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DRAFT PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

Posted for comment: March 10, 2008
Comments due: April 9, 2008
Send comments to: Vision@nara.gov or by fax to 301-837-0319

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is pursuing partnerships with organizations from a variety of sectors (private, public, non-profit, educational, government) as part of our strategy to digitize and make more accessible the historic holdings from the National Archives of the United States. These partnerships, under which the partner digitizes and hosts certain holdings at its expense, will enable the public to have electronic access to textual and microfilm records sooner than NARA itself can provide. The terms of each agreement may vary, particularly with respect to fees that may be charged by the partner for access on its website and restrictions that may apply in obtaining downloads of the digital compilations created by the partner. The original holdings will always remain in the public domain, and access to digitized records will always be freely available in NARA's research rooms. Copying will continue to be available in accordance with NARA's fee schedule.

NARA is giving public notice that we propose to enter into a non-exclusive agreement with The Generations Network, Inc. (TGN) to digitize and further expand public access to archival holdings in NARA's custody. Your comments on the terms of the proposed agreement are invited. Comments must be received by April 9, 2008.

The highlights of this proposed agreement are:

1. The records to be digitized will be mutually agreed to, with NARA having final approval.
2. The partner in this proposed agreement, TGN, is in the business of converting records of historical and genealogical value into digital form, and publishing them on the Internet and on other digital media.
3. NARA will receive digital copies of all holdings that are digitized as part of this agreement. As with all of NARA's digitization agreements, there will be no charge for researchers at any time to access the digital copies in any of NARA's research rooms.
4. Benefits to researchers included in this agreement are: free access to the digitized images and indexes in NARA's research rooms nationwide; links to and from NARA's online Archival Research Catalog; and the opportunity to purchase copies of the documents in digital format.
5. Individual project plans will be established that identify the specific records to be digitized and specify metadata and other details that will apply to those records.
6. The first selection of archival materials will be a test project and, upon its mutually satisfactory review, the parties will define and continue to define additional archival materials to be digitized and will produce project plans for succeeding projects.
7. NARA's agreement with TGN will be non-exclusive. NARA has already reached digitizing agreements with other entities and will continue to consider additional agreements.
8. TGN will pay all costs for conservation, metadata creation, pulling and refiling records, and digitizing the records.

For additional information on NARA's digitization program, please see our web page on Digitization at the National Archives (NARA).