Citizen Archiving: A Conversation with David Ferriero

David S. Ferriero was confirmed as 10th Archivist of the United States on November 6, 2009. Early in 2010, he committed the National Archives and Records Administration to the principles of Open Government—transparency, participation, and collaboration. To better position NARA to fulfill these goals, Mr. Ferriero initiated an agency transformation in 2010. The transformation restructured the organization and set goals to further our mission, meet the needs of those who rely on us and find new, creative ways to approach the agency's work.

Openness and access drive NARA's actions in a variety of ways. The agency has embraced a number of social media tools—Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Tumblr, and others—to reach a wider and broader audience. NARA uses this digital engagement as a two-way street. Early in his tenure, Mr. Ferriero celebrated the contributions of "citizen archivists," and he encourages public participation in identifying historical Federal records and sharing knowledge about them.

In the 30th episode of the Chasing Earhart podcast, David sits down with us from Washington DC, to discuss the role the Archives play in FOIA (The Freedom of Information Act) citizen archiving and how he believes transparency is vital in the role the National Archives play for making historical information available to the American public.