Celebrate Sunshine Week with the National Archives

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

Retirement of Archivist David S. Ferriero

After 12 years as the tenth Archivist of the United States, I have decided to retire, effective mid-April 2022.   As I wrote to President Biden, it has been the honor of a lifetime to serve my country once more, this time to lead the Executive Branch agency charged with ensuring that the American people can … Continue reading Retirement of Archivist David S. Ferriero

Modernizing the Proposed Records Schedule Commenting Process

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

Happy Sunshine Week 2019!

Each year, Sunshine Week honors and promotes a dialogue about the importance of open government and access to information—values that are central to the mission of the National Archives and Records Administration. I can’t think of a better place to be celebrating Sunshine Week than here at the National Archives, because we not only contribute, … Continue reading Happy Sunshine Week 2019!

Help Advance Open Government

The purpose of the U.S. Open Government National Action Plan is to advance transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and technological innovation across government. Now, thanks to an effort supported by the General Services Administration, you have until October 2, 2017 - just a few more days - to share your ideas to advance open government and … Continue reading Help Advance Open Government

Reaching Out with RDA

This week, the National Archives took yet another step toward the Open Government goals of transparency, participation and collaboration, by joining the wider archival community in adopting the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard for its authority records. The RDA standard was developed in 2010 as the successor to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition … Continue reading Reaching Out with RDA

Check Us Out!

The National Archives provides many “entrances” to our content. We have facilities located across the country to bring our records to you and you may find our records where you go to on the web, including Wikipedia, Facebook, Instagram, and many more.  We know that nearly one third of you come to our website via … Continue reading Check Us Out!

We want to hear from you! NARA’s Open Government Plan 2016-2018

I am proud to announce the publication of our fourth Open Government Plan. To get started, check out the Executive Summary, which provides an overview of the commitments the agency is making to make the National Archives and the Federal government more open over the next two years. We want to hear from you! This … Continue reading We want to hear from you! NARA’s Open Government Plan 2016-2018

Sharing the Excitement about Open Government

This week I had an opportunity to address the World Library and Information Congress of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) on the work we have been doing here at the National Archives in support of the Administration’s Open Government Initiative.  Thirty two hundred librarians, archivists, and other information professionals from 145 … Continue reading Sharing the Excitement about Open Government

Records Management Self-Assessment

I am pleased to announce that the 2015 Records Management-Self Assessment (RMSA) report is now available. Laurence Brewer, Chief Records Officer for the U.S. Government, said, "This is our seventh RMSA, and we are very pleased to see real progress being made by agencies. We expect this improvement to continue, especially as agencies continue to … Continue reading Records Management Self-Assessment