The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is seeking public input into their draft plan for digitizing their content. This plan builds on their 10 year strategic vision, published last year, and lays out their goals for moving more of their physical materials into a publicly available digital format.
I found Appendix A particularly interesting (page 24), laying out their guidelines for partnerships with businesses and non-profits who will be taking on some of the immense digitizing. The guidelines deal heavily with public access, intellectual property, metadata, and document certification issues, many of which I have only basic familiarity.
I assume that others will have opinions on how they’re proceeding, given the likely enormity of the project and the sheer importance of its subject matter. That they’re welcoming public input is heartening:
NARA takes its stewardship responsibility very seriously. We recognize that we are entrusted with the care of America’s documentary evidence, and that these materials are an invaluable public resource. We are seeking written comment on this draft through a Federal Register notice and announcement on our website, and will hold a public forum during the comment period. We will revise this plan as appropriate to incorporate public comment. The approved plan will be posted on our website at www.archives.gov.
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Bibliographic Control, Agile Government | The Open House Project // Dec 2, 2007 at 4:05 pm
[…] For example, when I wrote recently about the National Archives’ public comment period for their partnership plan for digitization, I was most impressed by the public, iterative nature of the projects’ planning. A superior plan will presumably result if the plan is skillfully subjected to multiple periods of public inspection and re-editing. This process’s constructive aspects are echoed in both the organization of the Open House Project report, and in the legislative process itself. […]
House Appropriations Testimony | The Open House Project // Mar 23, 2008 at 6:03 pm
[…] that any partnerships (if necessary) are started with a good sense of benefits of risks; see also NARA’s plan, and the GAO’s current headache.) Office of the General […]
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