Publication Date

April 3, 2015

Perspectives Section

Perspectives Daily

Post Type

Academic Freedom, Advocacy, Archives & Records, Departments & Institutions

Thematic

Archives

Have you used declassified US government records for your research? Are there still-classified records that you’d really like to see?

The National Archives is inviting public input on prioritizing records for declassification.  We particularly want to reach out to historians who rely on declassified documents in their research to find out what they need. If this describes you, please come to the National Declassification Center (NDC) public forum,

NDC Prioritization: What Secrets Do People Want to See?

The forum is Friday, April 10, from 10:00 AM to noon in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero will kick off the forum, NDC Director Sheryl Shenberger will explain NDC prioritization practices and ongoing declassification progress, and an expert panel will discuss possible approaches to prioritization.

The forum will conclude with a public question and discussion session.

You can learn more about prioritization in declassification review from the Public Interest Declassification Center’s blog, Transforming Classification, and its 2014 supplemental report, Setting Priorities: An Essential Step in Transforming Declassification.

Prioritizing the final processing and indexing of already-reviewed records to get them ready for research (a different but related topic) is covered in NDC’s blog post “A New Opportunity to Request Priority Processing.” We encourage historians to weigh in on priorities from this list of recently declassified records, too.

For additional information about the forum or to submit questions in advance, please contact Don McIlwain at don.mcilwain@nara.gov or (301) 837-0587.

Featured Image Credit: International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

This post first appeared on AHA Today.

Megan (Meg) Phillips is NARA’s External Affairs Liaison.

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