Charting the Future: NARA’s Strategic Plan

Since October 1, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been operating under a new Strategic Plan that will guide it for the next decade through 2016. Written with the suggestions and advice of many parties, including hundreds of NARA employees and all of our major stakeholders, it sets NARA’s goals and explains the strategies for achieving them. With its focused objectives and clear priorities, it gives all of us at NARA and our customers, stakeholders, the White House, and Congress a yardstick by which to measure progress, success, or failure.

The new Strategic Plan offers some major changes to previous plans that have helped make NARA the efficient, customer-oriented federal agency it is today. Following are some major new directions for NARA in the next decade and where it hopes to be by the end of the next few years.

“As the nation’s record keeper,” NARA’s vision is “that all Americans will understand the vital role records play in a democracy, and their own personal stake in the National Archives. Our holdings and diverse programs will be available to more people than ever before through modern technology and dynamic partnerships. The stories of our nation and our people are told in the records and artifacts cared for in NARA facilities around the country. We want all Americans to be inspired to explore the records of their country.”

Accordingly, the new mission states, “The National Archives and Records Administration serves American democracy by safeguarding and preserving the records of our government, ensuring that the people can discover, use, and learn from this documentary heritage. We ensure continuing access to the essential documentation of the rights of American citizens and the actions of their government. We support democracy, promote civic education, and facilitate historical understanding of our national experience.”

Following the vision and the new mission, the Strategic Plan outlines six strategic goals which it hopes to achieve by the Archives’ seventy-fifth anniversary in 2009.

First, “As the nation’s record keeper, we will ensure the continuity and effective operations of federal programs by expanding our leadership and services in managing the government’s records.” We envision that NARA’s lead role in managing federal and presidential records will be widely acknowledged and implemented through constructive partnerships with other segments of the archival community. This includes our role in federal efforts to prepare for the preservation and recovery of vital records after natural and man-made disasters.

Second, “We will preserve and process records to ensure access to the public as soon as legally possible.” We envision a thorough confirmation of NARA’s reputation for preserving and making accessible to the public on the timeliest basis the greatest number of records possible. We will reduce, and eventually eliminate, the backlog of unprocessed records, both classified and unclassified. Also, we envision the current classification system deprived of possible abuse through development of a national declassification system and other reforms.

Third, “We will address the challenges of electronic records in government to ensure success in fulfilling NARA’s mission in the digital era.” We envision successful implementation of successive increments of NARA’s Electronic Records Archives, and we will continue to adapt our services to other agencies and the public as the shift to e-government continues, increasing the need to preserve vital electronic records of all types.

Fourth, “We will provide prompt, easy, and secure access to our holdings anywhere, anytime.” We envision a greatly expanded NARA presence online and significant expansion of our digitization efforts, all with a focused goal of assuring prompter and easier access to our holdings anywhere and everywhere. We already have a partnership with Google that has put some of our historical films on the Internet, and we recently partnered with a private firm to digitize the holdings of the Kennedy Library in Boston. Other partnerships will follow in the years ahead.

Fifth, “We will increase access to our records in ways that further civic literacy in America through our museum, public outreach, and education programs.” We envision the National Archives playing a major role in strengthening civic literacy in the general population through programs at our facilities nationwide. All of the outstanding scholarly and journalistic achievements our holdings make possible would be of little use to a citizenry that has lost touch with the country’s history, culture, and values.

Finally, “We will equip NARA to meet the changing needs of our customers.” By 2009, we envision even more greatly improved customer services and assistance to stakeholders and employees. We will begin to identify and implement changes needed to serve our customers better, and we will ensure that staff has the skills, competencies, training, and tools necessary to work in a changing cultural environment.

These are ambitious goals—made even more so by the fact that we expect the years through 2009 and beyond to be a fiscally austere period of tight domestic spending throughout the federal government. Nevertheless, we believe we are off to a good start toward pursuing, and eventually achieving, all of these goals. Now that I have visited all but one of NARA’s facilities nationwide—four in the Washington, D.C. area, eleven presidential libraries, fourteen regional archives, and seventeen records centers (a number of them several times), I can testify firsthand to the pride and commitment which NARA’s talented staff displays toward all of their responsibilities. Guided by the new Strategic Plan and committed daily to excellence in public service, my colleagues at NARA have taken current financial challenges in stride and renewed a commitment to continuous fulfillment of each and every agency goal.

To read the entire plan, visit: <http://www.archives.gov/about/plans-reports/strategic-plan/>.