Three NARA blogs

+ Collaborate (Blog and Forum for Teachers)
+ NARAtions (A Blog about Online Public Access to the Records of the U.S. National Archives)
+ RACO 2009 Blog (Records Administration Conference)

Eight Facebook Pages

+ US National Archives
+ Research at the US National Archives
+ Federal Register
+ Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum
+ John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
+ Jimmy Carter Presidential Library
+ George Bush Presidential Library Foundation
+ Clinton Presidential Center

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+ National Archives News
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Four YouTube Channels

+ National Archives on YouTube
+ John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
+ Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
+ Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

Access the Complete List (with Links)

Source: NARA

From the Article:

It was a historian’s nightmare. During the change from the Clinton to the Bush administration, Web sites affiliated with the Clinton White House went dark, and an unknown number of online documents and files were forever lost.

Such Internet deaths inspired the Cyber Cemetery at the University of North Texas, which preserves government Web sites in their final form. The Cyber Cemetery archives sites when commissions or panels expire, allowing the online work of defunct government bodies to live on and remain accessible to the public.

[Snip]

“It [the name] started as a joke. You know, `Oh, all these dead Web sites,’” said Starr Hoffman, who oversees the project as the librarian for digital collections at North Texas. “But it stuck, and nobody thought of a better name.”

Access the Cyber Cemetery

Source: AP (via Federal News Radio)
Hat Tip: P.W.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got a private viewing on Friday of former South African president Nelson Mandela’s archives, saying afterward it was a “treasure trove” of lessons for future generations.

Source: Reuters
Hat Tip: AMIA Newsbriefs

Federal agencies need to invest in Web development more strategically, creating online services that help meet missions and better serve citizens, according to a report released on by a management consulting firm.

Despite spending enormous sums on automating government practices, progress on electronic government appears to have plateaued, according to the report “E-government 2.0,” published by McKinsey & Co.

The stagnation in developing a digital government occurred after the Internet boom of the late 1990s, which spawned a race by among federal agencies to develop Web sites. “By the time you get to 1998, you have the first U.S. portal,” said Elaine Kamarck, lecturer in public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and former head of President Clinton’s National Performance Review. “This improved productivity.” Kamarck was part of a panel discussing the electronic government hosted by the Center for American Progress.

Access the Full Text of E-Government 2.0 from McKinsey & Co. (6 pages PDF)

Source: NextGov

+ The Clinton Library is releasing 5,032 pages of Presidential records relating to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

President Clinton nominated Judge Sotomayor to the position in 1997, and she was confirmed by the Senate in 1998. The records contain biographical information, court opinions as Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and letters in support of her nomination. This series also includes court records, correspondence, news clippings, articles, and e-mails concerning her nomination. These Clinton Presidential records were processed in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

+ The Bush Library is opening four newly released pages of Bush Presidential records in addition to the 58 pages that were previously released.

In November 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Sonia Sotomayor to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. The documents consist of internal memoranda, biographical information and letters in support of Judge Sotomayor. These Bush Presidential records were processed in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

The National Archives Office of Records Services is opening 122 e-mails that were retrieved from the Federal electronic files of the Clinton administration that contained Judge Sotomayor’s name either in the e-mail or in the attachment. These Federal records were processed in accordance with the Federal Records Act. These materials will be available only electronically through the National Archives web site.

Access These and Other Records on via the National Archives Web Site

Source: National Archives and Records Administration

Simultaneously, the Oxford English Dictionary added several new words to their publication. That complete list can be accessed online here.

New Words include:

+ amateur night, n. and adj.

+ bailout, n.2

+ blizzard, v.

+ bupkis, n.

+ Clintonista, n.

+ commitment-phobe, n.

+ dwarf planet, n.

+ grilled cheese, n.

+ searchability, n.

+ turducken, n.

+ Many others

Source: Oxford English Dictionary

…the National Archives and Records Administration announced a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of a Western Digital MY BOOK external hard drive (2 terabytes) containing copies of backup tapes from the Executive Office of the President of the Clinton Administration.

The National Archives Office of the Inspector General, with the assistance of the United States Secret Service, is investigating the whereabouts of the missing MY BOOK. Based on currently available evidence, the external hard drive was discovered missing on or about March 24, 2009, from a processing room at the National Archives College Park, MD, facility. Because some of the information on the missing drive was from offices that engaged in personnel related work and maintained electronic files containing privacy information, the external drive contains personally identifying information (PII), including names and social security numbers. At this time, the total amount of identifying information that was maintained on the hard drive has not yet been determined.

See Also: FAQ on Missing Hard Drive (2 pages; PDF)

Source: NARA

The National Archives lost a computer hard drive containing massive amounts of sensitive data from the Clinton administration, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service and White House operating procedures, congressional officials said Tuesday.

One of former Vice President Al Gore’s three daughters is among those whose Social Security numbers were on the drive, but it was not clear which one. Other information includes logs of events, social gatherings and political records.

Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper said in a written statement that the agency was preparing to notify affected individuals of the breach. The representative of former President Bill Clinton has been notified, but Cooper gave no indication whether the former president’s personal information was on the hard drive.

Source: AP (via Nextgov)

See Also: NARA answers questions about the missing Clinton Administration hard drive (PDF)

As one of his first acts, President Barack Obama issued an order reversing his predecessor’s approach toward the release of government documents. Scholars, journalists, farmers and the simply curious now await the reopening of federal information taps tightened since 2001.

In fiscal 2007, for instance, the Defense Department completely granted approximately 48 percent of the FOIA requests it processed. In fiscal 1998, by contrast, the Clinton administration’s Defense Department completely granted approximately 61 percent of FOIA requests.

The Pentagon was not alone, a review of federal agency reports shows. Percentages are approximate, because of how the reports are compiled, but trends are obvious.

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Here’s a timely (free!) resource that crossed our radar screen this week, from a publisher that is certainly highly qualified to profile this sort of information.

Staying abreast of current developments throughout the transition from the old administration to the new is important to the American people. Carroll Publishing has always provided the best contact information at all levels of government for its clients. With the addition of Transition Tracker 2008, our government information coverage is even more comprehensive, now for the public.

What’s here?

+ Overview of the Transition, which list all the advisory board members, transition staff, agency review teams, and policy working groups.

+ A continually updated list of Newly-Appointed Officials.

+ A continually updated list of Newly-Nominated Officials

+ A list of Newly-Elected Officials, including governors, congressional representatives, mayors, and more.

+ And then there’s The Rumor Mill:

The following list is a compilation of appointments and nominations, widely reported in the reputable news media, of individuals expected to serve in the forthcoming Obama Administration. These positions have not yet been officially announced by the Office of the President-elect. Once an appointment or nomination is officially revealed by the Office of the President-elect, it will be removed from this list and added to our compilation of Newly-Appointed Officials and Nominations.

We’ve posted several items about resources offering various types of transition information, such as Lost in Transition (National Journal and Government Executive) and SourceWatch’s Presidential transition resources wiki. We offered other sites in our Change Is Good Resource of the Week last November.

But we figured we’d also highlight this one because it seems to be a very easy place to quickly find lots and lots of names.

BTW, Carroll also offers a My Elected Officials Search page, where you input your address and get back a long list of elected officials down to the state level, with contact information for each.

And…as they say in those television commercials…that’s not all! We also commend your attention to another free gem — this one from CQ Politics, which invites you to Track Obama’s Cabinet Nominees.

Barack Obama began vetting his choices for a Cabinet before he was even elected; his first announcement came just days after Nov. 4. In the past, nearly all Cabinet nominees have been confirmed, and with a Democratic Senate, it’s unlikely any of his choices will be rejected. Still, nominees such as Eric H. Holder to be attorney general, or Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of State could face some tough questions.

Senate committees with special jurisdiction over each position hold hearings to assess the merits of each nominee before voting to confirm. If the committee approves the nomination it is sent to the full Senate for a full vote.

The Senate may choose not to confirm a nominee in a few ways. Committee members may vote against a nominee or indefinitely drag out hearings — though rarely, a nominee may still proceed to the full Senate. The full Senate may vote against the nominee. Or, a senator or senators may filibuster to block the confirmation.

This is a matrix that shows each cabinet position, the nominee, and where in the process the nomination currently sits — e.g., committee hearing, committee vote, floor vote, confirmed. There is a picture of each nominee and a link to a relevant current news article on the CQ website.

Maybe all our refined, enlightened interests are lost in the long tail, because Britney Spears once again was the most popular search subject in 2008 on Yahoo.

For Yahoo, Spears wasn’t the only pop-culture icon in Yahoo’s top 10 searches. Also on the list were Miley Cyrus at No. 4, Jessica Alba at No. 6, Lindsay Lohan at No. 7, and Angelina Jolie at No. 9.

Apparently a lot of people are curious about World Wrestling Entertainment, because WWE was No. 2. The online game RuneScape was No. 5, anime series Naruto was No. 7, and American Idol finished in 10th place on Yahoo’s list.

Yahoo also broke down searches for various other subjects. For economic searches, the top 10 list started with IRS stimulus checks, then followed with oil prices, gold prices, gas prices, Dow Jones, Sallie Mae, stock market, AIG, foreclosures, and debt consolidation. The list reveals that people use general-purpose searches for everything ranging from how-to advice to the latest news.

In the people of politics, President-elect Barack Obama led the list. Next came Sarah Palin, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, George Bush, Ron Paul, John Edwards, Mike Huckabee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mitt Romney.

See also: AOL Search – 2008 Year End Hot Searches
See also: Ask Top 2008 Searches

Source: CNET News

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled against the National Archives (PDF; 62 KB) on September 30th, refusing to dismiss Judicial Watch’s lawsuit to obtain Hillary Clinton’s health care task force records from the Clinton Presidential Library and denying the Archives’ separate motion to stay the lawsuit for one year [Judicial Watch, Inc. v U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Civil Action No: 07-1987 (D.D.C.) (PLF)].

The National Archives filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that Judicial Watch’s original Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was overly broad. In the alternative, the Archives asked the court to stay the lawsuit for one year, citing a lack of resources and a backlog of requests. Judge Friedman rejected both requests (PDF; 63 KB).

Source: Judicial Watch

People share their videos on YouTube and their photos at Flickr. Now they can share more technical types of displays: graphs, charts and other visuals they create to help them analyze data buried in spreadsheets, tables or text.

At an experimental Web site, Many Eyes, (www.many-eyes.com), users can upload the data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to a display of the comparative frequency of words used in speeches by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The site was created by scientists at the Watson Research Center of I.B.M. in Cambridge, Mass., to help people publish and discuss graphics in a group. Those who register at the site can comment on one another’s work, perhaps visualizing the same information with different tools and discovering unexpected patterns in the data.

Source: New York Times

+ More Than One Million People Visit Clinton Library and Museum (via VOA)

A spam e-mail making the rounds in the military community serves as a reminder that facts can be flexible when they are launched anonymously into the vast void of cyberspace.

The e-mail, entitled, “Some very interesting statistics: Military losses, 1980 through 2006,” states that more U.S. service members died on active duty during the eight years of the Clinton administration, when there were no major U.S. military conflicts, than in the first six years of the George W. Bush administration, during which the military was fighting two large-scale wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The e-mail offers year-by-year U.S. military death totals from all causes — operations, illness, accidents, suicides, etc. — from 1980 through 2006.

The data supposedly were taken from a periodically updated Congressional Research Service report on the subject, which in turn is based on statistics compiled by the Pentagon’s Defense Manpower and Data Center.

There’s just one problem: The figures listed in the email are wrong. They vary markedly from the figures published in the cited CRS source document.
…
The claims of this particular e-mail are easily disproved. But the online proliferation of such anonymous documents highlights a serious concern for researchers and scholars about how to separate fact from fiction within the vast quantities of raw material online — and being consumed by users who often have no easy way to gauge the reliability of the information they see.

The Web site of The Sheridan Libraries, the main research facility at Johns Hopkins University, includes a lengthy “how to” guide for evaluating Internet information that underscores the difficulty.

“When you use a research or academic library, the books, journals and other resources have already been evaluated by scholars, publishers and librarians,” the Web site states. “Every resource you find has been evaluated in one way or another before you ever see it.”

Online, however, “none of this applies — there are no filters,” the library Web site states.

Source: Army Times

Hat tip: Secrecy News

+ Algiers library to close Saturday (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

The New Yorker Conference, “Stories from the Near Future,” took place on May 8 and 9, 2008. Here is an archive of videos from the event.

+ Reinventing Invention — “Malcolm Gladwell on the challenge of hiring in the modern world.”
+ Humanitarian Engineering — “Amy Smith talks with Rebecca Mead about applying new technology in the developing world.”
+ The Forever Campaign — “Rahm Emanuel talks to Ryan Lizza about the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton’s future, and what the first hundred days of the Obama Administration might look like.”
+ 23 and You — Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki talk with Michael Specter on genetics.
+ The Green City — “San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom talks with Dana Goodyear on what it means to be green in politics and in the world.”
+ A More Perfect Union — “James Surowiecki discusses the future of the labor movement with Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union.”
+ Creative Intelligence — “Jane Mayer talks with Eric Haseltine, the former chief technology officer of the U.S. intelligence community.”
+ Neurobiotics — “Yoky Matsuoka, the director of the neurobotics laboratory at the University of Washington, discusses how brain signals can control prosthetic limbs, and other advances in the hybrid field of neuroscience and robotics.”
+ Making Musicals Rock — “Duncan Sheik talks with Susan Morrison about ‘Spring Awakening’ and reinventing the American musical.”
+ Constructing Culture — “David Adjaye talks with Thelma Golden about architecture in contemporary culture and what buildings can be in the twenty-first century.”
+ Playing With Fire — “Bill Buford talks with the chefs David Chang, Daniel Humm, and Marc Taxiera about their influences and the future of the culinary world.”

Source: The New Yorker

+ The Man Who Guards Clinton’s Wikipedia Entry (via /.)

+ Preview of new Windows Search adds cross-PC indexing (via BetaNews)

+ OCLC releases EZproxy 5.0 authentication and access software

Well, you know, there are a lot of companies that have been around longer than Google, but Google’s performing.

++ See Also: Obama spoke at Google in November. Here’s the transcript and video (via Google Blogoscoped)
++ See Also: Sen. Hillary Clinton Spoke at Google Last February, Here’s the Video
++ See Also: Sen. John McCain Spoke at Google in May. The video is available here.

+ Live Search: There For Skiiers And Snowboarders Everywhere (via SEL)
New ski and snowboard reports from Live.com on SERP’s. The SEL post also mentions a similar Smart Answer feature that Ask.com* has offered for some time.

* Gary is Director of Online Info Resources at Ask.com.

The Arthur Schlesinger papers consist of almost 300 linear feet of correspondence, journals, manuscripts of his writings, research files, phone logs, sound recordings, videos, date books, and clippings and will be housed in the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. The correspondence in Schlesinger’s papers includes letters from nearly every significant figure in American politics, as well as many prominent scholars, thinkers, writers, and artists. Examples of prominent correspondents include Kofi Annan, Brooke Astor, Truman Capote, Bill Clinton, Marlene Dietrich, Allen Ginsberg, Hubert Humphrey, Jacob Javitz, Edward Kennedy, Edward Koch, Norman Mailer, Walter Mondale, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ralph Nader, I.M. Pei, John D. Rockefeller IV, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, and Caspar Weinberger.

Source: NYPL