Strategic Plan

draft FY 2022-2026 Strategic Plan

NARA Strategic Goals and Objectives

NARA’s strategic goals identify the four key areas in which NARA must excel in order to efficiently and effectively deliver its mission in a modern environment.

Make Access Happen

Make Access Happen affirms that “public access” is NARA’s core mission and is a higher calling that gives purpose and meaning to all our work. We are reaching beyond the traditional role of making records available for others to discover. We are instead making access happen by delivering increasing volumes of records to the American public online, using flexible tools and accessible resources that promote public participation. We are engaging with underserved communities to find opportunities to expand public participation and promote equity through our mission. In order to achieve success in this goal, NARA must digitize millions of records we hold in analog formats, keep pace with the continuous stream of new records we receive each year, and develop new ways to help citizens find our records through the online National Archives Catalog.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will process 85 percent of archival holdings and increase enhanced descriptions to promote equity in discovery and public access to archival records related to underrepresented communities.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will digitize 500 million pages of records and make them available online to the public through the National Archives Catalog.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will collaborate with traditionally underserved communities to correct outdated and anachronistic descriptions in the Catalog and prioritize citizen engagement projects that increase access to records that are important to underserved communities.

  • By FY 2026, 95 percent of customer requests will be ready within the promised time.

Connect with Customers

Connect with Customers challenges us to continuously improve the customer experience, cultivate public participation, and generate new understanding of the importance of records in a democracy. We strive to represent the stories of all Americans in our work. We continuously engage with and learn from our customers: individuals, communities, organizations, and other Federal agencies. We build long-term and strategic customer relationships to ensure our services are valued by our customers and we work together to improve our efficiency, engagement, and equity.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will demonstrate enhanced organizational understanding of internal and external customer wants, needs, and expectations to support the design and delivery of world-class services.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will modernize enterprise communication and service channels to amplify the voice of the customer and continuously improve the customer experience.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will deliver a national program of museums, education, and public programming that demonstrates leadership in equity, accessibility, and diversity.

Maximize NARA’s Value to the Nation

Maximize NARA’s Value to the Nation recognizes that public access to government information creates measurable economic value, which adds to the enduring cultural and historical value of our records. We are modernizing records management practices across the Federal government, advancing digital preservation of archival electronic records, and supporting the transition to digital government. NARA will explore new technology to find low-cost, practical solutions to improve processing, access review and redaction, and digitization, to accelerate the delivery of electronic and digitized records to the public.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will provide policy, requirements, and oversight to support a transparent, inclusive, and fully digital government.

  • By 2026, NARA will reduce the time it takes to start complex FOIA requests for unclassified records.

  • By 2026, NARA will advance existing physical and intellectual controls for the agency’s holdings to enable digital preservation risk planning and risk mitigation, and ongoing access to electronic records.

Build our Future through Our People

Build our Future through our People is our commitment to provide all our employees with learning and leadership opportunities necessary to successfully transition to a digital environment. We are dedicated to empowering our employees to engage in their work, innovating to improve our work processes and products, and becoming the next generation of leaders. We are building an inclusive, empowering workplace culture that connects employees with the agency mission. We are developing a diverse workforce with the skills necessary to fulfill our mission.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will increase the frequency of effective coaching that employees receive by 50 percent to improve performance, retention, and relationships across the organization.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will increase the diversity of employees in mission critical occupations for GS-12 and above positions to mirror the Civilian Labor Force (CLF).

  • By FY 2026, NARA will increase the number of employees who believe the agency provides career advancement opportunities by 50 percent.

  • By FY 2026, NARA will foster a culture that encourages civil interaction, equity, and inclusiveness that allows employees to feel connected to the agency’s mission and contribute to their full potential.