National Archives

Every year, the federal government produces vast quantities of records on paper and tape, in photographs and microfilm, and increasingly in electronic format. These records document every government action and are vital evidence in documenting the history of the nation, for reviewing past policies, for conducting investigations, for scholarly research, and for genealogical studies. For many years, no central repository for these records existed. Government agencies stored their records in basements, attics, and warehouses. As a result, many records were lost, destroyed, or allowed to deteriorate.

In 1934 Congress established the National Archives to identify, preserve, and provide access to significant government documents and records. In 1949 the archives was incorporated into the General Services Administration and renamed the National Archives and Records Service. As such, it worked with records administrators in every agency, advising them on what records they could dispose of and what they needed to maintain for permanent preservation. In 1984 Congress reestablished it as an independent agency, designated the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The archivist of the United States, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for a 10-year term, oversees the agency.

In the National Archives building on the Mall in Washington are housed and displayed the nation's most famous documents: the Declaration of Independence, the original Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. Back in the stacks of that building, and in the sprawling Archives II, in nearby College Park, Maryland, are billions of other documents, along with millions of maps, photographs, motion pictures, and video and sound recordings. In addition, NARA includes the Office of Presidential Libraries, which preserve the records of recent Presidents in their home states.

The introduction of computers in the years following World War II created a whole new form of federal record keeping. At first used by the military and by the census, computers spread to every agency, and electronic mail (e-mail) steadily replaced postal mail. Although computer tapes were more compact than the equivalent paper copy, computer systems quickly became obsolete and conversion from one generation of computer technology to the next was often difficult and expensive, creating new dilemmas for archivists seeking to preserve as complete documentation as possible.

See also Libraries, Presidential

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is America's national record keeper. By law NARA is charged with safeguarding records of all three branches of the federal government. Its mission is to assure federal agencies and the American public ready access to essential evidence documenting the rights of citizens, the actions of government officials, and the national experience.

NARA appraises, accessions, arranges, describes, preserves, and provides access to the essential documentation of the three branches of government; manages the presidential libraries; and publishes laws, regulations, and presidential and other public documents. It also assists the Information Security Oversight Office, which manages federal classification and declassification policies, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, which makes grants nationwide to help provide access to materials that document American history.

While the need for a central, safe repository for government records was acknowledged from the early days of the republic, storage systems before the twentieth century were decentralized and haphazard. The offices that created the records also stored them, keeping them in whatever space happened to be available. Over the years, records were lost, destroyed by fire, or otherwise made nearly inaccessible. The National Archives Act, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt on 19 June 1934, established a new agency to care for the records of the federal government and ensure that they endured for future generations. In 1949 the National Archives was put under the control of the General Services Administration, but it became an independent agency again—the National Archives and Records Administration—in 1985.

NARA currently holds approximately 7 billion pages of textual records; 5.5 million maps, charts, and architectural and engineering drawings; 35 million still photographs and graphics; 16 million aerial photographs; 56,000 machine-readable data sets; and hundreds of thousands of motion picture films and video and sound recordings. Much of the archival material, including special media such as still and motion pictures, sound recordings, maps, and electronic records, is housed in the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, and in the original National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.

Eighteen regional records services facilities located across the country house records from the federal courts and the regional offices of federal agencies in the geographic areas they serve. More material resides in NARA's records centers, where agency-owned records are held as long as legally required before destruction or transfer to the National Archives.

Providing storage for inactive records in these centers is part of NARA's records-management operation. To ensure proper documentation of the organization, policies, and activities of the government, NARA develops standards and guidelines for the management and disposition of recorded information. NARA also appraises federal records and approves records-disposition schedules, inspects agency records and records management practices, develops training programs, and provides guidance and assistance on proper records management.

In addition, NARA contains a unique resource in its presidential libraries and presidential materials projects, which document the administrations of Presidents Hoover to Clinton. These institutions, though not strictly libraries, contain—in addition to museums—archival collections of records (textual, electronic, visual, and audio) from the Office of the President and presidential commissions, along with personal papers of the president, his family and associates, and members of his administration.

Another part of NARA, the Office of the Federal Register, publishes the daily Federal Register, a record of government proclamations, orders, and regulations; the weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents ; and the annual Code of Federal Regulations, along with The U.S. Government Manual and Public Papers of the Presidents. It is also responsible for receiving and documenting Electoral College certificates for presidential elections and state ratifications of proposed constitutional amendments.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission is NARA's grant-making affiliate. Its grants help state and local archives, universities, historical societies, and other nonprofit organizations strengthen archival programs, preserve and process records collections, and provide access to them through the publication of finding aids and documentary editions of papers related to the Founding Era, to other themes, and to various historical figures.

NARA is continually expanding the availability of its resources through the Internet. The NARA home page directs visitors to such resources as the "Research Room" (offering guidance on using NARA records), the "Exhibit Hall" (bringing NARA exhibits to a wider audience), the "Digital Classroom" (presenting resources for students and teachers), the Federal Register, and Prologue, NARA's quarterly magazine. The Archival Research Catalog, an online database, will eventually describe all of NARA's holdings and make the descriptions accessible through an easy-to-use search form.

NARA also offers a variety of public programs to bring its resources to a wide audience. In the Washington area, at regional archives, and at presidential libraries, visitors may attend lectures, exhibits, film screenings, and conferences.

Records held by NARA are arranged into numbered "record groups." A record group comprises the records of a major government entity, such as a Cabinet department, a bureau, or an independent agency. For example, Record Group 59 contains General Records of the Department of State, and Record Group 29 holds Records of the Bureau of the Census. Most record groups also contain records of predecessors of the organization named in the title.

A great number of records have been recorded on microfilm both to preserve them and to make them more available to researchers. NARA has microfilmed more than 3,000 series of federal records, and copies are located at the two Washington-area archives buildings and in the various regional archives around the country.

The federal government documents people's lives in many ways, not only in censuses, court records, and records of immigration, military service, and employment but also in records such as scientific surveys or diplomatic correspondence. Records in all NARA locations provide information on government actions that have affected the entire nation and the individual home.

The Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States is the single major work that briefly describes the holdings of the National Archives. It is published in print format and on the web. The online version is regularly updated.

Bibliography

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Home page at http://www.archives.gov/index.html.

National Archives and Records Administration

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was established by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1934 for the purpose of housing, protecting, and displaying the documents and records of United States history. The functions of NARA include responsibility for record retention throughout the government. NARA also provides guidance to regional records centers and depositories.

Organization

NARA includes the offices of Administrative Services, Federal Register, Washington Records Services, Regional Records Services, Presidential Libraries, and National Historical Publications and Records Commission, as well as the offices of Contractor Services, Human Resources and Information Services, Information Security, and Inspector General. The administration is headed by the Archivist of the United States, who is supported by the Deputy Archivist and Chief of Staff, and a large permanent staff working at NARA facilities around the country.

NARA operates thirty-three facilities nationwide, including the main National Archive Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., the National Archives at College Park in Maryland, and the Washington National Records Center in Suitland, Maryland. Other NARA facilities include sixteen Regional Records Services Centers, ten presidential libraries, and the National Personnel Records Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.

NARA is responsible for managing all documents generated by the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the federal government. NARA archivists estimate that less than three percent of documents from these sources have enough historical value to warrant retention. Determining which records should be preserved is one of the administration's major responsibilities. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the National Archives possessed over 21 million cubic feet of textual materials. The vast NARA collection also included some 300,000 reels of film, 5 million maps and charts, about 200,000 sound and video recordings, 9 million aerial photographs, and 14 million still pictures and posters.

The central National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., was constructed in the mid-1930s. The building, which is open to the public, contains a theater, a central exhibit hall that houses the Formation of the Union exhibit, and a semicircular gallery for the States of the Union exhibit.

Office of Administrative Services. In addition to administrative functions, the Office of Administrative Services directs the educational programs of the National Archives. Among these are the publication of reports, bulletins, information papers, and guides to records. In 1969 the office began publication of Prologue, a scholarly journal that appears four times a year. The office also manages the various exhibits and produces and sells copies of documents and photographs contained in the archives. Documents of major historical importance, such as the three great charters - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights - are available in facsimile.

Office of the Federal Register. The Office of the Federal Register is responsible for publishing The Federal Register, a daily newspaper that contains presidential proclamations, executive orders, and administrative regulations, orders, and notices. Once published in The Federal Register, an order or regulation is official and binding until later amended or rescinded. The Federal Register also contains descriptions of the practices and procedures of federal agencies and departments.

The Office of the Federal Register codifies and publishes all regulatory documents in the Code of Federal Regulations. The organization and function of government agencies and departments are described in the United States Government Organization Manual, published annually. White House press releases and most of the public messages and statements of the president appear in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and semiannual volumes of Public Papers of the Presidents.

Office of Records Services. The Office of Records Services is responsible for preserving government records of permanent value and for providing access to them through published guides; microfilm, facsimile, and digital reproduction; research services; and use of the National Archives library and research rooms.

The office maintains a research staff that responds to thousands of inquiries every year. Among these inquires are many from individuals seeking genealogical, citizenship, or military records. The following collections of records provide extraordinary sources of information: census schedules, naturalization records, homestead applications, immigration passenger lists for ships arriving at various Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico ports, passport applications and related papers, seamen's protection certificates, and bounty-land warrant application files. The Office of Records Services also directs the records retention program of the federal government. It assists federal agencies and department in managing their records and evaluates their records maintenance and disposition programs.

Regional Records Services centers. The regional records services facilities were established to deal with the overwhelming volume of records originating in federal offices outside of Washington, D.C., which were far too numerous to be held within the National Archives Building. A nationwide survey of federal records in the late 1930s found collections of important papers originating in the lower federal courts, in customs offices, in offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and in offices of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Public Land Management. Many of these papers are on deposit at the regional records services sites.

Office of Presidential Libraries. The presidential library system was established in 1939 when Franklin D. Roosevelt donated his personal and presidential papers and part of his estate in Hyde Park, New York, to the federal government. Harry S. Truman did the same in 1950, and in 1955 Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act, which gave presidents the opportunity to present their personal papers to the American public and to have them administered professionally as part of the archival resources of the United States. Libraries for the collections of presidents Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, George Bush, and Ronald Reagan were subsequently established. The William Jefferson Clinton Library was scheduled to open in 2006.

Presidential libraries function as repositories for preserving the papers, records, photographs, films, and other historical materials of U.S. presidents. Each library also includes a museum with exhibits about the life and times of the president. Most of the libraries offer tours, a series of public programs, and resources to aid researchers. The presidential libraries contain not only official materials, but also personal correspondence, diaries, and other records of the president's appointees and associates. These collections, along with related audiovisual materials, are identified by the name of the donor and are arranged, described, and preserved by archivists. The Presidential Libraries Act recognized the right of a donor to place restrictions on the use of his papers, for example, withholding for a period of years information relating to national security or personal family matters.

National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) was established by Congress in 1934; it is affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration and chaired by the Archivist of the United States. The mission of the NHPRC is to encourage and fund programs to preserve, publish, and use archival materials relating to U.S. history. The NHPRC makes grants to state archives, local archives, colleges and universities, libraries, museums, historical societies, and other nonprofit organizations to help identify, preserve, and provide public access to important historical materials. Through grants, fellowships, publications, training programs, and special projects the commission offers assistance and funding to individuals and groups committed to preserving America's documentary resources.

National Archives Exhibits

The main exhibit hall of the National Archives Building houses the three great charters of American freedom - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. Until 1952, when the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were transferred to the National Archives, they were moved from place to place, chiefly in the charge of the State Department. Despite these moves, they are still in good condition. The Declaration of Independence was moved more often and treated with less care; consequently, its condition has been impaired. All three documents are now protected from further deterioration. The Formation of the Union exhibit consists of the three great charters and approximately 50 other important historical documents, all on permanent display. The States of the Union exhibit displays federal documents pertaining to the histories of the fifty states.

A fireproof, bombproof vault with a protective lid fifteen inches thick lies twenty feet below the floor of the exhibition hall. The three great charters can be lowered into the vault and the lid closed by an electrically powered mechanism. When the documents are not on display, they are housed in this vault, and in an emergency they can be lowered to safety there in less than a minute.

The exhibit hall and galleries of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., were closed for renovation in the early 2000s. While closed, some of the documents usually displayed there were sent to museums and libraries across the country as part of a traveling exhibit called American Originals.

Electronic Access Project

In the mid 1990s NARA launched the Electronic Access Project, which enables anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to access the holdings of the National Archives. NARA's Archival Information Locator (NAIL) is a searchable database containing information about thousands of archival holdings, as well as digital copies of approximately 125,000 of the archive's most popular and historically significant documents, photographs, and sound recordings. By 2001 NAIL offered access to only a small portion of NARA's vast holdings, but the project was ongoing and more records were being added to the live database daily.

NARA also produced an Online Exhibit Hall, which features digital copies of the documents displayed in the actual exhibit hall at Washington's National Archives Building. The Online Exhibit Hall also presents special educational exhibits featuring documents and still photographs from the NARA collection. Online exhibits have included Powers of Persuasion: Posters From World War II; Portraits of Black Chicago; When Nixon Met Elvis; and Tokens and Treasure: Gifts Given to the Presidents.

NARA's Digital Classroom features reproducible copies of primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives, as well as suggestions and activities for using these materials in the classroom. The NARA publication Teaching With Documents was designed to help teachers and students use primary documents effectively in their instruction and research.

Bibliography

Bredhoff, Stacey. 2001. American Originals. Washington, DC, and Seattle, WA: National Archives and Records Administration and Washington University Press.

Bustard, Bruce. 1999. Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives. Washington, DC, and Seattle, WA: National Archives and Records Administration and Washington University Press.

National Archives and Records Administration and National Council for the Social Studies. 1990. Teaching With Documents: Using Primary Sources from the National Archives. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration and National Council for the Social Studies.

Internet Resource

National Archives and Records Administration. 2002. www.nara.gov.

— FRANK G. BURKE, Revised by, JUDITH J. CULLIGAN

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent government agency that stores and provides public access to historical and significant documents related to the American government and its citizens.

Before NARA was created in the 1930s, government documents were stored randomly, with little thought to preservation. As a result, many important works were destroyed in fires or floods, or lost in the transfer from one storage facility to another. In fact, the Declaration of Independence, a crucial piece of American history, nearly disappeared on one of its journeys. In the mid-1920s, Congress recognized the need for a central facility to house important government documents, and authorized funds for a national archives building. On June 19, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Archives Act. R.D.W. Connor became the first official national archivist.

Based in Washington, D.C., NARA's now monumental collection recounts the history of America—and Americans. Housed within its collection are some of the most famous documents in American history, including the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the historic Nixon audiotapes. NARA's thirty-three facilities hold more than four billion pages of government documents, nearly 300,000 films, fourteen million photographs and posters, and five million maps. In addition, NARA hosts many permanent and temporary exhibits showcasing historical documents, artwork, letters, and photographs, and holds the personal collections of every president from Herbert Hoover to George Bush. Everything within the collection is open to the American public.

Not only does NARA store historically important materials, it cares for them as well. Archivists sift through piles of government documents each year to determine which items deserve a place in its stacks. Conservators work diligently to preserve each document, cleaning, repairing rips, and restoring damaged bindings. Retrieval staff respond to nearly 800,000 public requests for information each year.

Protection of archived national icons, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, has been identified as a high priority in the national strategy to prevent terrorism, and falls under the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security.

Further Reading

Books

Rudy Smith, Christina. The National Archives and Records Administration (Know your Government). Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.

United States National Archives and Records Administration. The National Archives in the Nation's Capital: Information for Researchers. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2001.

Electronic

U.S. National Archives & Records Administration. <http://www.archives.gov/>.

National Archives and Records Administration
NARA
Seal
National Archives logo
Agency overview
Formed	April 1, 1985
Preceding agency	National Archives and Records Service (GSA)
Jurisdiction	Federal government of the United States
Headquarters	700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Employees	2,504 (2006)[1]
Agency executives	Adrienne C. Thomas ,act.[2], Archivist Adrienne C. Thomas, Deputy Archivist
Website
www.archives.gov

The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents. NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential proclamations and executive orders, and federal regulations. The chief administrator of NARA, the Archivist of the United States, not only maintains the official documentation of the passage of amendments to the U.S. Constitution by state legislatures, but has the authority to declare when the constitutional threshold for passage has been reached, and therefore when an act has become an amendment.

The agency often works closely with scholars to facilitate their studies.

Contents 1 History 1.1 2006 controversy over reclassification 2 Facilities and exhibition 2.1 National Archives Building 2.2 National Archives at College Park 2.3 Affiliated and regional facilities 2.4 Presidential libraries 2.5 Public-private partnerships 3 Social Media and Web 2.0 4 Archivist of the United States 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

History

Interior of the National Archives

Originally, each branch and agency of the U.S. government was responsible for maintaining its own documents, which often resulted in the loss and destruction of records. Congress established the National Archives Establishment in 1934 to centralize federal record keeping, with the Archivist of the United States as its chief administrator. The National Archives was incorporated into the General Services Administration in 1949, but in 1985 it was made an independent agency as NARA (National Archives and Records Administration).

Most of the documents in the care of NARA are in the public domain, as works of the federal government are excluded from copyright protection. However, some documents that have come into the care of NARA from other sources may still be protected by copyright or donor agreements.^[3] NARA also stores classified documents and its Information Security Oversight Office monitors and sets policy for the U.S. government's security classification system.

NARA's holdings are classified into "record groups" reflecting the governmental department or agency from which they originated. The records include paper records, microfilmed records, still pictures, motion pictures, and electronic media.

Many of NARA's most requested records are frequently used for research in genealogy. This includes census records from 1790 to 1930, as well as ships passenger lists and naturalization records.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the agency's grant-making arm, awards funds to state and local governments, public and private archives, colleges and universities, and other nonprofit organizations to preserve and publish historical records. Since 1964, the NHPRC has awarded some 4,500 grants.

2006 controversy over reclassification

Main article: U.S. reclassification program

In March 2006, it was revealed by the Archivist of the United States in a public hearing that a memorandum of understanding between NARA and various government agencies existed to "reclassify", i.e., withdraw from public access, certain documents in the name of national security, and to do so in a manner such that researchers would not be likely to discover the process.^[4]

Facilities and exhibition

National Archives (building)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The National Archives building Constitution Avenue façade
Location:	Constitution Ave. between 7th and 9th Sts., NW
Nearest city:	Washington, D.C.
Coordinates:	38°53′34.01″N 77°01′22.71″W / 38.8927806°N 77.022975°W / 38.8927806; -77.022975
Architect:	John Russell Pope
Added to NRHP:	May 27, 1971
NRHP Reference#:	71001004

National Archives Building

The National Archives Building, known informally as Archives I, located north of the National Mall on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., opened as its original headquarters in 1935. It holds the original copies of the three main formative documents of the United States and its government: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It also hosts a copy of the 1297 Magna Carta confirmed by Edward I.^[5] These are displayed to the public in the main chamber of the National Archives, which is called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. Flash photography of the documents is prohibited, because over time flashes can fade the documents. There are no lines to see individual documents (although there is a line to reach the rotunda itself) at the National Archives, and visitors are allowed to walk from document to document as they wish.

The National Archives Building also exhibits other important American historical documents such as the Louisiana Purchase and the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as collections of photography and other historically and culturally significant American artifacts.

National Archives at College Park

NARA facility near the University of Maryland, College Park.

Because of space constraints, NARA opened a second facility, known informally as Archives II, in 1994 near the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Largely because of this proximity, NARA and the University of Maryland engage in cooperative initiatives.^[6] The College Park campus includes an archaeological site listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.^[7]

Affiliated and regional facilities

The National Archives Building in downtown Washington contains record collections such as all existing federal census records, ships passenger lists, military unit records from the American Revolution up to the Philippine-American War, records of the Confederate government, the Freedmen's Bureau records, and pension and land records.

There are fourteen Regional Archives facilities across the country with research rooms and archival holdings and microfilms of documents of federal agencies and courts pertinent to each region, and two major facilities in St. Louis, Missouri which comprise the National Personnel Records Center.

There are also ten Affiliated Archives locations across the U.S. which hold, by formal, written agreement with NARA^[8], accessioned records.

Presidential libraries

NARA also maintains the Presidential Library system, a nationwide network of libraries for preserving and making available the documents of U.S. presidents since Herbert Hoover. The Presidential Libraries include:

• Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York
• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts
• Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas
• Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California
• Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Georgia
• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California
• George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas
• William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas
• George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas

Libraries and museums have been established for other presidents, but they are not part of the NARA presidential library system, and are operated by private foundations, historical societies, or state governments, including the William McKinley, Rutherford Hayes, Calvin Coolidge, Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson libraries. For example, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is owned and operated by the State of Illinois.

The broad range of material which NARA preserves at the Presidential libraries is exemplified by the President's VH-3A "Sea King" helicopter at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

Public-private partnerships

This article is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view. For blatant advertising that would require a fundamental rewrite to become encyclopedic, use {{db-spam}} to mark for speedy deletion.

The National Archives aims to make its holdings more widely available and more easily accessible by entering into public-private partnerships. In 2006, NARA announced a joint venture with Google to digitize and offer NARA video online. This pilot program represents an evolutionary step for the National Archives to achieve its goal of becoming an archive without walls, as explained in the NARA press release. This innovative partnership is just one step in a strategic plan that emphasizes the importance of providing access to records anytime, anywhere and is one of the initiatives that NARA is launching to expand opportunities for the public to be able to view NARA's collections.^[9]

In early 2007, the National Archives and Footnote launched a pilot project to digitize historic documents. The NARA press release explained that this partnership would allow much greater access to approximately 4.5 million pages of important documents that are currently available only in their original format or on microfilm. No less important, the digitization of documents would also enhance NARA's efforts to preserve its original records.^[10]

In late 2007, the National Archives announced it would make thousands of historical films available for purchase through CreateSpace (an Amazon.com subsidiary) which specializes in on-demand distribution of DVDs, CDs and books. The NARA press release emphasized the potential benefits for the public-at-large and for the National Archives. At NARA facilities, the public can continue to view films and even copy them at no charge; and this new program will make NARA's holdings much more accessible to those who cannot travel to the Washington, DC area. At the same time, the NARA-CreateSpace partnership will provide the National Archives with digital reference and preservation copies of the films as part of NARA's preservation program.^[11]

Social Media and Web 2.0

The National Archives currently utilizes social media and Web 2.0 technologies in attempt to better communicate with the public.^[12]

On June 18, 2009, the National Archives announced the launching of a YouTube channel "to showcase popular archived films, inform the public about upcoming events around the country, and bring National Archives exhibits to the people."^[13] Also in 2009, the National Archives launched a Flickr photostream to share portions of its photographic holdings with the general public.^[14]

Archivist of the United States

Further information: Archivist of the United States

The Archivist of the United States is the chief official overseeing the operation of the National Archives and Records Administration. The first Archivist, R.D.W. Connor, began serving in 1934, when the National Archives was established by Congress. The Archivists served as subordinate officials in other government agencies until the National Archives and Records Administration became an independent agency on April 1, 1985.

Deputy Archivist Adrienne Thomas is currently Acting Archivist following the resignation of Allen Weinstein effective December 19, 2008.^[2]

On July 28, 2009, President Obama nominated David Ferriero of New York to be 10th Archivist of the United States.^[15]

See also

• 1973 National Archives Fire
• Digital preservation
• Library of Congress Digital Library project
• National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
• Electronic Records Archives
• National Security Archive
• White House Millennium Council (time capsule)
• Sandy Berger, National Security Advisor to President Bill Clinton, pled guilty to 2004 theft in Archives

Notes

1. ^ http://www.bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/rankings/agency.php?code=NQ00&q=scores_large
2. ^ ^{a b} National Archives and Records Administration (2008-12-09). "National Archivist Allen Weinstein Resigns". Press release. http://archives.gov/press/press-releases/2009/nr09-29.html. Retrieved 2008-12-18. "On December 7, historian Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, submitted his resignation to the President, effective December 19, 2008. Professor Weinstein, who has Parkinson’s disease, cited health reasons for his decision. Deputy Archivist of the United States, Adrienne Thomas, will serve as Acting Archivist until a new Archivist is appointed, in accordance with the National Archives governing statute, 44 USC 2103(c)." 
3. ^ archives.org - privacy and use
4. ^ gwu.edu (2006-04-11)
5. ^ Featured Document: The Magna Carta
6. ^ archives.org - IT conference sponsors
7. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15. http://www.nr.nps.gov/. 
8. ^ Affiliated Archives page of Archives.gov
9. ^ NARA + Google partnership
10. ^ NARA + Footnote partnership
11. ^ NARA + CreateSpace partnership
12. ^ Social Media and Web 2.0 at the National Archives
13. ^ National Archives Launches YouTube Channel
14. ^ National Archives Photos on Flickr: FAQs
15. ^ Office of the Press Secretary (July 28, 2009). "Presidential Nominations sent to the Senate, 7-28-09". The White House. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Nominations-sent-to-the-Senate-7-28-09/. Retrieved 2009-07-29. 

References

• Bechloss, Michael. (2006). Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives, New York: Oxford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-195-30959-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-195-30959-1

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: National Archives and Records Administration

• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Official Site
• Archival Research Catalog of the National Archives and Records Administration
• Outdoor sculpture at the National Archives building
• NARA on Footnote.com

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