4.2: Search Capabilities
Improve search capabilities to the permanent records of the Federal Government Other Information:
As part of the development of the Electronic Records Archives (ERA), the National Archives is developing a streamlined, easy-to-use
online research experience that unlocks the records from previously stove-piped systems. The American people expect a visually
appealing, easy, intuitive search, and with your help, we intend to deliver. Developing a streamlined search for the research
section of our website is no easy task because we have millions of records available in numerous applications online. We have
our work cut out for us. We want to engage the public early in this effort, so our first step will be an early prototype to
be rolled out in December 2010. With your feedback, we will make improvements and increase capability over time. Our first
step will be to streamline some of our current stove-piped finding aids. The search function will initially include all of
the data from the Archival Research Catalog (ARC), some of the series from Access to Archival Databases (AAD), and a collection
of electronic records from the Electronic Records Archives. Additionally, it is our goal to expand the search to Archives.gov
and a Presidential library web site. The main idea of this effort is to provide a single search to all of our online holdings.
This may sound like a rather modest goal, but it is a major undertaking to gather this disparate data and provide a simple
but effective search and display of the records. Over time we will work to incorporate your ideas, as well as explore the
possibilities of visualizations, mash-ups, and linked data. We've already heard on our Open Government Idea Forum a suggestion
for public tagging of our records: "Encourage the public to tag and annotate descriptions and digital copies in the online
catalog (ARC) as a way to improve keyword searching and the accessibility of descriptions in the catalog. NARA could also
import tags and notes added on NARA photos on Flickr to enhance the ARC descriptions." The benefits to social tagging are
clear – our records become more accessible to the public. User-generated tags enable searching in non-traditional ways, and
leverage the enthusiasm of our researchers. We've seen first-hand the public's enthusiasm for tagging and commenting on our
records on our Flickr photostream (www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives), and we look forward to incorporating social
tagging in subsequent iterations of improved search capabilities. Our prototype launch will include several public feedback
mechanisms that we will analyze and incorporate into future improvements. In the meantime, we would like to get your response
to the following questions: * What features are important to you in a search? * How do you want to export and share your research
discoveries? * How do you want to get updates? * Are you interested in social bookmarking or joining communities that share
your research interests?
Indicator(s):
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