Ever wonder what exciting new projects the many employees at NARA are working on? The “What are You Working On?” blog feature aims to introduce a variety of NARA employees and highlight some of the exciting projects we are working on around the agency. Check for this blog series on Wednesdays! For the next few … Continue reading What Are You Working On, Alan Lowe?
We’re excited to kick off Tag It Tuesday! In this new weekly feature we’ll be highlighting content from our online catalog that we invite you to tag. Curious about what tagging means and how you can get involved? Check out our previous blog post, in which we introduced the Online Public Access catalog's new feature … Continue reading Tag It Tuesday!
As part of our open government initiatives, the National Archives has begun to share applications developed in-house on GitHub, a social coding platform. GitHub is a service used by software developers to share and collaborate on software development projects and many open source development projects. Over the last year and a half, our Digitization Services … Continue reading National Archives Digitization Tools Now on GitHub
Many of us have met long-time computer types who began working with computers long before PCs began appearing in the late 1970s. We recently interviewed a fascinating man who celebrates 50 years of working with computers. He loves explaining how computers moved from being complex, monstrous beasts run by certain “intelligentsia” into practical, analytical tools for everyday people; to how computers today help us communicate and work with each other, within different, newer social frameworks. His career led him to some fascinating developments in computer science, including early contributions to the beginnings of the Internet, where he now sits at the helm of a strategic team that is braving the most challenging tasks of dealing with Government information in the clouds. Dr. George O. Strawn is not just another computer/IT official who rose from the ranks – he is one of the most important thought leaders within Federal Government IT circles today. Plus, he loves the National Archives, because he says, “we bring to the table some of the toughest IT problems for all of the federal government that need to be solved in our time.” Read the first in our series of Applied Research interviews called “At the top of our List: Thought Leaders You Should Know”
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.
This post was written by guest blogger David McMillen, External Affairs Liaison in the Department of Strategy and Communications. Maybe it was Memphis (with apologies to Pam Tillis) Recently in Nashville, Tennessee, the Council of State Archivists and the National Association of Government Records Administrators and Archives came together to share new ideas and renew old acquaintances. … Continue reading I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends
At the NAGARA plenary address in Nashville a few weeks ago, I was asked to talk about NARA’s new Applied Research Division, which wandered into an explanation about why we haven’t been ERA Research for the past two years. Folks were encouraged to attend my 1940 Census session, featuring NARA research partners who are using cool smart tools to make sense out of scanned images—there was not an empty chair in the room, leading to fruitful discussions and promising collaborations…and that’s what you missed at NAGARA! Read the full story here...
Do you have the opening of the 1940 Census on April 2, 2012 marked on your calendar? We do here at the National Archives. For past Census releases we provided access to the Census on microfilm. For the 1940 Census we will be providing free online access. You’ll be able to search on the internet using … Continue reading Are You Preparing for the 1940 Census? We are!
The National Archives at College Park (Archives II) will be closed for research on Saturday, July 30th due to building construction. The Archives II Research Rooms will reopen on Monday, August 1st at 9:00 AM. Thank you for your understanding while we undertake this work.
NARA is in the very early stages of developing a process for electronically requesting records (i.e., an online pull slip). We are currently concentrating on requirements. We invite you to attend one or both of two meetings to discuss what requirements and features you'd like to see for doing records requests electronically. Project director Rich Tomlinson will brief … Continue reading Do you dream about filling out your records pull slips online?
