Critical Juncture for NARA

Weinstein

I am honored to serve as the ninth Archivist of the United States and to assume leadership of this confident and vigorous independent agency. I look forward to working with OAH members on programs and initiatives to advance our shared goals and interests.

As I have said both to NARA staff and to our colleagues in the broader historical and archival community, this is a critical juncture for NARA. We live in a world of imperiled budgets, increasing dependence on electronic records and retrieval, unprecedented security and preservation concerns, and profoundly insufficient attention to civic and democratic education. To meet these and other challenges, we must work cooperatively and creatively.

In this context it is imperative to point out the leading educational role over the past decades played by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The Commission has not only made possible the definitive editions of the writings of the Founders and other great Americans but has decentralized the distribution of recognition and reward among state and local archivists, historians, social scientists, and civic activists. In my personal view, the recent proposal in the 2006 budget to defund and dismantle NHPRC is an unfortunate mistake. With respect, I believe that sober second thoughts will lead the Office of Management and Budget, the White House, and the bipartisan leadership of Congress to reconsider this action and restore this vital program.

I owe a debt to Lee Hamilton, Director of the Smithsonian’s Woodrow Wilson Center, for the following anecdote. He told a recent audience this story: Returning to the White House following a wartime visit to a Washington church service, President Abraham Lincoln told a companion that he found the sermon’s content excellent, the pastor’s delivery eloquent, and his hard work evident. “Then you thought it was a great sermon?” Lincoln’s response: “No.” Why? Because the pastor had left out a sermon’s most important ingredient: “He forgot to ask us to do something great.”

In this connection, I have asked the NARA family&emdash;with help from our friends in the broader historical and archival community&emdash;to commit to a total effort over the next half-decade to achieve at least two great goals simultaneously. The first involves fulfillment of NARA’s major electronic records initiatives, the Electronic Records Archive (ERA) and the Electronic Records Management (ERM) initiative and related ones including the continued evolution of strategic directions for the Federal Records Management initiative. In short, NARA should assume its natural leadership role in the fulfillment of electronic archival and records management projects at this crucial moment in the design of a government-wide system.

At the same time, we will work, in cooperation with the archival and historical communities, to create, expand, extend, and&emdash;where necessary&emdash;redesign educational and public programming throughout NARA’s orbit. This can be done while seeking a greater number and variety of public and educational programs&emdash;linked to school curricula where possible&emdash;involving educational resources in Washington, DC, those of every NARA regional archives and records center, and the extraordinary resources of the presidential library system. Developing such programs will be done in partnership, where possible, with state and local archivists and historians’ groups such as the OAH.

Here in Washington, the Librarian of Congress and I have already begun preliminary discussions exploring prospects for new cooperative educational efforts (some of them online) involving the extraordinary staff talents and documentary resources of both institutions.

A word about civility: In my previous work both in this country and abroad&emdash;whether in developing the National Endowment for Democracy, managing The Center for Democracy for eighteen years, or trying to help negotiate conflict resolution in Central America, the Philippines, or Southern Africa&emdash;I have tried to build consensus. Under my stewardship, NARA will remain absolutely nonpolitical and professional. All researchers will receive candid and courteous treatment at all times. Internal disagreements will be debated respectfully.

A word on access: As archivist, I will enforce the laws regarding access to public records at all times and instances to the very best of my ability. Where problems occur, it will be my intention to pursue solutions (through dialogue and persuasion if possible) at the earliest possible moment. I recognize that the Archivist of the United States works for the American people, indifferent to partisanship regardless of which political party dominates Congress or the executive branch. Therefore, the Archivist must always display scrupulous independence and a devotion to the laws and principles governing the responsibilities of his office. At all times, he serves as the designated custodian of America’s essential “records that defy the tooth of time.”

This spring we are celebrating&emdash;with appropriate programs on NARA’s past, present, and future&emdash;the twentieth anniversary of its status as an independent agency. Led by former Archivist Bob Warner, a dedicated band of NARA staff members; historians, archivists, genealogists, and NARA users; the media; and finally key players in Congress, all collaborated to help win NARA’s independence as an agency effective April 1, 1985.

Today NARA has a state-of-the-art building in College Park, Maryland, as well as new and improved facilities across the country. The majestic National Archives Building in downtown Washington, DC has been fully renovated, and the National Archives Experience&emdash;including the recently-opened “Public Vaults” exhibit&emdash;offers visitors a truly unique glimpse into the history of our nation.

The Electronic Records Archives is addressing seemingly intractable electronic records issues and has created for NARA a pioneering role in this far-from-resolved realm. None of this would have been possible without Bob Warner’s crusade for independence and all those who supported it.