Government records can circle the world 57 times
Yes it is true! That is what the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) says. If the government records are laid side by side the pages held by NARA would have to circle the world 57 times. As it is not at all possible to get these mammoth government record holdings digitalized the NARA has made only a very small portion of it available online, mainly for those interested in research.
Otherwise there are tools and methods by which those interested can search. Records are made available by the government to those interested. For Online Records that the government makes available, they need to check and employ the tools to find out what they want.
In a democracy, it is imperative that Government Records are made available to every citizen of the US to monitor their government as well as ensure that is government is properly accountable. Policymakers all over the US always face a daunting task of maintaining a precarious balance between the right to information of the public and the right to secrecy of the individual.
Contrary to popular misconceptions about government records, it is not only about records and documents of the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Government documents carry virtually all information about the citizens from the time they were born, were eligible for a driver’s license, got married, bought a house and filed a suit.
Lots of documents have been created over the years and kept as government records ranging from those living to their parents, grand parents or great grand parents who had become US citizens for the first time or, about them if they had served in any of the two World Wars or the any other war for the United States. It is said that of all the information created by NARA and available as government records, barely 1-3% are considered to have some legal or historical value that were kept forever.
Otherwise, the rest are not available as they are of little value and importance to the public. Government record keeping is like documents and papers you consider worth keeping with you when you move house. Most of them are scrapped while some are carried by you to your new home and also treasured by your children and grandchildren as you presently keep those dating back to your parents, grandparents or some belonging to earlier generations in your family tree.
Researches have myriad interests in looking into government records dating back many years. People after their own roots may want to know about their past generation, something about their family history or some other social thesis of social interest that may go into a book they are writing. Others may require proving military service of a veteran.
To all of them, the NARA makes available records that they have carefully preserved over the years.
Other articles you might like;
Tagged with: Government Records • NARA • record holdings
Filed under: Archives
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Leave a Reply