#iaw2019

The National Archives has a long history of cooperation and partnership with many archives around the world. 

"Paris Peace Accords: The Way to Peace," an exhibit that opened in Hanoi in Vietnam in July 2018, was the result of collaboration between the National Archives and the State Records Management and Archives Department of Vietnam.

The National Archives contributed facsimiles from the records of the State and Defense Departments, Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, Richard Nixon Presidential Library, and Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. 

The exhibit uses textual records, film, photographs, and artifacts to tell the story of the events leading to the negotiations that ended the United States' participation in the Vietnam War.

This week is International Archives Week, time set aside by the International Council on Archives (ICA) to celebrate the founding of ICA in 1948. This year, the theme for the 2019 ICA Conference in Adelaide, Australia, is “Designing the Archives in the 21st Century.”

Our archivists have been designing the archive—in the sense of shaping the archival collection we want to provide—based on our understanding of what our researchers need and what Federal agencies can provide. 

The National Archives of the future will still have our keystone documents—the original Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights—for the public to see.

However, now we are also planning for voluminous new series full of personal information most valued by genealogists and a shift in collecting focus toward searchable digital records for the many researchers who rely on modern records and who prefer the searchability and remote access that electronic and digitized records provide. We are listening to our users’ needs and honing our user experience skills as we design our archives for the 21st century.

This week archives and archivists around the world are observing International Archives Week! It’s an opportunity for archives to see how we are collectively working to promote the use of archival materials and advocate for the importance of archives and records management. This year’s theme, “Designing Archives in the 21st Century,” asks us to reflect on how we are working to meet the needs of the 2019 researcher.

The KSU Archives constantly strives to put our users at the center of our work by considering how they find and use our materials, as well as how we can facilitate their research. We make every effort to maintain an active and engaging web presence, where users can find information about our department, start their research, and view digital resources. Our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts show off resources you might not know we have, as well as keep our followers up to date on our projects, activities, and personnel (including occasional KSU spirit sweater days). We also consider the use of laptops and other personal devices when designing the layout of our reading room, and take full advantage of technologies such as our document camera to display fragile items during instruction sessions.