Results Should Not Vary: Pursuing Quality in Digitization Services

In Digitization Services, we’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about quality. What does it mean? How do we measure it? And why should we care about it? After the establishment of the Products and Services (P&S) web portal resource in 2010 (see the http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?p=5320 blog post), Digitization Services knew we still had more … Continue reading Results Should Not Vary: Pursuing Quality in Digitization Services

Open Gov Goes Local! Transparency in Digitization Services

The Digitization Services or IDS (formerly known as the Special Media Preservation Division) is NARA’s primary source of in-house digitization and analog reformatting of motion picture film, audio, video, photographs, aerial film, textual documents, cartographic documents, microfilm, and microfiche. 2010 was a year of introspection and change for us. Inspired in part by the Open … Continue reading Open Gov Goes Local! Transparency in Digitization Services

NARA Applied Research Partners are Featured at the MARAC 2011 Spring Meeting

Last week, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) held its Spring meeting in Alexandria, VA (May 5-7, 2011). If you missed the conference, today's Tech Tuesday post is a summary of two events related to MARAC Session S5, "New Tools to Address Electronic Records Challenges."

MayDay at the National Archives

The following is a guest post from Jane Long, Preservation Officer at the National Archives: Emergencies can happen anytime, but a little preparedness goes a long way to diminish their effects. Every year, NARA participates in MayDay, a national event to raise awareness of the importance of taking simple steps to protect people and records. … Continue reading MayDay at the National Archives

NARA Participates in Preservation Week

The following is a guest post from Aimee Primeaux, Preservation Program Officer at the National Archives: Preservation is at the heart of what we do here at NARA: Preservation Programs has joined forces with SAA’s Preservation Section to create an e-poster in recognition of Preservation Week. This poster outlines basic strategies to preserve your collections, … Continue reading NARA Participates in Preservation Week

Tech Tuesday: What's the Buzz?

Being a journalist in this digital and new media age presents challenges and frustrations of tracking down and accessing Federal, State, and Local government information needed to produce responsible and accurate news products. Read today’s blog for an invitation to a free conference co-sponsored by NARA and Duke University on April 12, focusing on ways that journalists and researchers may better discover, access, and use digital government information.

Citizen Archivists on Flickr

The National Archives' photostream on Flickr has been a popular place for our users to view, comment, and discuss photos in our collection since June 2009.  We recently hit 2 million views on our photos on Flickr.  As we've seen the activity on our photostream grow (especially after joining the Flickr Commons in February 2010), … Continue reading Citizen Archivists on Flickr

Tech Tuesday Tribute: Ken Thibodeau

Today’s post is a Tech Tribute to a NARA pioneer in the field of electronic records preservation.  Dr. Ken Thibodeau, after a distinguished career in the Federal Government, has retired from NARA as of 1.1.11. In 1975, Ken joined NARA’s Machine-Readable Archives Division, where he became part of a team that surveyed federal agencies on … Continue reading Tech Tuesday Tribute: Ken Thibodeau

National Archives Contributes to Improved Digital Records Preservation and Access System

Yesterday, The National Archives (TNA) of the United Kingdom and NARA issued simultaneious press releases about the development and release of a significantly expanded PRONOM registry, which supports digital preservation. The announcement highlights the successful partnership between TNA and NARA’s Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST) research partners, at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Army Research Lab.

Tech Tuesday: NARA @ NITRD

This week's Tech Tuesday post comes from NCAST blogger, Mark Conrad. Who wouldn’t want to sit at the table where important decisions are made?  Who would turn down an invitation from the White House? Who would turn down an opportunity to leverage billions of dollars of other agencies’ Research and Development (R&D) funds? Not NCAST, … Continue reading Tech Tuesday: NARA @ NITRD