The Evolution of the US National Archives Catalog: From Access to Engagement

Improvements to United States National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) on-line catalog enable delivery of high-resolution images to the public. New transcription and tagging tools in the catalog allow citizen archivists to engage with digitized records and increase access to archival material. NARA has adopted a multitude of social media platforms that have connected millions of patrons to digital content. In an everexpanding online world, the public expects to find everything on the Internet. With holdings in the billions of archival records of every conceivable format, NARA has had to embrace an adaptive and scalable digitization approach. NARA has a long history of developing digitization guidelines that have proved invaluable to ensure image quality, meet mandates for preservation and access, and create useful master and derivative digital objects. This paper analyzes the parallel evolution of NARA's digitization standards and how they are applied in online catalogs and social media platforms.