The National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA) will meet in Denver, CO July 7 - 11, 2020, for the 2020 NAGARA Annual Conference. The Program Committee is excited to announce this year’s theme: “Mining our Past, Engineering our Future”! The theme not only ties directly into the history of Colorado and the importance of natural resources in the West, but also parallels the work we do as government information professionals. We mine the past through making government information accessible and learning about professional best practices to replicate at our institutions. We engineer our future by providing a bridge between the public and government and working to ensure our organizations adapt to the changing information landscape.
Mining our Past, Engineering our Future
Today’s government information professionals face the challenge of managing exploding information to enhance user experience and enable organizations to reach their fullest potential. Often, we must accomplish our goals with minimal resources, budgets, and personnel. While these pressures continue to grow, institutions are mining the past to engineer a better future.
Mining our Past
Linking and preserving records at all levels of government operates as a core of our professional work. We ensure users ready access to unearth government information and promote transparency and trust in government. We must continually assess and build upon our existing professional foundation to adapt to an ever-changing environment. To accomplish this, we need to consider:
- How do we transition from a traditional custodial approach to records to a modern dynamic information landscape?
- How do we ensure analog records’ place in a digital environment?
- What knowledge can we extract from colleagues, professional alliances, and users?
Engineering our Future
While the future of information management, technology, and government is constantly developing, information professionals provide a unique bridge between the government and the public. We have the ability to engineer our profession's future and chart the direction of how government information is accessed, disseminated and utilized for the advantage of all. To map our course, we do well to ask ourselves:
- How do we systematically manage our information assets?
- How do we adapt to the accelerated demand for government information and accountability to satisfy citizen's expectations?
- How will we ensure long term access to government information?
NAGARA invites interested parties to submit session proposals that will inspire and engage your professional colleagues. The 2020 Program Committee seeks sessions and presentation proposals on any aspect of government archives and records management practices at the local, state, and Federal level, as well as their intersections with other professions and domains.
When submitting a proposal for the conference, please consider how the session ties into mining our past, engineering our future, and:
- Informs: Tells the audience about a topic in order to transfer knowledge.
- Improves: Provides the audience with new knowledge that can be replicated.
- Inspires: Energizes the audience with innovative ideas.
- Involves: Includes the audience, the profession, and our users.
Proposals were due Friday, December 20, 2019. The Program Committee is now reviewing and evaluating the proposals and will make final determinations by the end of January 2020.