPRC and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Launch Digital Publishing Initiative

On February 14, we made a great match. Together with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and our own National Historical Publications and Records Commission, we announced the eight planning-grant recipients for our joint Digital Edition Publishing Cooperatives Program. These eight cooperatives will test out new ways of making historical records more readily accessible to scholars, … Continue reading NHPRC and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Launch Digital Publishing Initiative