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National Archives and Records Administration NARA
National Archives logo
Seal
Agency overview
Formed	April 1, 1985
Preceding Agency	National Archives and Records Service (GSA)
Jurisdiction	Federal government of the United States
Headquarters	700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Employees	2,504 (2006) [1]
Agency Executives	Allen Weinstein, Archivist   Lewis J. Bellardo, Deputy Archivist
Website
www.archives.gov

The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records. It is also charged with increasing public access to those documents. NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential proclamations and executive orders, and federal regulations. The chief administrator of NARA, the Archivist of the United States, not only maintains the official documentation of the passage of amendments to the U.S. Constitution by state legislatures, but has the authority to declare when the constitutional threshold for passage has been reached, and therefore when an act has become an amendment.

The agency often works closely with scholars to facilitate their studies.

Contents 1 History 2 Facilities and exhibition 2.1 National Archives Building 2.2 National Archives at College Park 2.3 Affiliated & Regional facilities 2.4 Presidential Libraries 2.5 2006 Controversy over Reclassification 2.6 Alliance with Google 2.7 Other Partnerships 3 Archivist of the United States 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Originally, each branch and agency of the U.S. government was responsible for maintaining its own documents, which often resulted in the loss and destruction of records. Congress established the National Archives Establishment in 1934 to centralize federal record keeping, with the Archivist of the United States as its chief administrator. The National Archives was incorporated into the General Services Administration in 1949, but, in 1985, it was made an independent agency as NARA.

Most of the documents in the care of NARA are in the public domain, as works of the federal government are excluded from copyright protection. However, some documents that have come into the care of NARA from other sources may still be protected by copyright or donor agreements.^[1] NARA also stores classified documents and its Information Security Oversight Office monitors and sets policy for the U.S. government's security classification system.

NARA's holdings are classified into "record groups" reflecting the governmental department or agency from which they originated. The records including paper records, microfilmed records, still pictures, motion pictures, and electronic media.

Many of NARA's most requested records are frequently used for research in genealogy. This includes census records from 1790 to 1930 as well as ship passenger lists and naturalization records.

The National Archives Building, known informally as Archives I, located north of the National Mall on Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC, opened as its original headquarters in 1935. It holds the original copies of the three main formative documents of the United States and its government: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It also hosted the Magna Carta confirmed by Edward I in 1297 that was presented courtesy of the Perot Foundation, until September 2007.[2] These are displayed to the public in the main chamber of the National Archives, which is called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. Flash photography of the documents is prohibited, because the flashes can over time fade out the documents. There are no lines to see individual documents (although there is a line to reach the rotunda itself) at the National Archives, and visitors are allowed to walk from document to document as they wish.

The National Archives Building also exhibits other important American historical documents such as the Louisiana Purchase and the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as collections of photography and other historically and culturally significant American artifacts.

Due to space constraints, NARA opened a second facility, known informally as Archives II, in 1994 on the University of Maryland, College Park campus. The two institutions engage in multiple initiatives.^[2]

There are 10 Affiliated Archives locations across the US which hold, "by formal, written agreement with NARA" ^[3] , accessioned records. There are also fourteen (14) Regional Archives facilities across the country with available research rooms and two major facilities in St. Louis, Missouri which comprise the National Personnel Records Center. However, the National Archives Building in downtown Washington still contains such record collections as all existing Federal Census records, Ship Passenger Lists, military unit records from the American Revolution up to the Philippine-American War, records of the Confederate Government, the Freedmen's Bureau records and pension/land records.

NARA also maintains the Presidential Library system, a nationwide network of libraries for preserving and making available the documents of U.S. presidents since Herbert Hoover. The Presidential Libraries include:

• Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York
• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts
• Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas
• Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California
• Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Georgia
• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California
• George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas
• William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The National Archives maintains a Nixon Presidential Materials Project at its Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland. The "Nixon Project" is currently (2007) transferring all of their materials to the newly-opened Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda, California.

Main article: U.S. reclassification program

In March 2006, it was revealed by the Archivist of the United States in a public hearing that a memorandum of understanding between NARA and various government agencies existed to "reclassify", i.e withdraw from public access, certain documents in the name of national security, and to do so in a manner such that researchers would not be likely to discover the process.^[4]

On 24 February 2006, NARA released a press release announcing a joint venture with Google to digitize and offer NARA video online for free.

On 10 January 2007, the National Archives and Footnote launched a project to digitize historic documents and provide them online, read the press release.

On 30 July 2007, the National Archives announced it would make thousands of historical films available for purchase through Amazon.com subsidiary CreateSpace (formerly CustomFlix), which specializes in on-demand distribution of DVDs, CDs and books.^[5]

Further information: Archivist of the United States

The Archivist of the United States is the chief official overseeing the operation of the National Archives and Records Administration. The first Archivist, R.D.W. Connor, began serving in 1934, when the National Archive was established by Congress. The Archivists served as subordinate officials in other government agencies until the National Archives and Records Administration became an independent agency on April 1, 1985.

• 1973 National Archives Fire
• Digital preservation
• Library of Congress Digital Library project
• National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
• National Security Archive
• White House Millennium Council (time capsule)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

1. ^ archives.org - privacy and use
2. ^ archives.org - IT conference sponsors
3. ^ Affiliated Archives page of Archives.gov
4. ^ gwu.edu (2006-04-11)
5. ^ Thousands of National Archives Films to Be Made Available Through CustomFlix Labs. Retrieved on 2007-08-03.

• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Official Site
• The Library of Congress, Digital Collections and Programs
• The Library of Congress, Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program

• Outdoor sculpture at the National Archives building
• NARA on Footnote.com
• NARA on Google Video