Archives 360°: “Keeping Humans in the Loop” in Chicago

Founded in 1936, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. During the week of August 22, almost 1,800 archives professionals from all over the globe gathered in Chicago, Illinois for SAA’s annual meeting and anniversary celebration. Today's blog features my introductory remarks for SAA session #701 that I chaired, "New Perspectives for the 1940 Census" providing a quick history of innovative technologies used for processing and accessing census data.

How Can We Improve the Researcher Application Form?

Have you conducted research at the National Archives?  If so, you probably remember filling out this researcher application form.  We use this form as both a security measure to protect the records, as well as to better understand your research interests and goals.  We’ve made some updates to the form, and we’re looking for your feedback to … Continue reading How Can We Improve the Researcher Application Form?

Changing Our Perspective: Looking at Our Quality Efforts from the Outside In

The following is a guest post by Kate Murray, Digitization Process Development Specialist at the National Archives.   Recently I had what I can only describe as a Eureka moment. I was attending an informal presentation by Hans Westerhoff describing the Images for the Future project in the Netherlands. He said one of the most … Continue reading Changing Our Perspective: Looking at Our Quality Efforts from the Outside In

Family Tree Friday: Online RIPs for Military and Civilian records

The more we interact with the public, whether at national conferences or NARA-sponsored events such at the annual Genealogy Fair, the more we hear how much researchers would like to see our finding aids available online.  Well, this seems like a good opportunity to point out that two of our most popular genealogy Reference Information … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Online RIPs for Military and Civilian records