Archives abroad: National Archives launches Open Government Plan

The National Archives and Records Administration is letting the public preview a new search tool that digs through the government's huge archive of public records.

Users visiting a prototype of the new site can search for everything from a child's letter to the president to the iconic image of WWII's Rosie the Riveter among more than 10.9 million permanent electronic records.

The Online Public Access prototype is the first step undertaken by the National Archives to providing a single search to its records from several of current systems, including the Archival Research Catalog (ARC), Access to Archival Databases (AAD), Archives.gov, and the Electronic Records Archive (ERA). As part of the National Archives' flagship initiative in the Open Government Plan, the new search is intended to make the permanent records of the federal government easier to find online. The National Archives welcomes feedback as it continues to develop this search portal.