Since 1985, the first week of May has been set aside to honor the men and women who serve our nation as Federal, state, county, and local government employees. It is also the time when I host the Archivist Awards ceremony at the National Archives to recognize the outstanding achievements of our staff in the … Continue reading Saying Thanks
What’s New in the National Archives Catalog: WWI Photographs
The National Archives recently embarked upon a large scale digitization project, focused on photographic and moving image records related to World War I and World War II. These public domain records are being digitized through a gift to the National Archives Trust Fund with the goal of making them more accessible for everyone to use, … Continue reading What’s New in the National Archives Catalog: WWI Photographs
Thomas Jefferson Prize for Founders Online
On Saturday, wearing my Chair of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission hat, I accepted the Thomas Jefferson Prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government for the NHPRC in creating Founders Online. This is a particularly meaningful award because of the caliber of the professional community represented among the Society. There was … Continue reading Thomas Jefferson Prize for Founders Online
What’s New in the National Archives Catalog: Photographs from the Battle of the Bulge
The National Archives’ Strategic Plan includes the bold initiative to digitize our analog records and make them available for online public access. Our new digitization strategy outlines the many approaches we will use to achieve this goal, and I am proud share with you the results of some of our recent digitization work. Recently digitized … Continue reading What’s New in the National Archives Catalog: Photographs from the Battle of the Bulge
Participate in the #1000pages Transcription Challenge
Calling all history enthusiasts and citizen archivists! Participate in the Transcription Challenge this week and help us meet -- and surpass! -- our goal of transcribing more than 1000 pages. Join us in celebrating Sunshine Week and transcribe records in our new National Archives Catalog. We’ll be tracking our progress every day this week, so … Continue reading Participate in the #1000pages Transcription Challenge
What have you found in Founders Online?
Founders Online, a tool for seamless searching across the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton, launched in 2013. Since then, the tool has grown to a fully searchable online database of over 165,000 documents, including thousands of documents that have not yet appeared in the published … Continue reading What have you found in Founders Online?
A Christmas Memory
One of the benefits of starting my library and archives life as a shelver in the Humanities Library at MIT was exposure to some great writers. As an employee I took advantage of my borrowing privileges and went on a literary journey that set the foundation for my passion for reading to this day. One … Continue reading A Christmas Memory
Presidential Innovation Fellows at the National Archives
Throughout the halls of government, perhaps no word is more often cited than ‘innovation.’ While there’s no doubt that innovation holds the key to envisioning government’s work in the future, I’ll admit that innovation itself can be a challenging word, given that it has so many meanings to so many people. At its core, I … Continue reading Presidential Innovation Fellows at the National Archives
Creating a 21st Century Museum for the Mind
In a recent Wall Street Journal piece on the digital Einstein Papers Project, Walter Isaacson, waxed poetical about the “tingling inspiration of seeing original documents.” Every day I am lucky to witness that “tingling” in the Rotunda of the National Archives as visitors stand in line to be in the presence of the Charters of Freedom. On … Continue reading Creating a 21st Century Museum for the Mind
Thanks, Natalie
In September 2010, I blogged about a Revolutionary War spy whose descendant, Natalie Nicholson, was one of my early mentors in the MIT Libraries. When I started shelving books in the Humanities Library at MIT, Natalie was the Associate Director of Libraries. The Director’s Office suite shared the second floor of Hayden Library which gave … Continue reading Thanks, Natalie