The Citizen Archivist Initiative at the National Archives has been honored with the 2012 Walter Gellhorn Innovation Award.
The award, presented by the Administrative Conference of the United States, recognizes innovation and best practices in government agencies.
“We are thrilled to win the Walter Gellhorn Innovation Award,” said Archives Chief Innovation Officer Pamela Wright. “It encourages us to continue to provide opportunities for the public to work with us to provide greater access to the permanent records of the federal government.”
According to the National Archives, the Citizen Archivist Initiative is an adaptation of crowdsourcing where citizen science projects engage amateurs and nonprofessionals in scientific research.
The Archives has used digital technology to engage citizen archivists to work on digital images that increase public access to the federal government’s records.
