The Nation’s Report Card, recently released by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, doesn’t have good news about our student’s academic achievement in American history. Just 13% of high school seniors, 18% of eighth-graders, and 22% of fourth-graders ranked at the proficient level. “These results tell us that, as a country, we … Continue reading How Our Students Are Doing
As someone who likes to cook and collects cookbooks for inspiration, I am high on the latest exhibit to open here at the National Archives. AOTUS welcomes the press at the "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?" exhibit preview at the National Archives. “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?” takes a look at the Government’s role in food, a … Continue reading What’s Cooking?
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates delivered this year’s Commencement Address at the U.S. Naval Academy. In it he reflected on his 46 years of public service—Air Force, CIA, White House, and Pentagon, serving under eight presidents. He states, “From this experience I have learned that real leadership is a rare and precious commodity, and … Continue reading Thoughts on Leadership
The Federal Register, often called the Government’s daily newspaper, is published by the National Archives and contains rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as Executive Orders and other Presidential documents. That includes signed legislation. And the process for these documents includes signature verification. Congress recently passed legislation to extend … Continue reading A Signature History
I grew up in the Libraries at MIT, an institution founded on the principles of practical education. The motto of MIT, Mens et Manus, captures the spirit of that philosophy--mind and hand. For a young librarian it was a great experience to provide service to a bright and engaged campus community and to serve Nobel … Continue reading Work Culture
I enjoyed speaking with federal records managers on Wednesday at the National Archives’ Records Administration Conference (RACO). The records managers’ role in government is an essential part of our mission of preserving the records of the past and the present for study and use in the future. When I spoke to this same group last … Continue reading RACO and The Archivist Achievement Awards
According to Alexa.com, the internet traffic ranking company, there are only six websites that internet users worldwide visit more often than Wikipedia: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo!, Blogger.com, and Baidu.com (the leading Chinese language search engine). In the States, it ranks sixth behind Amazon.com. Over the past few years, the National Archives has worked with many … Continue reading GLAMorous
At the National Archives, we’re always trying to think of new ways to make our historical records more accessible to the public. We have only a small fraction of our 10 billion records online, so it’s clear we’ve got to get creative. It’s vital that we learn how other institutions address this challenge. One approach … Continue reading Crowdsourcing and Citizen Archivist Program
Charles O. Rossotti was the Internal Revenue Commissioner from 1997 to 2002. In his book, Many Unhappy Returns, he tells the story of “one man’s quest to turn around the most unpopular organization in America.” I’m always interested in reports of “lessons learned” and this is one of the best, especially as I reflect on … Continue reading NARA and the IRS
In my 40 years on University campuses, I have participated in many commencement exercises and sat through too many commencement addresses! The best ones are brief, inspiring, and leave you something to think about. On Friday I heard such a speech. I was honored to be part of the exercises at Long Island University. The … Continue reading Commencement Season
