The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is scheduled to completely eliminate its veterans records backlog by January 2024, the agency said in its Fiscal Year 2023 Agency Financial Report.
The records backlog at NARA swelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has caused delays for veterans seeking benefits.
“Eliminating the backlog of requests that accumulated at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) during the COVID-19 pandemic has been my top priority, said Colleen Shogan, archivist of the U.S.
“My first official trip as Archivist of the United States was to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), where I reinforced my commitment to eliminating the backlog, and to witness first hand the extraordinary work of NPRC staff in support of our nation’s veterans,” she said.
The report also talks about NARA’s success in expanding access to the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) 2.0 system to include other Federal agencies.
“Customer agencies now have a modern, cloudhosted platform for records scheduling and transfer services,” added Shogan.
“ERA 2.0 improves the customer experience by providing a modern interface and dashboard to help agencies track the status of record scheduling and transfer requests through the approval process,” she said.
NARA has also successfully launched its modernized National Archives Catalog, which provides free and public access to digitized archival government documents.
“The new platform is geared towards the future as the Catalog is expected to grow from 217 million pages at the end of FY 2023 to over 500 million digitized pages in the next few years,” stated Shogan.
“New enhancements make accessing the agency’s holdings more intuitive for the user and improves the search experience by generating faster results,” stated Shogan.