Researchers are invited to read the notes of the Researcher Forum meeting held on January 27, 2012, which are posted to the DC-area Researcher Forum web page, http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/researcher-forum/.  The main feature of the meeting was a demonstration of the newly launched Citizen Archivist Dashboard by Pamela Wright (NARA Chief Digital Access Strategist) and Meredith Stewart (NARA Open Government).  Archivist David Ferriero set the stage for the presentation and joined in the discussion.

On Friday evening February 17 and Saturday February 18, the National Archives will be converting to a new copy card system and also replacing most of its self-service copiers. Contractors will be connecting and then testing equipment to make sure all is functioning properly on Tuesday February 21 (reminder: Monday February 20 is a Federal Holiday and all Federal government agencies are closed).

Self- service copy equipment will be available during the conversion. Some researchers may find the environment somewhat noisy and disruptive. Disruptions in copying services are not expected but are possible. If you are sensitive to such conditions, you may choose to visit our facilities another time.

We apologize for any inconvenience these activities may cause but once the work is completed, we think you will find the self-service copying equipment and the new copy card system an improvement.

David Ferriero’s recent post over on the AOTUS blog made mention of NARA’s Wikipedia ExtravaSCANza in the context of a discussion of the “Yes We Scan” initiative and a broader digitization strategy. I want to take the opportunity to recap the citizen archivist scanning the National Archives has been hosting for Wikipedians in recent months.

As the Wikipedian in Residence at the National Archives, my goal is to find new and interesting ways for Wikipedians to help improve public information about and access to NARA’s holdings. In the past few months, we have experimented with a variety of ways of doing this, but one of the most fun has been the hosting of meetups at the National Archives.

Perhaps you don’t imagine Wikipedians—members of the community of thousands of volunteers building the most comprehensive encyclopedia in history—as the type to be involved in real-world activism, but I would like to convince you otherwise. Wikipedians spend their free time contributing to an encyclopedia because they are driven by knowledge and volunteerism, which makes them perfect partners for the National Archives.

In August, I organized our first Wikipedia event at Archives II.  This “backstage pass,” attracted more than a dozen Wikipedians for a tour into the stacks, and a brief foray into the Still Pictures Research Room to scan or edit. We produced more than a hundred scans in only two or three hours, including a photo of “Nicole,” who has her own article now.

Scanning in August, 2011. Credit: Jarek Tuszynski, CC-BY-SA

For our next event at Archives II, David Ferriero headlined the backstage pass meetup held on October 8, which drew over 30 participants. This time, we again had volunteers briefly digitizing. With so many more participants, we spread out into the Still Pictures, Moving Images, and Textual Research Rooms, which added to the complexity and may have actually reduced our productivity.

David Ferriero speaks to Wikipedians (October, 2011). Credit: Carl Lindberg, CC-BY-SA

In November, we hosted the first known Wikipedia meetup to board Air Force One! That is, the first Wikipedia event at a NARA facility outside the DC area was hosted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. On November 19, about 10 Wikipedians enjoyed a tour of the grounds (and AF-1) and archives, and then held an “editathon” focused on the Reagan–Gorbachev summits.

Editathon at the Reagan Presidential Library (November, 2011). Credit: Stusviews, CC-BY-SA

Finally, I wanted to organize one last event before the end of my stint here. One type of feedback that I’d gotten consistently from participants was that once they went into the research rooms, they wished they had been able to spend more time to spend with the actual documents and scanning. January 4th through 7th we held the Wikipedia ExtravaSCANza.  The idea was simply to meet in the Still Pictures Research Room and sit around a table scanning, from Wednesday through Saturday.  Participants could come when they like. I picked a theme for each day: NASA, women’s history, Chile, and battleships.

I had the privilege of spending 18 hours in the research room over the 4 days, with a mostly different group each time (though kudos go to the participants who came two or even three days!)—including many longtime Wikipedians, a couple of University of Maryland library school students, and even a brand new Wikipedian who took the Chinatown bus down from New York City before ever having edited an article. We produced over 500 original scans and over 40 GB of data in high-resolution TIFFs.

Why all the scanning, and what does it have to do with Wikipedia? Sometimes, going through a box in the National Archives can be awe-inducing—every document looks iconic, but you know few people have ever had the ability to see it. I had this feeling many times over during our scanathons.  We’re doing our part to put a small dent in the enormous backlog of materials to be digitized. I hope more of you will get involved, too.

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!

What is your name and title?

Natalie Rocchio, Archives Specialist

Where is your job located?

The Center for Legislative Archives at Archives I in Washington, DC

What is your job in a nutshell?

I work on a wide variety of projects for the Center. For the past two years I’ve been working to get a major description project off the ground. Now that we’ve successfully finished the pilot phase, I’m focusing my efforts on getting the Center involved in more social media.  In September 2011, I started our office’s first blog on Tumblr, Congress in the Archives. I’m also the intern coordinator for my office.

What are you working on right now?  (Why is it cool/why does it matter?)

My number one project right now is social media, and, more specifically, Congress in the Archives. I really love working on the blog because I get to share so many really neat documents that a lot of people would never get to see. We are a fairly small unit within the National Archives (we only have 17 full-time staff members) for the 217,000 cubic feet (or roughly half a billion pages) of records that we hold. When people are researching at the National Archives, believe it or not, they don’t always think to look within the records of Congress for topics pertaining to their research. The blog is an amazing way to let researchers, teachers, students, and anyone else interested know that we might have something useful for them within our millions of pages of records.

How long have you been at NARA?  Have you worked at any other NARA location?

I officially started at NARA in 2008. I interned in my office in 2007 for about four months, so I’ve worked at the Center in one way or another for a total of about 4 years now.

What has changed since you started at NARA?

NARA has gone through a series of changes since I started in 2008, but the most noticeable for me has been our participation in social media. NARA went from little or no participation in 2008 to all of this! When I started here we couldn’t even get to Facebook or Twitter, and now look at us go! Having studied public history in grad school, finding new and exciting ways to engage the public is something that I find completely fascinating. I am so happy that NARA has embraced social media with such enthusiasm, and I’m really excited to be able to get the Center more involved in those efforts!

Do you have a favorite day at NARA, or a favorite discovery or accomplishment?

Bill of Rights Day is my absolute favorite day to come to work. Every year on December 15, the National Archives hosts a swearing in ceremony for new citizens of the United States. It’s so inspiring to watch new citizens take their oath in front of the original Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Of course every year is a tear-jerker for me, but this year’s ceremony was exceptional thanks to our guest speaker, pastry chef Roland Mesnier. It’s truly an amazing experience!

What are your passions or interests outside of work?

My two favorite things to do outside of work include reading and traveling. I just signed up for my first 5K race, but I can’t say I love to run just yet.

What is the last book you read, or the last book you loved?

Last books I loved, the Hunger Games series! One of our researchers insisted that I read the series, but I kept putting it off. What was I thinking?! Like every other person I know who has read the series, I was completely obsessed. It’s an absolute must-read series. I couldn’t put my Kindle down until I was finished with all three books!

As part of the recently launched Citizen Archivist Dashboard, you can now participate in the National Archives Transcription Pilot Project.  By contributing to transcriptions, you can make these historical documents more accessible to the public.

The transcription pilot features over 300 documents (about 1,000 pages) ranging from the late 18th century through the 20th century.  We’ve included letters to a civil war spy, various acts and laws, presidential records, suffrage petitions, indictments, and fugitive slave case files.

We’ve categorized each document as beginner, intermediate, or advanced based on the level of effort we believe will be needed to transcribe it.  In addition to searching for documents, you can browse by difficulty, year, and the status of transcription – “Not Yet Started,” “Partially Transcribed,” and “Completed.”

The Transcription Tips page provides suggestions on how to transcribe the document.  Also check out the Frequently Asked Questions page and the Policy page.

If you have additional questions or would like to suggest a document to be featured on the National Archives Transcription Pilot Project, please leave a comment below or email opengov@nara.gov.

With the growing hype surrounding the upcoming release of the 1940 Census, it has come to the attention of Archives staff that some misinformation may be starting to appear regarding what type of information you will find in the census and how it will be searchable.  One such tidbit that recently showed up online alleged that researchers will be able to search the census by Social Security number.  This is NOT true!  Our resident census expert, Archivist Connie Potter, explains in the following guest blog:

There are no Social Security numbers in the 1940 census. In the supplemental schedule, the 1940 census asked three questions about social security on lines 42-44; none of these questions asked for the social security number.

Column 42 asked “Does this person have a Federal Social Security number? Answer “yes” or “no” for every person 14 years of age or older.”  According to the Instructions to the Enumerator it did not make any difference whether 1) a person knew his or her Social Security number or 2) had lost his or her card. (Instructions, p. 77)

Column 43 asked: “Were deductions for Federal old-age insurance or railroad retirement made from this person’s wages or salary in 1939?”  Answer “yes” or “no” for every person 14 years of age or older.

Deductions for Federal old-age insurance were made from money wages or salaries (up to $3,000) received in all kinds of private (nongovernment) employment except agriculture, railroads, charitable and other nonprofit organizations, employment as sailors and in domestic service at the home of the employer. (Instructions, p.78)

Column 44 asked: “If so, were deductions made from (1) all, (2) one-half or more, and (3) part, but less than half, of wages, or salary?”

So, although the census asked questions about Social Security, the census never asked for a person’s Social Security number.  Read the published Instructions to the Enumerator in greater detail.

Find out more about the 1940 Census release on our website, and follow updates  using the 1940 Census Category here on NARAtions!

The National Archives Trust Fund is replacing current copiers and the copy card system in the research rooms of College Park, MD (Archives II) and Washington, DC (Archives I) in early 2012. The new copiers/scanners will have more features than the current copiers. The new machines produce paper copies and digitized scans that can download to thumb drives. Researchers can purchase thumb drives from the National Archives Trust Fund. The Trust Fund sells 1 GB thumb drives and will soon add 4 GB drives to their inventory.

The new copy card system will be installed concurrently with the copiers/scanners. Researchers with existing balances can expect any remaining balances on current copy cards to transfer to the new system.

The National Archives Trust Fund supports the programs of the National Archives through a variety of activities. Find information about the Trust Fund at www.archives.gov/publications/general-info-leaflets/29-trust-fund.pdf.

Recently, the National Archives introduced the Citizen Archivist Dashboard where citizen archivists can crowd-source the records of the National Archives.  The Dashboard contains several “tagging missions” that feature records and images from our holdings including over 2800 images of  World War II posters, 483 photographs taken by photographer Lewis Hine, and the petition against the annexation of Hawaii which contains 21, 269 names.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to start one of our tagging missions!

January is traditionally a time of new beginnings. With the turning of the calendar page to a new year comes an opportunity to start fresh with a clean slate.  In Digitization Services (IDS), we have some ideas for where to focus our renewed energy – moving our quality efforts from a project into a program.

We wrapped up our Quality Assurance Quality Control (QA/QC) project in December 2011 and are generally pleased with what we accomplished. We achieved much – but not all -we set out to do. Below is an outline of the project deliverables and their current status:

• COMPLETE: Establish quality baselines utilizing specific quality control thresholds for identified priority products outlined in the Products and Services (P&S) web portal.
• UNDERWAY: Document the quality thresholds for individual products within the P&S structure.
• UNDERWAY: Establish appropriate technical metadata (embedded and/or external) for each product including process metadata and audit trails to record and track quality events.
• COMPLETE: Author and implement standard operating procedures (SOPs) for relevant tasks and equipment.
• COMPLETE for priority products: Develop a system to optimize equipment and systems including calibration, monitoring and preventative maintenance.
• COMPLETE for priority products: Map equipment capabilities to specific products listed in P&S.
• COMPLETE: Establish a QA/QC glossary
• NOT COMPLETE: Identify system infrastructure requirements needed to support the QA/QC effort (metrics gathering, metrics reporting, system alerts, audit trail, business records).
• UNDERWAY: Identify areas of ongoing focus in quality assurance and quality control work and build support for these beyond the life of the project.

With the conclusion of the QA/QC project comes the sun-setting of the External Reference Committee (ERC) group. I’ve said often that the ERC is, for me, one of the most successful components of this project. After our group-wide phone discussion in early summer, we realized that smaller group discussion might work better for following up on the discussion topics. We approached targeted ERC members with a set of common questions to seek individual advice about general workflows as well as technical components. These discussions proved invaluable for us. We learned, for example, about simultaneous, monitored, and semi-monitored capture workflows; we learned about different perspectives on monitoring equipment performance and evaluating equipment specifications (some places monitor on a regular basis while others trust the tool to do what the manufacturer says it can do); we learned about software and hardware tools and even exchanged in-house developed tools (such as those developed by IDS and now available on GitHub.

So are we finished? Yes and no. Our QA/QC project is complete and in the coming months, we’ll start to include our detailed QC protocols for specific products and other related deliverables into our public Products and Services website. But we are not finished. The challenge for IDS at this point is move this work from a structured project into a sustainable program. We are still working out the details on how exactly to accomplish this – and how to work on the incomplete tasks. In my June 30, 2011 blog post, I said “quality isn’t something that is achieved once and it’s done forever. It’s a continual and communal process and your participation is an important component to help us reach our goals.” There is still a long road ahead but we’re in it for the long haul. We’ll keep you posted as we make progress towards our goal of making quality the new normal.

Throughout this holiday season, we encourage you to participate in the exciting activities featured on the Citizen Archivist Dashboard, which is available starting today. Check it out and try tagging, transcription, editing articles, uploading digital scans, and participating in contests all related to the records of the National Archives.

We hope that you’ll share any suggestions you may have for new activities in the comments below or email opengov@nara.gov.  If you would like to see a different tagging mission or you have a favorite document you’d like to transcribe, let us know!