Last
week, The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released its Open Government Plan for the next two years (2014-2016).
The new plan discusses
efforts to engage the public in more than 160 external projects on more than 15
social media platforms, as well as through public events, educational programs,
Research Services, and Presidential Libraries. The Flagship Initiative,
“Innovate to Make Access Happen,” describes digitization, description, and
online access efforts via a program to digitize analog records, expand
digitization partnerships, and an updated digitization strategy.
I found the graphic
on page 15 (reproduced above) very interesting. I have often wondered if I would be able to
fully work as a professional genealogist until I retire (at least 10 years
away) given all the digitization which has occurred creating easier access to
the records I would once retrieve for clients (see editor’s note). When I look at this graphic stating that less
than 2% of NARA ’s textual records have been
digitized (never mind indexed), I figure it will be a long time before NARA
It also reminds us that one must do "on-the-ground" (vs virtual research) research to fully explore records relevant to our ancestors!
Obviously, digitization efforts are only one element of the scope of the plan.
What do you think about this plan? Is it what you expected? Does it set a benchmark for other large repositories to follow? If not, why not?
Editor’s Note: As a professional genealogist, my colleagues
and I do more than records retrieval, and this post is only focusing on this
one component of what we do.
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