Tuesday, September 11, 2007

NARA Digitization Plans

I know I'm late with this notice, but it is important. NARA has announced:

"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is seeking public comment on its draft Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016. This draft plan outlines our planned strategies to digitize and make more accessible the historic holdings from the National Archives of the United States.

You may link to the plan at http://www.archives.gov/comment/digitizing-plan.html

Comments due: November 9, 2007
Send comments to: Vision@nara.gov or by fax to 301-837-0319
Posted by: Jenny Heaps, NARA. "

At the comment web site, you can use the link http://www.archives.gov/comment/nara-digitizing-plan.pdf to see a PDF of the plan.

There are six sections to this 24 page document:

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
II. OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES
III. NARA MATERIALS TO BE "HARVESTED" AND MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE
IV. LIST OF FORMAL NARA PARTNERSHIPS TO DIGITIZE ARCHIVAL MATERIALS
V. NARA-LED DIGITIZING PROJECTS
Appendix A: NARA PRINCIPLES FOR PARTNERSHIPS TO DIGITIZE ARCHIVAL MATERIALS
Appendix B: RELEVANT NARA GUIDANCE

Section II lists some typical government documents directly related to genealogy research, including:

* the US Federal Population Census records 1790-1930
* Ship's passenger arrival lists and naturalization documents
* Freedman's Bureau materials
* Case files documenting more than ten million land entries
* Patent applications

The paper provides criteria for partnering and for NARA-led projects:

"For partnered projects:

• A viable partner is interested in digitizing material, according to our established principles (Appendix A), in a manner that will support preservation and improve public access to a substantial body of records, at a significant cost savings to the government.

For internal efforts:


• The digitizing of the materials in question meets a demonstrated need of one or more of our major customer groups. NARA serves a broad spectrum of American society, as well as researchers worldwide, including:
* genealogists and family historians
* academic, business, occupational, and historical researchers
* students and educators (K-16)
* publication and broadcast journalists
* Congress, the White House, the Courts, and other public officials
* Federal Government agencies and the individuals they serve
* state and local government personnel
* professional organizations and their members
* supporters' groups, foundations, and donors of historical materials
* veterans, current and former Federal employees, their families, and authorized representatives
* general public, including museum visitors

• The material is not currently readily available in other formats (such as microfilm).

• Digitizing the materials in question meets a demonstrated and high priority preservation need for the agency consistent with the proper performance of agency function.

• Funding is available or likely to be available and sustainable for the project."

Section III lists records by Archive or Library location.

Section V is not available yet.

NARA particularly wants comments relevant to Sections 2, 3, 5 and Appendix A. You really need to read the whole document to make any intelligent comment.

In summary, this looks like an ambitious plan to digitize the NARA holdings using partnerships and their own resources.

The sobering part of it is that the goal is to achieve digitization of 1% of the Archives holdings by 2012. But, but, but ... we want 100%, and we want it now!

1 comment:

Janice said...

Randy,

I'd be interested in knowing what recommendations you would have for NARA and this plan.

Janice