---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul, Karen (Secretary) <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Subject: [archives] State of the Archives Address 2009
To: "Archives & Archivists (A&A) List" <[log in to unmask]>




  <http://www.archives.gov/>
 State of the Archives
December 3, 2009
*David S. Ferriero
**Archivist of the United States*
Good afternoon! It is a pleasure to be here today for this celebration of
the outstanding work done by NARA staff throughout this agency. To those of
you not in the room-those watching from elsewhere in the building or in the
regional facilities or Presidential Libraries-thank you for joining us
virtually. I'm excited to be able to talk to all of you at the same time,
regardless of where you are.
I want to start by acknowledging Adrienne Thomas and her work over the past
year as the Acting Archivist. She is a hard act to follow and her experience
and knowledge has already been invaluable to me as I begin my steep learning
curve about who we are and how we got to this point in our history. Please
join me in thanking her for her contributions to NARA, especially over the
past year.
My intent is to share with you a little about myself and then what I see as
our priorities as an agency in the coming months.
I am the grandson of Italian immigrants and great-grandson of Irish
immigrants. In fact, I recently used NARA's passenger lists to discover that
my grandfather, at the age of 15, arrived in Boston from Naples aboard the
ship Commonwealth on the 22nd of March 1903. My grandmother, Antonia
Giorgio, also traveling from Naples, arrived on the 8th of March in 1909
aboard the Romantic.

I grew up in Beverly Massachusetts. For those of you interested in birth
order research, I'm a typical middle child, as middle children are often
referred to as "bridgers" and are always trying to find consensus and bring
people together. My father worked at least two jobs, sometimes three,
throughout my childhood, and my mother took a job cleaning floors at Beverly
Hospital to ensure that I could go to college.
I earned a bachelor's and master's degree in English literature from
Northeastern University in Boston. Northeastern is the nation's leading
cooperative education program where I had my first experience with research
libraries, which set the stage for a career spanning more than 40 years. I
also have a master's degree from the Simmons College of Library and
Information Science.
A four-year enlistment in the United States Navy, including a year in Viet
Nam, gave me training and experience as a hospital corpsman with a specialty
in neuro-psychiatry. I spent time working with people with psychological
issues. I loved the work, and it gave me a set of people skills that I use
every day of my life. I also learned how to start IV drips, stitch up
wounds, and to resuscitate. So, I'm handy to have around!
My work experience in three of the Nation's leading institutions has
provided me with a set of professional credentials that I believe to be of
particular value to NARA. At MIT, I started shelving books in 1965 and left
having served as Acting Co-Director of Libraries 31 years later. I was the
University Librarian at Duke University, where I created the first Records
Management Program there, and learned the ins and outs of fundraising. And
most recently, I served as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of Libraries at the
New York Public Library, where I was responsible for collection strategy;
conservation; digital experience; reference and research services; and
education, programming, and exhibitions. I believe that one of my greatest
contributions there was that I was able to bring together a diverse
collection of individual units into one library experience.
In all these settings, I have had preservation and conservation experience,
including creating the preservation program at Duke. Most importantly I have
experienced and managed aspects of technological transformation in all three
institutions, as libraries and archives have, for decades, been leaders in
the application of technologies to their work.
I am excited about the work all of you do, and eager to learn firsthand what
you need to get that work done. I know the challenges facing NARA are
daunting, but I am convinced that your talents and skills are up to the
tasks ahead. I am absolutely committed to carrying out my responsibilities
in a professional, non-partisan, and collegial manner. I will also share
with you that I've completed the Boston Marathon seven times, and learned a
few things about perseverance. When I look at the complex and diverse issues
we are facing as an agency, I believe we will all need a lot of perseverance
for the long run. And, while I left the lions on Fifth Avenue behind,
Patience and Fortitude are very much my watchwords!
I know that many of you watched my Confirmation Hearing testimony where I
identified a set of challenges facing the Archives. That list was the result
of my work with senior NARA staff on a set of more than 70 questions posed
by the staff of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs; my individual meetings with members of that Committee before the
hearing; my briefings by The White House Confirmations Office, Transition
Team, and Appointments Office; briefings by the Association of Research
Libraries, and my reading of the reports of NARA's Inspector General.
First on the list is the Electronic Records Archives. In preparation for my
hearing, I read just about everything Robert Digges Wimberly Connor, the
nation's first Archivist wrote about the state of the official records of
the country. The Connor quote I used is too good not to repeat:
.45.0 per cent of the total are infested with silverfish, cockroaches, and
other insects, rats, mice, and other vermin, and exposed to such hazards as
dirt, rain, sunlight, theft, and fire. More than.46.0 per cent of the total
were in depositories that were dark, dirty, badly ventilated, crowded, and
without facilities for work. Typical was the case of valuable records
relating to Indian affairs which were found on dust-covered shelves mingled
higgledy-piggledy with empty whiskey bottles, pieces of soap, rags, and
other trash. In another depository crowded with the archives of the
Government the most prominent object to one entering the room was the skull
of a dead cat protruding from under a pile of valuable records. If a cat
with nine lives to risk in the cause of history could not survive the
conditions of research in the depositories of our national archives, surely
the poor historian with only one life to give his country may be excused if
he declines to take the risk.
As I said in my testimony, it seems to me that we are at a similar
crossroads in the history of the Archives in the challenges we face with the
electronic records of the agencies we serve. Varieties of technology,
platforms, software, practice, and lack of standards complicate the work of
ingesting, preserving, and making available the records of the government.
The work we have undertaken with Lockheed Martin is, of course, being
watched closely by our funders, our stakeholders, and the rest of the
archival community who is grappling with similar issues of born digital
records. We have to get this right.
I also see the Electronic Records Archives initiative as a vehicle for
reestablishing our oversight of the records management programs of each
agency-working with agencies to establish protocols, practices, and annual
audits.

Security of collections-both physical and virtual-is also on my list. This
is an issue that every research library or archive deals with on a daily
basis-the tension between protecting and providing access to primary
materials. NARA has had enough bad press about recent incidents and I am
committed to supporting the work of the recently established Holdings
Protection Program and Team and intend to create a sense of urgency around
this issue.
The Obama administration is committed to increased openness and transparency
in Government. The changes we make to meet this challenge with respect to
records management affect not only our own work, but the work of all Federal
agencies. Along these lines, we must continue our efforts to process and
declassify records in a timely manner to get them into the hands of the
American public more quickly and efficiently. The new National
Declassification Center, located in NARA, will play a big part in our
efforts to help build a more open Government.
The future of the Presidential Library System was certainly an area of
discussion during all of my pre-hearing conversations. The recently
submitted report by NARA Staff which outlines a variety of scenarios will
most likely be the focus of a hearing in the coming year.
The Internet has introduced countless researchers to the holdings of the
National Archives. While it is thrilling that the desire for online
information brings more and more people to our virtual doors, I know that
the task of building an "archives without walls," so to speak, is a
demanding one. An important part of our effort must be developing the means
for archivists to interact with our virtual visitors, and figuring out how
archivists work in a virtual archives - what skills are needed, and how work
processes will change. I applaud the work you have done to establish NARA's
presence on the world-wide web, and your successful launches of social media
and networking tools such as You Tube, Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook to
reach new audiences, capture useful information, and receive timely feedback
on programs and holdings. Web 2.0 technologies are powerful communication
tools, and I know that our recent initiatives are just the tip of the
iceberg of what is yet to come in this area.
I also recommit our energies to engaging our stakeholders in meaningful ways
as we address the issues I have outlined. I look forward to working with
John Hamilton and David McMillen in establishing effective lines of
communication with our friends on the Hill and the communities we serve.
Finally, and for me, most importantly, I am fully committed to investing in
NARA's most valuable resource-you, our staff. We cannot be successful in
accomplishing any of this agenda without a strong and valued staff. Through
our Strategic Human Capital Plan, we are looking at new strategies to
recruit, develop and strengthen, and retain the diverse and highly skilled
workforce we need to execute the mission that is vital to our Government. As
someone who started his career as a shelver, I am committed to creating
opportunities for people to find career choices at NARA. I take job
satisfaction and staff morale surveys very seriously. I want NARA to be
among the top agencies in which to work.
I have not mentioned space, preservation needs, technology infrastructure,
and a longer list of things which are on my radar screen. We'll save those
for another time.
In conclusion, as I stand before you now as the tenth Archivist of the
United States, I am keenly aware of the skill, talent, and spirit that has
shaped this unique organization for its first 75 years. We are all stewards
of the work begun by Robert Connor.
Carved into the north façade of the National Archives Building in
Washington, DC is a statement that I think perfectly sums up what we must
continually strive to embody. It says "This building holds in trust the
records of our national life and symbolizes our faith in the permanency of
our national institutions."
The work that we are entrusted to do reflects the faith of our fellow
citizens that the records of our government shall continue to tell the
stories of the people and events that shape our nation. and that anyone who
wishes should have access to these records.

I am honored to have been called to lead this fine agency, and I ask for
your support as we steer NARA into the future.



o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

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