Washington Beat By Jim Cross
NATIONAL ARCHIVES NEWS: On April 6, 2010 the Republican staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a report that was sharply critical of the National Archives regarding its security procedures. The report, released in the wake of the loss of a Clinton Administration hard drive containing sensitive information in March 2009, stated that NARA “is plagued by employees who fail to recognize sensitive and classified materials, unsecure workspaces, a lack of internal controls, and low employee morale.” The report called on the Archivist to make creation and implementation of internal security procedures a top priority and the need to address the agency’s low morale. … As of April 7, 2010, researchers will need to obtain a researcher ID card before they can use original records, microfilm, and public use computers. … NARA released its Open Government Plan on April 8, 2010. It focuses on NARA reclaiming its records management leadership role; mediating disputes between FOIA requestors and Federal agencies; developing the Electronic Records Archives; creating the National Declassification Center; providing ready access to the official text of laws, presidential documents, and regulation through the Federal Register; and improving its online capabilities to encourage public use and feedback through improvements to its web site and the addition of social media tools. (NARA used such tools to help develop its plan) More information can be found at www.archives.gov/open. ... The papers of Wallace H. Graham, personal physician to Harry Truman, were opened for use by the Truman Presidential Library on April 12, 2010. … On April 19, 2010 NARA issued a report on a 2009 mandatory records management self-assessment undertaken by 245 independent agencies and Federal cabinet-level agencies and their components. The survey found that 79% of federal agencies are at a high or medium risk of improper destruction of records, particularly electronic records. Many agencies had weak or nonexistent e-mail policies and did a poor job of communicating those policies to their employees. … On May 20, 2010 the Office of the Inspector General launched a Facebook page to help it identify and recover alienated Federal records. … On June 4, 2010 NARA released for public comment a draft prioritization plan for the National Declassification Center. Factors affecting how the records will be prioritized are high public interest, the likelihood of declassification, and the resources required to complete declassification. Public comment is being solicited on a blog (http://blogs.archives.gov/ndc) devoted to the plan, which can be found at http://www.archives.gov/declassification/prioritization-plan.html. Comments will be summarized at a public forum on June 23, 2010. … On June 4, 2010 the Clinton Presidential Library released 46,500 pages of files relating to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s tenure at the White House Domestic Policy Council. It released another 41,759 pages on her tenure at the White House Counsel’s Office on June 10, 2010. Her emails were released on June 18, 2010, and another 1,704 pages on June 22, 2010, for a total of about 170,000 pages. Tom Lee of the Sunlight Foundation has created a web site, Elena’s Inbox (http://elenasinbox.com/) that presents the emails in an interface that mimics Gmail.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES PERSONNEL: Sheryl Jasielum Shenberger was named Director of the National Declassification Center on May 20, 2010; her appointment is effective June 7th. Shenberger was a Branch chief of the CIA Declassification Center and from 2003-2006 she was team chief for the CIA declassification efforts at NARA. She was a branch chief in the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center from 2001-2003 a desk officer in the CIA Crime and Narcotics Center in 2000-2001, and a senior imagery analyst for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency from 1996-2000. She received a B.A. in English from Villanova University in 1979 and an M.A. in English from North Carolina State University in 1983 … The National Archives’ Chief Information Officer, Martha Morphy, will retire effective July 2, 2010, it was announced on June 8, 2010. From 1998-2006 she was a senior member of NARA’s IT staff, and prior to working at the Archives held various IT positions at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Departments of Defense and Education, and at the Social Security Administration.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NEWS: A new online catalog for prints and photographs was released on April 7, 2010. The redesigned catalog is more visual, the search engine has been improved, there are new browsing options available across the entire catalog as well as for individual collections, there are more viewing options, and new sharing options have been provided. … On May 14, 2010 the Library announced a major project in collaboration with the Chicago History Museum to digitally preserve and catalog 7,000 sound recordings in the Museum’s Studs Terkel Collection of book interviews and WFMT radio programs. The Library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation will undertake the digital preservation work and both institutions will retain a copy. … The Library and Columbia University announced on May 28, 2010 that they were collaborating on the creation of a web-based clearinghouse of information about best practices for preserving geospatial data. Columbia’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network will launch a beta version of the clearinghouse later this year. … On June 1, 2010 the Library marked the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War with an online presentation of 26 first-person accounts from the Veterans History Project. … On June 23, 2010 the Library named 25 new additions to the National recording Registry. They included “Canal Street Blues” by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band (1923), “When You Wish Upon a Star” by Cliff Edwards (1938), The Library of Congress Marine Corps Combat Field Recording Collection—Second Battle of Guam (July 20-August 11, 1944), “Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard (1955), “Today!” by “Mississippi” John Hurt (1966), “Coal Miner’s Daughter” by Loretta Lynn, “Radio Free Europe” by R. E. M. (1981) and “Dear Mama” by Tupac Shakur (1995).
LEGISLATIVE NEWS: The Faster FOIA Act (S.3111) was passed by the Senate with amendments on May 5, 2010. It has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. … On May 6, 2010 Senator Jon Tester of Montana introduced S. 3321, the Public Online Information Act, which would require all non-classified documents to be posted to a free, searchable database within three years of the bill’s passage. An advisory committee of 19 members would oversee the process.
DECLASSIFICATION AND FOIA: The Department of Justice announced on April 7, 2010 that, as part of its Open Government Plan, it would create an FOIA dashboard or “report card” that would compare 92 federal agencies’ compliance with the Act. It would track FOIA requests to an agency, requests approved or denied and agency backlogs. It would also include a section explaining exemptions. The first phase will include 2009 data from 25 departments (including Justice) and is scheduled for completion in September 2010. The second phase, which will include the 2010 data for all 92 agencies, should be complete in March 2010. … The Information Security Oversight Office released its report for FY 2009 on April 15, 2010. The report noted that agencies have made progress in limiting the delegation of original classification authority, reported a 10% reduction in classifying new secrets and are assigning a duration of 10 years or less in 67% of those decisions, the highest percentage since FY 1996. However, agencies are accumulating a backlog of mandatory declassification reviews and declassified 8% fewer pages during this period than in FY 2008. … On April 21, 2010 the Obama Administration filed a brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requesting that the court overturn previous rulings that applied FOIA to White House visitor logs, seeking to have them classified as presidential records that come under the Presidential Records Act and therefore are not accessible under FOIA until 5 years after the end of the Administration.
OTHER NEWS: On April 7, 2010 the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo exempting unstructured feedback using web-based interactive technologies (social media) from the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. Surveys, web polls, and other structured forms of feedback are still subject to the Act, however. … On May 3, 2010 OpenTheGovernment.org released the results of an audit of 29 agencies’ Open Government Plans. It found wide variation in the quality of the plans, with strong plans including deadlines and specific steps to accomplish goals; easy availability of public access information; thoughtful identification of key audiences and needs; and the quality and sustainability of flagship initiatives. The high scorers on the audit were the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and Transportation; NASA; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Office of Personnel Management. The low scorers were Office of Management and Budget and the Departments of Defense, Energy, Justice, and the Treasury. (Note: NARA was not required to do a plan but did one anyway.)
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