Archivist of the United States Announces Establishment of the National Declassification Center

/PRNewswire/ -- Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero announced today the establishment of the National Declassification Center (NDC) within the National Archives and Records Administration.

The creation of the NDC is specified in the new Executive Order on Classified National Security Information signed by President Obama on December 29, 2009. Specifically, the NDC is charged with streamlining declassification processes, facilitating quality assurance measures, and implementing standard training for declassification reviewers.

In making the announcement, Mr. Ferriero said, "The Federal government has reached a watershed moment in records declassification. The current backlog is so huge that Americans are being denied the ability to hold government officials accountable for their actions. By streamlining the declassification process, the NDC will usher in a new day in the world of access, allowing the National Archives to make more records available for public scrutiny much more quickly."

Initially, the NDC will be located at the National Archives College Park, MD facility and focus on clearing the backlog of referrals in reviewed documents both in Federal records and in Presidential materials. Dr. Michael Kurtz, Assistant Archivist for the Office of Records Services, Washington will serve as Acting Director of the NDC pending the selection of a permanent director. The NDC will be advised by an inter-agency Policy Planning Group made up of senior managers from the Departments of State, Defense, and Energy as well as the Central Intelligence Agency, Director of National Intelligence, the Information Security Oversight Office, and the National Archives.

"The establishment of the NDC provides a unique opportunity for the National Archives and its agency colleagues to create new strategies to protect essential national security and release hundreds of millions of pages to researchers and the public," said Dr. Kurtz

In anticipation of the establishment of the NDC, an inter-agency Program Management Team that has begun examining current declassification review processes throughout the government. The National Archives is working with the Defense Change Management Organization to conduct a study to determine how processes can be improved by reducing process cycle time, defects and costs. The recommendations from this effort will be incorporated into the new NDC processes.

Public input, questions and comments may be sent to NDC@nara.gov . Information about upcoming forums and NDC initiatives may be found at the NDC website: http://www.archives.gov/declassification.

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Over 10 Million Images from the LIFE Photo Archive to be Made Available on Google

PRNewswire/ -- Access to LIFE's Photo Archive -- over 10 million images in total -- will soon be available on a new hosted image service from Google, Time Inc. has announced. Ninety-seven percent of the photographs have never been seen by the public. The collection contains some of the most iconic images of the 20th century, including works from great photojournalists Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith.

These images can be found when conducting a search on Google.com or on Google Image Search. Users can also search through the LIFE Collection directly by visiting http://images.google.com/hosted/life.

The LIFE Photo Archive featured on Google will be among the largest professional photography collections on the Web and one of the largest scanning projects ever undertaken. Millions of images have been scanned and made available on Google Image Search today with all 10 million images to be available in the coming months.

"For 70 years, LIFE has been about one thing, and that's the power of photography to tell a story," says Andy Blau, LIFE's President. "LIFE will now reach a broader audience and engage them online with the incredible depth and breadth of the LIFE Photo Archive from serious world events, to Hollywood celebrities to whimsical photographs." Time Inc. EVP, John Squires adds: "We're delighted Google recognized the rich value of our photo archive and worked with us to bring it to millions of consumers. Consistent with the launch of the TIME Archive, PEOPLE Archive and the SI Vault, this initiative continues our efforts to build valuable new revenue opportunities from our rich heritage."

All keywords are translated into 16 different languages. LIFE's Photo Archive will be scanned and available on Google Image Search free for personal and research purposes. Copyright and ownership of all images will remain with Time Inc.

"Bringing millions of never-before-seen offline images online aligns with Google's mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," said R.J. Pittman, Director of Product Management at Google. "The LIFE Photo Archive captures some of the most compelling events, people and places of the past two hundred years. We have enhanced Google Image Search to provide our users with a rich search and browse experience to explore these high quality historical images."

In addition to housing some of the most important images taken by LIFE photographers, the LIFE Photo Archive also includes: The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880's; Hugo Jaeger Nazi-era Germany 1937-1944; DMI red-carpet celebrity shots; Pix Inc. personalities; the entire works left to the Collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen.

LIFE also announces the most comprehensive offering to date to purchase fine art photographic prints online. The general public will now have access to buy LIFE's famous photography through QOOP.com, a leader in online art sales.

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