Press/Journalists

Celebrate Sunshine Week, Access, and Transparency March 14!
Press Release · Thursday, March 8, 2018

Washington, DC

The National Archives celebrates Sunshine Week, an annual nationwide celebration of access to public information, with a special program on access and transparency on Wednesday, March 14, at 2 p.m. EDT.  The event will be held in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, and streamed live on the National Archives YouTube Channel.   

Learn how to access many Federal records — without filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request! Staff experts will discuss and answer questions about accessing Executive, Judicial, Legislative, and Presidential records from our holdings. Gary M. Stern, National Archives General Counsel, Chief FOIA Officer, and Senior Agency Officer for Privacy, will provide the keynote address and moderate the event. The expert panel includes:  Martha Murphy, Chief, Special Access and FOIA; Don McIlwain, Supervisory Archivist, National Declassification Center; John Laster, Director, Presidential Materials Division; Kristen Wilhelm, archivist, Center for Legislative Archives; and, Joseph Scanlon, FOIA & Privacy Act Officer, Office of General Counsel. A question and answer session will follow the program. Online viewers can participate and ask questions via YouTube.

Alina Semo, Director of the Office of Government Information Services, explained the National Archives’ commitment to open government:  "We celebrate Sunshine Week every day at our agency," she said. "From our work to make the Freedom of Information Act process more effective to our colleagues’ efforts to modernize our records management guidance, streamline the declassification process, and increase the impact of open innovation activities, the net result is improved public access to the records."

Additional Sunshine Week highlights and information:

The National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, is located on Constitution Avenue at 9th Street, NW. The building is open 10 AM–5:30 PM daily, and is fully accessible. Metro: Yellow or Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial station. To verify the date and times of a program, call the National Archives Public Programs Line at: 202 357-5000, or view the Calendar of Events online.

18-31

Snippet

# # #

For media inquiries, please contact: National Archives Public and Media Communications at (202) 357-5300 or via email at public.affairs@nara.gov.

Connect with the National Archives on:

Facebook logo icon Facebook: USNationalArchives

Instagram logo icon Instagram: usnatarchives

LinkedIn icon LinkedIn: usnatarchives

Threads icon Threads: usnatarchives

Tumblr icon Tumblr: usnatarchives

X iconX: @USNatArchives

YouTube iconYouTube: usnationalarchives

 

 

This page was last reviewed on March 15, 2018.
Contact us with questions or comments.

Top