For a historic debate, it’s appropriate that America’s leaders turned to history for guidance. That said, David S. Ferriero, former Duke university librarian and now archivist of the United States, is how a 1939 letter from President Franklin Roosevelt got cited in the health care debate over the weekend.
Speaking Monday before a near-capacity audience in the auditorium of the Sociology-Psychology Building, Ferriero discussed the importance of preserving America’s historical documents. Responding to a question about the records of the 14-month health care reform debate, he said Roosevelt’s health plan only numbered five pages.
Ferriero, who took the helm of the National Archives four months ago, said a presidential mandate signed last December ordering more openness is directing a “ray of light” into government agencies. He said they have until April 7 to submit transparency plans with accompanying website gateways to information.
[Snip]
He says the National Archives needs “the best minds at colleges and universities and the private sector working in concert to develop new ways of not simply saving the records, but preserving them and figuring out ways to make sure they are accessible.”
Source: Duke Today
As mentioned in the article highlights, Ferriero's presentation was part of a lecture series titled, “The Historical Record in the Digital Age.” Most of the presentations can be heard and/or viewed online.
1. A Report Card on Obama's Foreign Policy
Speaker: Pulitzer Prize Winner, Seymour Hersh
No audio/video.
2. The Digital As Anti-Archive? by Diana Taylor, University Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish and Founding Director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at the Tisch School of the Arts. Video of Lecture.
3. The Digital Revolution in the Humanities: Does it create new knowledge or just make us work harder?
Lynn Hunt, Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History at UCLA. Video of Lecture.
4. Gaming History: The Battle for Narrative Control in the Digital Age
Jonathan Zittrain, Professor of Law and Co-Founder/Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Video of Lecture.
The FreePint Family is a family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success.
'FreePint... provides most of my professional development because it won't come through work and [other resources] just don't cut it.'
FUMSI Forum: Do you have a research question? Post it to the FUMSI Forum, where professionals share Q&A and useful tips on how to Find, Use, Manage and Share Information. It's free.
FreePint Shop:
VIP LiveWire:
