Each year, Sunshine Week honors and promotes a dialogue about the importance of open government, access to information, and unnecessary secrecy—values that are central to the mission of the National Archives and Records Administration. More than 100 years ago, Justice Louis Brandeis wrote: “Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant. If the broad light … Continue reading Celebrate Sunshine Week with the National Archives
In keeping with the recommendations from my Task Force on Racism, NARA chartered the Reparative Description and Digitization Working Group in July of 2021. Since then, the Working Group has been reviewing guidance, standards, and processes relating to reparative archival description as well as benchmarking the work of peer institutions. Yale University Library notes that reparative … Continue reading Guiding Principles for Reparative Description
As the home of this nation’s founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights—we have a special responsibility to the ideals that all people are created equal, that all people have equal protection under the law, and that there is a common good that includes us all. Although we as a … Continue reading Addressing Racial Inequality
Class in reconnaissance, Group #1, showing calibration of hands and field glasses for use in rapid calculation of firing data (names in caption). Le Valdahon, Doubs, France National Archives Identifier: 86708077 FY2019 FY2020 Number of Record Group descriptions in the National Archives Catalog569*576*Number of Collection descriptions in the Catalog4,7524,764Number of creating organization authority files in … Continue reading By the Numbers 2020
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!
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!
This morning I presented the final tranche of newly-declassified U.S. Government records to Argentine Minister of Justice and Human Rights, the Honorable Germán Carlos Garavano. The ceremony marks the successful completion of the U.S. Declassification Project for Argentina, the largest government-to-government declassification release in United States history. David S. Ferriero (left), delivers the final installment … Continue reading Declassification Diplomacy: The United States Declassification Project for Argentina
The records management program at the National Archives has been working to build an open and collaborative electronic records management community with federal and industry stakeholders for many years. A key component of this effort has been increasing access to both approved records schedules via the Records Control Schedule portal and making it easier for … Continue reading Modernizing the Proposed Records Schedule Commenting Process
The mission of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is to provide access to the permanent records of the Federal government, which include Presidential records from NARA’s Presidential Libraries. President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court on July 9, 2018. NARA has permanent records related to Judge Kavanaugh, … Continue reading National Archives Works to Release Records Related to Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh
I am pleased to announce the members I have selected for the 2018-2020 term of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee. I was happy to renew the Committee’s charter for an additional two-year term (2018-2020) so that members may continue to address FOIA’s greatest challenges. In response to our call for nominations in … Continue reading Looking Forward to the 2018-2020 FACA Final
