[NINCH Logo]

ninch-announce: NARA Strategic Plan: why we should listen

ninch-announce: NARA Strategic Plan: why we should listen

NARA Strategic Plan: why we should listen

David Green (david@ninch.org)
Tue, 21 Oct 1997 11:09:01 -0400 

Message-Id: <v02130509b07269428a9f@[192.100.21.23]>
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 11:09:01 -0400
To: ninch-announce@cni.org
From: david@ninch.org (David Green)
Subject: NARA Strategic Plan: why we should listen

NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
October 21, 1997


                     READY ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL EVIDENCE:
     THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES & RECORDS ADMINISTRATION,
                             1997-2007
           <http://www.nara.gov/nara/vision/naraplan.html>


"Impressive developments in technology for creating records have not been
matched by technological developments for managing them"
<http://www.nara.gov/nara/vision/naraplan.html#1.3>.  This statement in the
recently released NARA Strategic Plan speaks to the concerns of many of us
on this list and justifies our consideration of the applicability of its
concerns to our broader community.

In particular, the aspects of the plan that should interest many here
involve NARA's comments on its approach to electronic records and to
finding aids.  As the Update below highlights:

a) Government agencies do not follow standardized procedures for archiving
electronic records. NARA plans to develop and implement advisory guidelines
with the goal that by the year 2007 50% of agencies will "incorporate the
NARA record keeping requirements in the design, development, and
implementation of their automated systems."

b) Only 20% of materials in the National Archives have sufficient finding
aids. Here the performance goal is to have "85% of all NARA records
holdings described at the series or collection level and have the finding
aids available Online by the year 2002, with the goal of 100% by 2007."



David Green

==================================================================

From:

NCC Washington Update, vol. 3, #43, October 21, 1997
   by Page Putnam Miller, Director of the National Coordinating
      Committee for the Promotion of History <pagem@capaccess.org>

1.  National Archives Releases Strategic Plan
         With Performance Targets
...........

1.  National Archives Releases Strategic Plan With Performance Targets--
On October 3, U.S. Archivist John Carlin submitted the National Archives'
strategic plan to the President, the Congress, and the American public.
"Ready Access to Essential Evidence : The Strategic Plan of the National
Archives and Records Administration 1997-2007" is a 48 page booklet that
includes the specifics lacking in earlier drafts.  The performance
indicators for the section titled "How will we know we have succeeded?"
flow from the National Archives' four mission goals -- identifying and
appraising federal records, making records easily accessible, preserving
records, and making the changes at the National Archives necessary to
realize the vision.  Under each goal there are performance targets that
establish benchmark percentages and dates.

One strength of the plan is that it realistically evaluates the current
situation.  The discussion of archiving electronic records systems, for
example, recognizes the Archives' current deficiencies.  The report states
that "the absence of standards and guidelines for electronic record
keeping threatens the Government's ability to ensure access to records
generated and maintained in electronic formats."  The targeted goal is to
develop the guidance that agencies need in archiving electronic records,
conduct pilot projects on the feasibility of the guidance, and by 2007
have 50% of all federal agencies incorporate the NARA record keeping
requirements in the design, development, and implementation of their
automated systems.  Some view this goal as disappointing, focusing on the
50% of agencies that will not have incorporated the Archives' guidance and
on the electronic records that may be lost due to the slow implementation.
Yet others note the considerable difficulty the Archives has had in
dealing with electronic records during the past decade and wonder if this
goal isn't overly ambitious.

The plan recognizes that one of the key aspects of making records more
accessible is having good finding aids.  Currently about 20% of the
records at the National Archives do not have adequate finding aids.  This
means that users have to rely on staff who are already overburdened to
assist them in locating records.  The strategic plan has set as a goal
having 85% of all NARA records holdings described at the series or
collection level and the finding aids available OnLine by the year 2002,
with the goal of 100% by 2007.  It is doubtful, however, that this
ambitious task that requires intensive work can be accomplished without
the infusion of a considerable amount of additional resources and staff.

Many recognize the need today for catchy slogans; however, the plan's
title "Ready Access to Essential Evidence" is troubling for some
historians.  Access should be easy for a genealogist seeking a particular
piece of information about a great-great uncle or for a veteran seeking
information from a personnel file.  However, scholars who wish to
understand the activities and policies of the federal government will
continue to have to visit research rooms and to confront the immensity of
the National Archives' holdings -- equivalent to a 230 mile long shelf of
records.  Serious archival research is by its very nature labor intensive
and anything but easy.  But it is this research that delivers the
treasures of the Archives to the American public in the form of
documentary films and prize winning books.  The term "essential evidence"
is also discomforting.  Much of the richness of the current holdings are
in records that have informational value and do not provide "essential
evidence."  Many scholars fear that beneath the phrase "essential
evidence" will be a tendency to use a more limiting approach to the task
of deciding which records will be retained and which will be destroyed.

Despite whatever short comings there may be in the Archives' new strategic
plan, the central thrust of the plan -- focusing on the life cycle of
records -- sets the National Archives in an important new direction.  Many
observers of the National Archives see much that is positive in the plan's
emphasis on working more closely with agencies to promote what the plan
refers to as "front-end records management."  This approach involves
dealing with records at the time they are created, which is particularly
crucial in dealing with electronic records.  How the ambitious goals set
forward in the plan can be met within the current budget and staff remains
problematic.  Thus supporters of the National Archives must stand ready
when the next appropriations bill comes forward to inform Congress of the
Archives' backlogs and the need for additional resources to enable this
agency to meet its legally mandated mission of identifying, preserving,
describing, and making available federal records that document the
activities and policies of the federal government.


 * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** *  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NCC invites you to redistribute the NCC Washington Updates.
A complete backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net.
See World Wide Web: http://h-net.msu.edu/~ncc/
* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

[CNI Home Page]