News from the Archivist of the United States

Throughout my term as Archivist, I have said that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) needs to change and that I was determined to make those changes. In August we published a Strategic Plan, Ready Access to Essential Evidence, which outlines the changes we have planned for the years ahead. My first priorities include building partnerships to promote front-end records management, clarifying responsibilities for stewardship, and reorganizing our work around the records life cycle. Recently, I announced a reorganization, which I intend to be effective in January 1997, that will help NARA improve its services to federal agencies and the public and meet these plan objectives.

Foremost, I am determined to see that the Strategic Plan is implemented and that agency activities are coordinated within the framework of the Plan to further our mission. That means Deputy Archivist Lew Bellardo and I will stay personally involved in the Plan's implementation, just as we did in its development. I am consolidating responsibility for strategic planning and agency-wide policy coordination in the Office of the Archivist. In addition, to facilitate truly speaking with one voice, internal and external directives and agency-wide communications will be formally assigned to my office.

Lew also will lead our effort to build active partnerships with the Office of Management and Budget, federal agencies, Congress and the courts. During the next several months we will begin a dialogue with our federal agency partners on how we can work together to better address government records management issues and fulfill our role as a public trust.

To enhance our ability to provide improved services, I am reorganizing our program offices around the records life cycle. The office of Records Administration, the Office of Federal Records Centers, the Office of the National Archives, the Office of Special ad Regional Archives and the Office of Public Programs will be consolidated into two life cycle offices responsible for federal headquarters and field records, respectively. The Office of Presidential Libraries and the Office of the Federal Register will continue as currently configured.

Instead of five offices managing pieces of the federal records life cycle, NARA will have two offices that oversee all federal records from their creation to destruction or continuing use as archives. I expect this to improve communication and coordination among related records functions and reunite parts of the life cycle that have been split in the past. Reducing five offices to two also allows NARA to reallocate a number of central office administrative positions to work more directly in providing program services to meet our growing challenges at the front of the records life cycle.

Perhaps most exciting are the possibilities this structure offers for real change in our field of operations. Each region will be administered by one director as a complete life cycle unit. Their functional responsibilities will include records management and appraisal; records center services; reference, description, and preservation; and public outreach. The director also will have maximum flexibility to shift staff members and organize their work to meet the region's needs for records and archival services. Additionally, these directors will be working together to create cost-effective facility consolidation plans that will insure continued and improved customer service in their regions. I expect many of the most creative solutions to some of our biggest challenges to come from these life cycle "laboratories."

The remaining changes affect my staff units. In the Strategic Plan we identified our staff and our information infrastructure as two key resources that must be supported for NARA to achieve its mission. My new Office of Information and Staff Resources, which replaces Policy and IRM Services, will have responsibility for personnel and training, information management and technology, and process redesign and transformation. This includes our initial priorities to redesign our performance appraisal processes and internal training programs and the institution of rigorous product planning and project management processes.

The Office of Administrative Services will take on increased responsibility for nationwide facility planning and acquisition, including coordination of our future facility consolidations. Lastly, to fulfill one of the plan's objectives, I am creating a small Development Staff to coordinate our efforts to pursue private-sector funding and partnerships for special projects and to be the liaison with the NARA foundation.

I am excited about the possibilities this structure presents for organizing our work around the records life-cycle, promoting front-end records management, improving communication and customer service, and developing our information and staff resources. I will continue to keep you informed about the progress we are making on all of our Strategic Plan initiatives.