 Thank you so much for coming out to talk with us today. We're excited to have one of your final interviews for National Archives news Happy to do it. I know all the staff is very eager to hear from you. You know one last hurrah one last time So the National Archives has accomplished a lot over the last 12 years obviously during your tenure What are you most particularly proud of during during your tenure? What really stands out to you? A number of things, but I would point to the attention that electronic records has gotten from the White House and the Hill. The President's executive order on managing government records is the first time that the White House has gotten involved in record keeping since the Truman administration. So we were fortunate that President Obama in his open government initiative recognized the importance of good record keeping for open government and transparency and in fact he used a quote from us in his executive order that the backbone of open government is good records management and we were just you know dancing in the streets when we got that attention, but that has you know kind of set the tone for the shift from paper to electronic record keeping which which is underway now. So I point to that. I would point to the work that we've been doing around the citizen archivist this on his first day in office President Obama challenged his senior administration with comments about the government doesn't have all the answers and we need to figure out ways that we can involve the American public in helping us do our work and I took that very seriously and started thinking about so how can we engage the American public in helping us and that resulted in the citizen archivist program where we're having people transcribe records. We've got people all over the world who are helping us transcribe records, tagging records. We've got 43 million photographs not all of them really describe well people are identifying people in places and in contributing that so those kinds of activities I think are involving the public in our work is another the other thing I would point to in terms of accomplishments. Yeah, that program really took off. I think their newsletter has like 300,000 subscribers now and it's become a model for other institutions. The Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, lots of libraries around the country are providing those kinds of tagging opportunities to involve the public in their work. How have you seen the agency transform during your time? We've focused a lot on culture and the employee viewpoint surveys every year give us some indication of how people feel about working here In our transformation work, we put a stake in the ground about making this the best agency in the government, the best place to work and have worked very hard to ensure that we're doing listening to our staff and figuring out why people are unhappy and what can we do to improve the quality of the work environment and I'm very pleased to say as I'm leaving our scores are higher than the government average We're kind of turned a corner, I hope, on how people feel about doing their work. I know you've spoken a bit about what your what your advice would be for your successor. Do you plan on leaving your successor a letter or any advice you would like to sort of impart on them? I would urge the new archivist to take some time and get to know the organization, get to know the staff. Don't bring a posse. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the staff, get some sense of our history before making any dramatic, heroic changes in the first six months. This is a wonderful staff with lots of talent and the new archivist needs to appreciate that. You have devoted a lot of time to building the cultural programs here at National Archives and especially working with the foundation. What exhibits in public programs during your time stand out in particular to you? I've always felt a responsibility to researchers who are discovering and rewriting history with the use of our records, a responsibility to give them an opportunity to share what they've learned. So when they write, the first thing I do when a new book is published or advertised when I see a blurb in Publishers Weekly and get my hands on the book is to read acknowledgments to see if we're cited and if we are to invite that individual to come and talk and do a presentation. Not only to talk about what they've learned but to talk about the process of using the National Archives and how valuable the National Archives was as a way of celebrating the National Archives, advertising the National Archives, but most importantly to let the staff know how much their work is appreciated and being used. In terms of the exhibits, I think we've been strategic in balancing education versus entertainment in the exhibits, but the ideas for these exhibits come from the staff and the staff who are most familiar with the records and have ideas about interesting and entertaining ideas for exhibits. So the idea to do a food exhibit resonated with me. We have great Department of Agriculture records. Actually food is represented in multiple agencies in our records. So what's cooking Uncle Sam, the government's role in food, was one of our I think successful exhibits and it was made even more successful by our guest curator Jose Andres who fell in love with the National Archives and the idea of an exhibit about how the government has influenced the use of food. And he was so excited that he created a pop-up restaurant across the street to coincide with the exhibit America Eats, where he was testing and recreating early American recipes. The natural follow-on to that was a spirited republic and that was another one where we were able to mine the records on prohibition and our fascination with alcohol in another great exhibit. And then if I had to point to one exhibit that I'm proudest of, I would say it was the Vietnam exhibit that we did. And there was a lot of concern on the part of the staff about dealing with a controversial, still controversial, after some of the year's topic. We had a curator who understood that tension, understood that the exhibit had to be created from voices on both sides of the war. And I think she did a great job in involving those voices in video recordings throughout the exhibit. So it was very successful. I think we made lots of lots of new friends, educated a lot of people, used data that hadn't been used before. So it was new information we were sharing. In fact, I'm being celebrated at the Vietnam Veterans Association Conference in August. I'm getting the Lifetime Achievement Award for not only our service to veterans, but the exhibit. So I'm really proud of that. And you mentioned before when Nar completed the the Blue Water Baby Technogs. That was also sort of a highlight. It sure was. Agent Orange is the ability for anyone who was in that area to get the medical treatment that they deserve, based on exposure to Agent Orange, depends on documentation that proves they were exposed. And it was relatively easy for people on the ground, the Army and Marines on the ground in Vietnam, to prove that. But for those on ships, Coast Guard and Navy, not so easy to prove that. And our work in digitizing, along with the support of the Veterans Administration, digitizing the deck logs made it possible to prove that these ships were within Agent Orange range during the war. Another contribution. A direct impact to people's lives. Exactly. Shifting gears a little bit towards the more fun aspects of your time here. You have mentioned that the rotunda sleepovers and the naturalization ceremonies were among sort of the highlights in terms of fun. Had it, Nara, what made them stand out to you? What are your memories? Well, the sleepovers were the first. And it was based on my disappointment that at the New York Public Library, the lawyers wouldn't let me do sleepovers. So when I got here and took a look at that rotunda, I said, this is a natural. We're going to do sleepovers on the floor of this rotunda, so kids can sleep in the presence of the Charters of Freedom. I think it's safe to say that the staff was nervous about being successful in this. We were wildly successful, oversubscribed on most of them from the very beginning. And they were self-selecting. These kids who are history nerds who bring with them a history nerd parent or grandparent, and they're just tingling when they're here. For me, the naturalization ceremonies are another highlight in terms of just pulling together everything that we stand for, everything that we are responsible for in a ceremony that welcomes anywhere from 75 to 150 new citizens to the country swearing their oath of allegiance in front of the Charters. It's just a moving experience. And I'm always so impressed with the fact that these folks know more about their rights and responsibilities than if I were to go out on the street and ask a regular American citizen some of those questions about their rights and responsibilities, I wouldn't have the same level of knowledge. So that always reminds me of how much work we have to do to compensate for that. One of the final questions we have, hearkening back to a few years ago, you did a time capsule opening at Arlington National Cemetery. If you had to leave a time capsule yourself upon leaving National Archives, what would you put in it? That's a good question. Since the Charters of Freedom have been from the very beginning, the center of attention here, I would want copies of them in the latest electronic form so that in 100 years someone could try and figure out how on earth are we going to read this. I would want some history of the organization, the growth, creation of and development of the National Archives. And I would expect that history to go way back to the beginning when people start talking about the importance of we got to do something about the public records. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, saying that it would be interesting, I think, to engage the staff in deciding what should be in a memory box. Those decisions, when I was invited to come over to Arlington to open that box, I got a sense of the controversy of what was in the box because there were so many groups who thought they were responsible for it. And I think it would be a great activity for the staff who's really devoted to the mission of the agency to contribute to that process. It was similar to the way I think the Bicentennial memory box was created that it was open to the public, the public made recommendations. And my favorite item in that was a package of Twinkies, conservation nightmare, of course, about Twinkies. Is there anything off of your desk that you would be willing to leave in there? I grew up outside of Boston and every time I moved into Boston, my favorite spot to visit was the USS Constitution, Old Iron Sides, and I had the opportunity to go out on a turnaround on the ship and as the archivist, and they presented me with a piece of the deck. I had to replace some wood on it. If I had to contribute something, I would contribute that piece of history. I know that you've been hesitant to say what plans you have. Is your plan still no plans? No plans. No commitments. It's one day at a time.