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Prepared Remarks of Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero for the annual Richard G. Hewlett Lecture of the Society for History in the Federal Government. "The View from Washington: The First 355 Days."

October 27, 2010

Thanks for the invitation to speak with you this evening.听

I am particularly honored to be delivering the Richard Greening Hewlett Lecture.听 Reading about Dr. Hewlett鈥檚 accomplishments brought me back to my roots at MIT鈥攂oth professional.听 His work on the Atomic Energy Commission depended heavily on work done at MIT in the years leading up to World War II.听

And as a young shelver in the MIT Science Library I was responsible for reshelving those reports every morning!

Soon after Dr. Hewlett enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was sent to Bowdoin to study science and then he was sent to Harvard to study in the electronics school.听 It was really the MIT Radar School where my late father-in-law was an instructor.听 So, as you can see, the named lecture has special meaning for me.听听听听听

The Archives and the Society have had a long and fruitful relationship and we consider you a valuable partner in helping us preserve the historic record of our nation鈥檚 and our people鈥檚 democratic experience.

Tonight is an opportunity for me to reflect on my first 355 days as Archivist of the United States and to share with you a little history and a little crystal ball gazing鈥攁 look back and a look forward.听 It has been a challenging and exciting year for me鈥攈eading an agency that is unique in government and vitally important to our democracy.

NARA鈥檚 role in government is clear and simple: We are the nation鈥檚 record keeper. We safeguard and preserve the records of our Federal Government and make them easily accessible so our citizens can use them and learn from them.

The records that end up in our permanent holdings represent only about 2 to 3 percent of all those created by federal departments and agencies.

But they are the most important records.

Once upon a time鈥攁nd not so long ago鈥攖hese records were all on paper, and we provided access to them wherever they were located among the 威尼斯人娱乐场 facilities around the country:

• 14 Regional Archives
• 17 Federal Records Centers
• 13 Presidential Libraries
• The National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, and
• Our Facilities in the Washington area.

In all these locations, we have accessioned as permanent records more than 10 billion pages of textual documents; 7.2 million maps, charts, and architectural drawings; more than 14 million still photographs; billions of machine-readable data sets; and more than 365,000 reels of film and 110,000 videotapes.

And, in the fastest growing category, we have around 100 terabytes of electronic records鈥�81 of these terabytes are from the George W. Bush White House alone.

Over the years, millions of people have come to us for information to construct their family history, secure military records, do research for articles, books, and dissertations, or prepare legal briefs.

Now, for so many of these things, they can visit us on the Internet.

Let me share a couple of stories with you about ordinary, yet extraordinary, moments in the Archives:

A man walked into a regional center with a letter dated May 1946, recommending his dad for the Bronze Star.听 The medal had never been awarded, and the son wondered whether there was an oversight or had the recommendation not been approved.听 Staff at the St. Louis Military Personnel Records Center made this case a priority and found additional documentation.听 Through our efforts, it was determined that he was entitled to the Bronze Star.听 Just two days after his 100th birthday, and 63 years after the recommendation was written, in a ceremony arranged by the 威尼斯人娱乐场 regional office, local Army officials presented Walter Pierce with the Bronze star.

In Alaska, the granddaughter of an 88-year-old Anchorage resident visited to obtain a certified copy of his 1958 divorce decree.听 Prior to Alaska statehood in 1959, the U.S. District Court, handled divorce cases, so the file was in Federal hands.听 We quickly found the final decree and 鈥渕ade her day.鈥澨� Her grandfather in a nursing home was waiting for proof of his divorce鈥攕o he could remarry!

* * *

The past 355 days have been a very busy and very enlightening time for me. Apart from my four years in the Navy, it鈥檚 the first time I鈥檝e worked for the Federal Government. Although I came here from a large institution, the New York Public Libraries, the experience has proved for me to be different听 . . . and disturbing.

When I arrived, I found an agency that lagged in adapting to new technologies.

I found an agency that needs to be more nimble.听

I found an agency that needs to take risks in trying new approaches to recordkeeping.

I found an agency that needs to make smarter and more creative use of technology.

I found an agency in need of a culture change to be able to exist and thrive in the digital age.

But I also found a means to help me begin to bring about that culture change:听 President Obama鈥檚 Open Government Initiative.

The President began his administration with an Open Government Initiative to create a culture of transparency, participation, and collaboration in and among Federal agencies. The goal: Transform the relationship between government and the people.

The principles of open government鈥攁s outlined by the President鈥攁re, to a great extent, already embedded in the mission statement and strategic goals of the 威尼斯人娱乐场 and Records Administration.

After all, the essence of the work we do every day is the belief that citizens have the right to see, examine, and learn from the records that document the actions of their government.听 But in this digital age, we have the opportunity to do more.听听听

In response to the President鈥檚 request of all agencies and departments, we developed our own Open Government Plan.听 And, in keeping with his Open Government Initiative, we are working to encourage more participation and collaboration in our work, both with the public and our staff, and to do it in a transparent way.

We are leveraging the power of the Internet to make our records more easily available, as well as to improve our engagement with employees and the public.听 This includes:

• Redesigning our main web site to maximize public participation as well as develop streamlined search capabilities.
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• Going beyond our main web site to reach public users where they are by using social media tools such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter.
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• Seeking employee engagement through blogs, webinars and other social media tools to allow greater communication among staff and management located in 18 states and the District of Columbia.
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• Publishing high value data sets to allow the public to take government information and create new interfaces or innovative online experiences.听

Some other things going on to advance 鈥渙pen government鈥� involve three important 鈥渙ffices鈥� within NARA that have government-wide responsibilities. They are the National Declassification Center, the Office of Government Information Services, and the Information Security Oversight Office.

The mere existence within NARA of these 鈥渙ffices鈥� reflects the favorable view of the Archives held by Congress and the President.

First, the National Declassification Center.

We are reviewing, on an expedited basis, a backlog of about 400 million pages of records that have been classified for years. 听We work with the agencies that created the records as well as those other agencies whose classified information is included in them. The goal is to declassify as many of them as possible.

Records with high public interest and those with a high likelihood of being declassified are getting priority. These records include some pertaining to military operations and World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War鈥攁ll of which are of great interest to historians. The deadline to finish these reviews is December 31, 2013.听 And I am happy to report that we have passed the 800,000 page mark already.

We accession 15 million additional pages of classified information each year, creating the potential of a future backlog. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important for us to eliminate the current backlog and find a way to avoid future backlogs.

The Center oversees all this work with the motto: 鈥渞eleasing all we can, protecting what we must.鈥�

One of the things that has made records processing more difficult and time consuming is the fact that more than 2,000 different declassification guidelines exist throughout the Government. The Center is overseeing the development of common guidelines for all departments and agencies.

A year ago we established the Office of Government Information Services, which monitors activity government-wide under the Freedom of Information Act. 听Its mission:听 improving the FOIA process and resolving disputes between Federal agencies and FOIA requesters.

The FOIA act grants the legal right for any person to obtain access to information in the departments and agencies of the executive branch of government. The only limitations are the nine categories that the law exempts, such as classified records pertaining to national security.

Described by Congress as the FOIA Ombudsman, this office is specifically charged with reviewing policies, procedures, and compliance of administrative agencies, and recommending to Congress and the President any changes needed to improve the administration of the Freedom of Information Act.

Although very few denials of records under this act are appealed, such actions involve significant administrative and legal costs. We work with the Department of Justice鈥攁s well as with other agencies, requesters, and freedom-of-information advocates鈥攖o find ways to make the act work more effectively and efficiently.

In the last year, FOIA shined a light on oil drilling, falsified military valor claims, and Government credit card misuses, among many other examples.听

Deepwater Horizon is a good example of the power of FOIA:听 After the April 2010 BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity analyzed data obtained under FOIA and reported in May that 97 percent of all 鈥渆gregiouis willful鈥� violations cited by Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors in the previous three years were found at two BP-owned refineries.听

The Associated Press relied on FOIA to report in May that the Minerals Management Service (recently renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement) violated its own policy by not conducting monthly inspections on BP鈥檚 Deepwater Horizon rig.听 Two weeks later, The New York Times reported that Federal drilling records and well reports obtained from the bureau under FOIA helped reveal a history of problems with a blowout preventer and casing long before the Deepwater Horizon explosion.听听

Our Information Security Oversight Office oversees the classification programs of government and industry鈥攅nsuring public access where appropriate, but safeguarding national security information. This office also reviews requests for original classification authority from agencies and does on-site inspections to monitor compliance with security requirements.

Not all sensitive information is classified, however, and this office is leading the effort to reform the system for managing 鈥渟ensitive but unclassified鈥� or 鈥渃ontrolled unclassified information.鈥�

* * *

The backbone of Open Government is good records management. Without it, it is impossible for the public to understand their rights and the actions of their Government.听 Without good records management, it is impossible for us to learn from the past and plan for the future.听

However, across government today, there is cause for concern.

The results of self-assessment data this year from Federal agencies suggests that four out of five reporting agencies have moderate to high levels of risk associated with their records management programs. And this is particularly the case with electronic records.

Electronic records create new problems and challenges.听 And NARA is working to strengthen its leadership role in this area by finding and developing cost-effective IT solutions for today and the future.

Although there is no magic answer to the challenge of preserving electronic records, we are working this issue in a variety of ways.

We are building the Electronic Records Archives, or ERA, to hold the Federal Government鈥檚 electronic records.

Eventually, ERA will hold all the most important records. This includes both those that are born-digital or traditional records that have been digitized.

The idea is to make these records accessible far into the future鈥攆ree from dependence on any specific hardware or software used to create them.

These records then will be accessible to anyone at anytime from anywhere in the world.

When ERA is fully operational in 2012, it will be mandatory for all federal agencies to move their permanent records to the ERA.

At the same time, we鈥檙e embracing our role in electronic records, we鈥檒l be using 21st century means to reach more customers鈥攕ocial media.

Let me make one thing clear. The 威尼斯人娱乐场 plans to be a leader in government in the use of social media, and we have embarked on it in a big way.听

Web 2.0 is altering how people interact with the 威尼斯人娱乐场. Last year, we launched our YouTube page and made our first Tweet. Within a month, one of our videos had gone viral and received more than 15,000 views in a single day. Within the nine months, our films were viewed more than 100,000 times. Less than four months later that number doubled.

Our YouTube channel is part of a suite of social media projects launched at the 威尼斯人娱乐场 spanning the blogosphere, wikis, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook. We maintain seven blogs to inform customers, whether it鈥檚 the latest developments in genealogical research, historical anecdotes, information from the regional archives, or the latest from the Archivist himself.

A year ago we had two Facebook pages. Now we have more than 20. Our primary Facebook page has more than 8,000 fans from 17 countries, and adds almost a hundred fans a week. Since 2009 when we sent our first tweet, we鈥檙e now heavily involved in the Twittersphere with more than 10,000 followers across seven Twitter feeds.

These projects are only the beginning, however, especially as we focus on mobile technologies. Our flagship publication, Prologue magazine, now has a growing number of subscribers on the iPad, iPhone, and Droid. We are overhauling our website to be mobile-friendly, and we are geo-tagging our photos when possible.

Generation Y鈥攚ho just this year blew past the Baby Boomers in terms of overall population share鈥攗ses this stuff the way our generation relied on the daily mail and the newspaper.听 The whole commerce of information has changed permanently.听

And speaking of Facebook, a new movie, 鈥淭he Social Network,鈥� provides a good look at how quickly Facebook was developed and grown and how quickly the social media landscape can change.

Every day, the 威尼斯人娱乐场 is more wired for a wireless world.

Our buildings in both College Park and downtown Washington are being wired for Wi-Fi this fall.

And just one more Web 2.0 application to brag about:听 Federal Register 2.0.听 In late July, on the 75th birthday of the Federal Register, we launched a Web 2.0 version.听

The Federal Register is often called the Government鈥檚 daily newspaper since it provides a public record of actions and proposed actions of all the departments and agencies in the Executive Branch.听

The new, user-friendly version of the print edition functions much like a newspaper web page.听 It makes it easier for all of our citizens to find what they need, comment on proposed rules, and share materials relevant to their interests.听 Like a newspaper it has individual sections for Money, Environment, World, Science and Technology, Business and Industry, and Health and Public Welfare.听

It also has a constantly updated Calendar of Events that lists public meetings about proposed government actions.听 And it tracks the openings and closing of comment periods on proposed rules and regulations and the effective dates of new rules.听 Each document that asks for public comments features a highly visible button for the public to do so.听 And it is all written in language which can be understood by the general public!听听听

* * *

Even with all these changes, we needed to make some structural changes to the agency I found when I took office 355 days ago鈥攕tructural changes that would make a culture change easier.

As a result, we are embarking on a plan to transform ourselves into an agency focused on the new and ever-growing needs of both our customers and our staff in a quickly-changing digital era.

Last summer, I appointed a small task force to come up with a plan to transform the agency. The draft was shared with the staff, and hundreds of comments were received. Last week, I approved the final plan.

The plan outlines a major reorganization of NARA鈥攐ne that reduces redundancies, streamlines decision-making, and lays the foundation for a very different way of doing business. 听It will make it easier for our staff to provide better services to our customers.

The plan reflected what I felt was a need to make sure our organizational structure reflected our goal of making six key transformations over the next five years.

Those transformations involve:

• Working as one NARA, not just as component parts.
• Embracing the primacy of electronic information in all facets of our work and position NARA to lead accordingly.
• Fostering a culture of leadership, not just as a position but as the way we all conduct our work.
• Transforming NARA into a great place to work through trust and empowerment of all of our people, the agency鈥檚 most vital resource.
• Creating structures and processes to allow our staff to more effectively meet the needs of our customers.
• Opening our organizational boundaries to learn from others.

We now have a Transformation Launch Team at work preparing an implementation plan for the reorganization. But a reorganized agency will not in itself bring about change.

That change will come from our staff鈥攖he best and the brightest there are, equipped with the proper tools for success in an environment where success is possible.

Thank you.