Documerica was a photo project commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1970s to document life, people, and the environment across the United States.  These photos are a slice of life from New Ulm, Minnesota to South Beach, Florida and everywhere in between. In honor of Environmental Awareness month and Earth Day on April [...]

Since joining the Flickr Commons, several users have wowed us with their insightful comments and tags on our photos.  After highlighting the work of TVL1970 a few months ago, we’ve interviewed another avid Flickr contributor.  Penny Richards of Redondo Beach, CA, better known to Flickr users as Pennylrichardsca, has contributed tags, comments, and even shared [...]

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.

NARA’s Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST) now has its very own official Facebook page. You can find it at https://www.facebook.com/NARACAST. On our page you will find, among other things: Links to papers, reports and presentations by our Research Partners Links to sites where you can download or try online free software  developed by [...]

Last month, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) submitted their report to the President and to Congress, “Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology.“ In this report, the PCAST provides recommendations – with specific mention of NARA’s role in Digital Democracy – regarding IT research priorities, challenges, and opportunities for the Federal government in the years ahead.

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), [...]

If you’ve ever wished you could make it to a National Archives event, but couldn’t quite get there, we now have a solution for you!  The National Archives is launching a new Twitter feed that will feature live tweets from National Archives events, like our annual Genealogy Fair.  @USNatArchives will be the go to source [...]

We posted the first version of our social media strategy today on Archives.gov. Our overall approach is to engage our staff, the government community, and researchers and citizen archivists so we can be a more open agency while accomplish NARA’s mission more effectively. We express our core values and strategies for social media in three [...]

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! This week, we introduce [...]