CORRECTION: A March 29 article titled ‘US archivist speaks on security,’ misstates the president which David Ferriero met with in June. Ferriero met with former President George W. Bush. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

David Ferriero calls the National Archives and Records Administration ‘the best kept secret in Washington.’

The National Archives strives to only classify information that must be kept secret for national security, and that information is only classified for as long as necessary, said Ferriero, the 10th archivist of the United States. But the National Archives can’t make all governmental records accessible to the public, he said.

‘If made public, they could compromise our national security by revealing sensitive information, complicating our relations with other nations and harming or weakening our national defenses,’ Ferriero said.

Ferriero gave a lecture Monday in Eggers Hall on the balance between providing access to governmental records to the public while protecting sensitive information. The event was co-sponsored by the School of Information Studies, E.S. Bird Library, Syracuse University’s history department and the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism.

The National Archives were created as a federal agency in 1934 and today have broad authority to manage federal records of the president and federal officials. More than 10 billion accessible documents, 7.2 billion maps and at least 40 million photographs are part of the archives, which are dispersed throughout the country, Ferriero said.

People access the archives for family history and military records, as well as information about American history and how the government works, he said.

Last June, Ferriero also met with former President George W. Bush to discuss plans for the new presidential library. Bush is proud his library will be the first with a significant collection of electronic records, Ferriero said.

Since the National Archives have always been about openness and access, Ferriero said the agency complies with Obama’s open government initiative. With a redesigned website, mobile capabilities and use of social media, the archives have embraced the president’s requests of more transparency in the government and adapting to the digital world, he said.

‘The National Archives has a unique role in our government as the nation’s record keeper, but it also has a role that is shared with every other government agency, and that is protecting national security,’ Ferriero said. ‘We take this responsibility very seriously.’

Within the archives, the Office of Government and Information Services, the National Declassification Center and the Information Security Oversight Office mediate disputes between requestors and what information is not allowed access by the public. These offices also serve as informal information sources and work to eliminate the backlog of declassified records of intelligence operations.

‘Releasing all we can, protecting what we must,’ Ferriero said.

To provide as much access as possible to the citizens, the National Archives are focusing on strengthening the relationship with the public by placing more information online, he said.

Kristina Braell, a master’s student enrolled in the iSchool, said she is open to access, so she thought Ferriero’s speech flowed well with what she has learned about it.

Brael said Ferriero seemed to encourage getting as much information into the public as possible.

In response to Ferriero’s balance between access and security, Samantha Strevy, also a graduate student in the iSchool, said she thought it was the right approach.

‘When you are dealing with archives and national security, it is going to be difficult to balance both,’ she said. ‘But he seemed to have a good handle on dealing with it.’

rebarill@syr.edu

Published on March 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm