Open Government Plan | Appendix B: 2016–2018 NARA Open Government Commitments

Appendix B: 2016–2018 NARA Open Government Commitments

The following table includes NARA’s commitments from the 2016–2018 Open Government Plan of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

#	Commitment for 2016-2018	2016 Plan Section	Topic
1	In October 2017 we will open an exhibit on the Vietnam War and launch a related social media campaign to collect stories about people’s own personal artifacts and documents from the war.	Section 2.2	Public Engagement
2	To mark its 50th year of publication in 2018, we plan to redesign the Prologue website (Archives.gov/publications/prologue/) to better highlight the resources and National Archives holdings.	Section 2.2	Public Engagement
3	The Office of Research Services will explore innovative ways that they can participate in History Hub and incorporate it into reference processes, along with other avenues such as social media.	Section 2.3	Research Services
4	Research Services plans to carry out a comprehensive review of our services at all 15 locations to identify any ways that holdings can be made more accessible to researchers with disabilities.	Section 2.3	Research Services
5	Research Services plans to initiate staff reference colloquia that will provide a platform for promoting the sharing of records content knowledge among all NARA staff. We will also create a "Records Expert" program to preserve and develop advanced knowledge of key holdings among reference staff.	Section 2.3	Research Services
6	Research Services plans to begin posting a list of new holdings on Archives.gov each quarter and an annual list of all new holdings that were covered by the Privacy Act. We will also add accession-level series descriptions for a majority of our new holdings to the online catalog within one year of accessioning.	Section 2.3	Research Services
7	Research Services will update online content that explains the policies and procedures used for accessioning permanent records into the National Archives. We will launch online content describing how we process records and provide other "behind the scenes" information of interest to the public.	Section 2.3	Research Services
8	Research Services will collect and analyze data to forecast executive branch and federal court records that may come to NARA through 2030 and share our analysis with the public on Archives.gov. We will use this analysis to better understand the overall impact on our storage facilities and to inform planning for the future location of holdings in ways that will be most responsive to access needs.	Section 2.3	Research Services
9	Research Services will work with NARA's Office of Innovation to post records reviewed under the FOIA to the National Archives Catalog. We will process and post on Archives.gov documents from the JFK Assassination Records Collection materials in compliance with the JFK Assassination records Collection Act of 1992.	Section 2.3	Research Services
10	Research Services will provide training and development for all our staff that fosters customer service skills.	Section 2.3	Research Services
11	Presidential libraries will continue to expand cooperative digitization projects to increase online access to the records. The Clinton Library has started its second year of collaboration with the Office of Innovation on a pilot project to scan selected FOIA-responsive records. This project results in the scanning of textual records and the creation of necessary metadata so that these records can be made available through the National Archives Catalog. Pending funding, the agency is planning to expand this into similar projects at other Presidential libraries.	Section 2.4	Presidential Libraries
12	We are developing a clearly defined leadership model that identifies the leadership pipeline, the competencies necessary for success at each leadership level, and the expectations of performance at each level. All manager and supervisor initiatives, including learning and development opportunities, will align with this model.	Section 2.5	Employee Engagement
13	NARA will continue to further enhance to our Strategic Reporting Dashboard, which serves as a one-stop shop for progress on strategic goals and objectives identified in NARA's Strategic Plan.	Section 2.5	Employee Engagement
14	NARA will hire the first Innovation Hub Director. The Innovation Hub will explore developing pilots that leverage technology to significantly improve access to records as we scale to hundreds of millions of records online. NARA will continue to expand outreach and streamline processes in citizen scanning activities and will continue outreach efforts to work with high school and college students, as well as retirees on scanning and transcription projects.	Section 3, Initiative 1	Flagship Initiatives: Innovation Hub
15	NARA hopes to expand the History Hub pilot, incorporate the platform into NARA’s reference work flow, market it to a wider audience, and collaborate with similar agencies like the Library of Congress and Smithsonian, as well as state and local archives.	Section 3, Initiative 2	Flagship Initiatives: History Hub
16	NARA will work to implement the Social Media Strategy and provide updates via GitHub, including examples of specific actions that have been completed. We will also work on further development of supporting resources, including a Digital Plan worksheet for staff members to use while developing social media campaigns, and openly share what we learn from our data via the NARAtions blog.	Section 3, Initiative 3	Flagship Initiatives: Social Media Strategy
17	NARA will seek to expand our citizen archivist crowdsourcing effort and hire two community managers to help us grow engaged communities around our records. By Fiscal Year 2025, NARA will have 1 million enhancements, via citizen contributions, to records within the National Archives Catalog.	Section 3, Initiative 4	Flagship Initiatives: Citizen Archivist
18	NARA will continue to expand collaboration with Wikipedia and will seek to upload more digitized National Archives records to the Wikimedia Commons as well as continue assisting coordination of the GLAM-Wiki U.S. Consortium.	Section 3, Initiative 4	Flagship Initiatives: Citizen Archivist
19	NARA is working to develop a solution for next-generation finding aids that are user-generated and dynamically updated as information changes.	Section 3, Initiative 5	Flagship Initiatives: User-Generated Finding Aids
20	NARA will seek to incorporate user-centered practices into a redesign of Archives.gov and iteratively improve or build new digital initiatives based on user needs and data analysis.	Section 3, Initiative 6	Flagship Initiatives: Archives.gov
21	We will review web content to ensure that it is clear, concise, and easy to read on mobile devices. In the next version of Archives.gov, we will redesign the web pages supporting the Charters of Freedom, which are the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.	Section 3, Initiative 6	Flagship Initiatives: Archives.gov
22	Over the next two years, our development efforts of the National Archives Catalog will focus on improving the performance and scalability of the system, and utilizing open source platforms, so that it can effectively provide access to tens of millions and eventually hundreds of millions of records.	Section 3, Initiative 7	Flagship Initiatives: National Archives Catalog
23	We will work to leverage the catalog’s API to develop feeds of records and metrics to feature from the National Archives Catalog. We would like to design a capability within the catalog to allow for the public to vote or nominate records for digitization that are still in an analog format. NARA will also explore how it could provide greater transparency for the public in showing progress on digitization projects as they move through the process to online access in the National Archives Catalog.	Section 3, Initiative 7	Flagship Initiatives: National Archives Catalog
24	NARA will explore the possibility of aligning to external standards, including Resource Description and Access (RDA) and Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS).	Section 3, Initiative 8	Flagship Initiatives: External Standards
25	NARA plans to dedicate staff for continued coordination of drafting governance and administrative policies, establishing a governing SNAC Steering Committee, developing a formal training program, and a formal plan of cooperative management into the future.	Section 3, Initiative 9	Flagship Initiatives: Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC)
26	We will establish a short-term digitization project plan that allows individuals or institutions focused on digitizing a smaller volume of material to enter into an agreement with NARA. We will work towards the goal of 250,000 images contributed by the public and included in the National Archives by the end of the 2018 fiscal year.	Section 3, Initiative 10	Flagship Initiatives: Digitization
27	NARA will digitize 75,000 World War I still pictures and 164 titles (337 reels) for over 65 hours’ worth of content, as part of the development of a World War I centennial app.	Section 3, Initiative 10	Flagship Initiatives: Digitization
28	To ensure that the public has even greater access to the 1950 census records when they are released in 2022, NARA is digitizing 9,000 maps from the 1950 census and putting them online in the National Archives Catalog for volunteers to create metadata that will enhance access.	Section 3, Initiative 10	Flagship Initiatives: Digitization
29	NARA will explore the best way to implement advanced search and auto-categorization tools that will facilitate more efficient and robust search and review in response to all access requests. NARA will work toward a reduction of its backlog of pending FOIA requests.	Section 4	Freedom of Information Act
30	NARA plans to enhance the Amending America dataset over the next two years so that it can a rich resource for developers and the public.	Section 5	New and Ongoing Initiatives
31	In the next two years, NARA plans to add additional datasets as they become available, including open educational resources from DocsTeach and a dataset of with information on how individual agencies are managing their email.	Section 5	New and Ongoing Initiatives
32	In accordance with the DATA Act, NARA will publish spending data on the USASpending.gov website making it transparent to the public.	Section 5	New and Ongoing Initiatives
33	NARA will strengthen the agency’s use of open source tools and platforms over the next two years. Where NARA develops software tools in-house for Electronic Records Archives (ERA) 2.0, NARA will release those tools to the public for reuse under an open source license with a public domain dedication.	Section 5	New and Ongoing Initiatives
34	On the DocsTeach site, we will continue to label all other Open Educational Resources that we create as such, so that educators and students can use all of our resources in the most informed and responsible manner possible.	Section 5	New and Ongoing Initiatives
35	NARA will analyze new techniques for using the data and information collected from the Senior Agency Officer (SAO), Records Management Self Assessment (RMSA), and other oversight reports to assist agencies in making targeted improvements in their records management programs. In addition, NARA will improve reporting methodologies, and develop future SAO and RMSA questions to better evaluate agencies, particularly those identified in the moderate and high-risk categories for records management program failures.	Section 6.1	Records Management
36	The Office of the Chief Records Officer will be developing additional guidance related to the Presidential transition that will be occurring in the coming months, including records management handouts, checklists for onboarding and offboarding officials, and a video briefing from the Archivist of the United States stressing the importance of good records management practices. NARA is working with the Partnership for Public Service to ensure political appointees are aware of their record keeping responsibilities.	Section 6.1	Records Management
37	NARA will host an open meeting to solicit feedback from the public, agency customers, and other stakeholders on improvements to the website and the functionality of the Records Control Schedules repository. NARA will also continue to evaluate improvements to the records schedule repository and website.	Section 6.1	Records Management
38	NARA is working to modernize all parts of 36 CFR Chapter XII Subchapter B, Electronic Records Management regulations.	Section 6.1	Records Management
39	The NDC is developing a special systematic declassification review program for previously reviewed and exempted historical federal records that were accessioned to the National Archives and reviewed prior to the creation of the center in 2010. This pilot activity will be followed with a formalized process to make re-review of previously exempted records a priority for the NDC.	Section 6.2	National Declassification Center
40	NDC is working to facilitate onsite classified Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or other access collaboration particularly for older (and possibly overlooked) cases and requests. This activity should allow NDC to build on its 2015 success at reducing its classified FOIA backlog by 26 percent.	Section 6.2	National Declassification Center
41	By 2017, NDC will finalize its web and instructor-led curriculum in order to educate cleared declassification reviewers, records managers, and access and security professionals on the historical background to declassification requirements and the executive orders, proper document handling, general agency responsibilities, public access to federal records, and equity identification.	Section 6.2	National Declassification Center
42	The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) will work with other NARA offices to develop tools to teach students about FOIA, drawing upon real-world examples to foster democracy and explain how the public can use FOIA to learn more about the government's actions. OGIS will seek partnerships with outside educational and library organizations to create and promote standards-compatible curriculum resources that teachers can use in government, history, or civics classes. All developed resources will be posted online.	Section 6.5	Office of Government Information Services
43	OGIS will work with the Department of Justice to develop standards for agency FOIA web pages. As part of this effort, OGIS will assist in developing a template for key elements and encouraging all agencies to update their FOIA websites to be consistent, informative, and user-friendly.	Section 6.5	Office of Government Information Services
44	The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) will: continue to monitor and report on the state of classification and declassification in government through its annual Report to the President provide guidance and report on agency adherence to the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review (FCGR) as required by Executive Order continue its support of the ISCAP, including support for the 2017 declassification exemption review required by Executive Order continue to provide all staff support for the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) and its Declassification Technology Working Group and will assist the Security Classification Reform Committee when requested to fulfill the President’s transformation tasking with the issuance of 32 CFR 2002, plan to issue Controlled Unclassified Information program phased implementation schedule for the Executive branch.	Section 6.6	Information Security Oversight Office
45	The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) is working on redesign of FederalRegister.gov to improve search capability and to make it easier to distinguish official content that has been published in the Federal Register from material on public inspection, readers’ aids, and docket information.	Section 6.7	Office of the Federal Register
46	In partnership with the General Services Administration, OFR will work to capture agencies’ organizational directories (from the U.S. Government Manual) so that they can be created and released as machine-readable raw data in a consistent format across the U.S. federal government. The OFR is also working to update the processing and publication timelines for the U.S. Government Manual. These new efficiencies will allow for more frequent updating of this electronic publication and its underlying raw data.	Section 6.7	Office of the Federal Register
47	The OFR is working to digitize historic Federal Register issues. The OFR, in partnership with GPO, has started scanning the first set of Federal Register issues (1990–94) that will be converted to an official PDF format. This project, when complete, will make historical issues of the Federal Register available online, beginning with the first issues from 1936.	Section 6.7	Office of the Federal Register
48	The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) will implement a reimagined Access to Historical Records grant program in response to input from the archives and library communities.	Section 6.8	National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
49	Recent public input on NHPRC processes will result in the following enhancements: the introduction of a new application process in Fiscal Year 2017 that requires only a brief (3–5 pages) preliminary application; the reduction in cost share requirements for some grant programs; the streamlining of the application peer review process; the support of an annual meeting of grant project directors to network with NHPRC staff, NARA staff, and each other; and conducting regular surveys of our programs and processes (the first being conducted in April 2016).	Section 6.8	National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
50	NHPRC will continue to add more documents to Founders Online in Fiscal Year 2017 and Fiscal Year 2018 as additional materials become available from the editorial teams that continue their work on the transcriptions/notations not yet completed. The NHPRC will begin to collaborate with staff at the Library of Congress and other possible repositories to discover methods for linking digital scans of the original documents with Founders Online.	Section 6.8	National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)