NARA: New National Archives Catalog Debuts

From a NARA Announcement:

 A new, modernized National Archives Catalog launched online today (11/22). The new Catalog’s focus on scalability will allow the agency to reach its goal to get 500 million digitized pages in the Catalog by September 202

The fully redesigned online public access Catalog makes accessing the agency’s holdings more intuitive for the user and improves the search experience by generating faster results.

New features, such as a mobile-first design and enhanced image viewing, allow for an improved visual experience. A full list of all the new features, as well as those to come, can be found on the National Archives website.

“We are happy to introduce a new, streamlined user experience and a modernized platform that will scale for the growth in the Catalog during the years ahead,” said Jill Reilly, Director for Digital Engagement. “The new OCR (optical character recognition) tool is a game changer for enhancing search, discovery, and access to digitized records.”

Catalog users will now be able to access their accounts and make Citizen Archivist contributions via Login.gov. All Catalog user accounts have been migrated, and users will be able to sync their preexisting Catalog accounts with Login.gov. 

The Citizen Archivist community on History Hub is available for tips on navigating these changes and is also where Citizen Archivists can ask and answer questions, or see if their question has already been answered.

The legacy Catalog will still be available until March 2023, but results of searches that yield a high number of Catalog entries may be limited.

Earlier this year, the Catalog topped 200 million digitized pages, and the latest additions are regularly updated on What’s New in the Catalog on the National Archives website.

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