National Archives Catalog Enhancements
In September 2022 we introduced a fully redesigned and modernized online public access Catalog. This new and improved Catalog maximizes our ability to make the records of the National Archives even more accessible. We continually enhance the Catalog and launch new features based on customer feedback. To stay up to date on Catalog enhancements, sign up for our Catalog Newsletter.
About the Catalog
The Catalog focuses on scalability and is a modernized platform prepared for the future. In the next few years we will grow to 500 million digitized pages. New back-end enhancements will ensure an improved search experience. Our new Catalog makes it easier and more intuitive for you to find what you are looking for, and potentially discover related content of interest.
This redesigned Catalog is the result of a two-year agile development process, focusing on user research and testing. Many thanks to all of our volunteers who answered the call to provide input, feedback, and testing.
What’s new
Here are some of the new features and benefits you can expect from the new Catalog:
| Feature | Details |
| Better, faster performance and searching | The new Catalog uses OpenSearch and is designed to scale and perform better. The rebuilt site should return and load search results faster. We also switched to a new and improved optical character recognition (OCR) tool for turning text in digitized documents into searchable text. Better OCR should lead to improved search and discovery, too. |
| Mobile-friendly experience (mobile first design and interface) | The new Catalog uses a mobile first design approach and a flexible display layout that is easier for resizing for different screens and devices. |
| Improved 508 / accessibility | Accessibility features are enhanced and streamlined. The Catalog team tested for accessibility compliance, color contrast, screen reading tool compatibility, and more. |
| Enhanced image viewing: New pan and zoom features | Get a closer look at the details! We are using International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) technology and the Leaflet viewer to provide image tiling, pan, zoom, thumbnails, and access copies of digital images on the fly. This allows us to provide our users with higher quality digital images, while also making the storage and importing of images for the Catalog more efficient. |
| More user-friendly display of archival descriptions and authority records | Based on user experience feedback and testing with our customers, we created new, more intuitive displays for archival descriptions and authority files for organizations, people, and topical subjects. |
| Filter by Begin/End Congress Dates | Use Advanced Search to search Congressional Records by Congress number or Congressional date range. |
| PDF Display | View the PDF documents with our new and improved PDF viewer. You can now view entire PDFs, including page numbers, without leaving the Catalog. PDFs are also available as downloadable files. |
| Search result highlighting | Highlighting is now available in the search results so you have context and confirmation that your keywords appeared in the descriptions returned in your search results. This feature can be turned off by selecting Options in the blue page header. |
| Rotating background image on homepage | Enjoy the Catalog homepage, featuring a rotating selection of images from National Archives Catalog records. |
| Login.gov | Catalog user accounts are now migrated and mapped to Login.gov. Now it is easier to manage your Login.gov with a login you may use on other federal agency websites. |
| Enhanced features for contributors | The new Catalog provides a new user customer experience for contributors with more intuitive features for adding tags, comments, and transcriptions. It includes a new, more engaging dashboard for user contributor accounts showing activity related to your contributions. |
| Bulk records export | Our customers, especially educators, often ask for bulk records exports and feature enhancements related to exports. We will deliver a baseline functionality now and continue to refine and expand on these features in the coming years. |
| Sharing on social media and in messages | Share your discoveries and your contributions with your friends, colleagues, and family. There is a stable URL for every description which you can copy via the Share button to paste anywhere (email, documents, social media, and direct messages). |
| New, improved, and more user friendly Application Programming Interface (API) | We are excited about the new Application Programming Interface (API) experience. It includes a simplified data structure, more aggregated data, and documentation in Swagger. We think it is easier to use and look forward to your feedback about it. |
| New records/ holdings added daily | The Legacy Catalog updated on a weekly basis. Since our update in August 2024, processing times for import now only take a few hours, so new Catalog records and digital copies can be imported daily. |
| Advanced and Faceted Search | We continue to roll out more advanced search features, including additional facets that can be used to refine your search, such as date, location, and file format. We introduced new contribution filters so you can limit your search to tags, transcriptions, comments, or extracted text. |
| Extracted text displayed | You can view and use the machine-generated extracted text for many of our records in the Catalog. This will improve accessibility and searchability of our records. |
What’s coming
The new Catalog is a work in progress! Here are some features that you can expect to find over the next several months of development:
| Feature | Details |
| Better, faster performance and searching | The new Catalog uses OpenSearch and we are upgrading the version of OpenSearch. |
| New digital records viewer | Based on customer feedback about the digital records viewer features in the Catalog, we plan to introduce a new digital records viewer. |
| Saved lists | Based on customer feedback we will introduce a new user experience for saved lists. |
FAQs
Q: Can I still access the legacy Catalog?
A: No, the legacy Catalog was retired in September 2023.
Q: Can I still access the legacy Catalog application programming interface (API v1)?
A: The legacy Catalog API v1 was retired along with the legacy Catalog in September 2023. We recommend you register for an API key for the new Catalog API v2 and start familiarizing yourself with the API v2 documentation now if you have not yet already. For an API key and any API questions, email us at Catalog_API@nara.gov.
Q: How do I contribute as a Citizen Archivist to the new Catalog?
A: Citizen Archivist contributions (tags, transcriptions, and comments) and contributions functions are available in the Catalog! Learn how to register and get started, and find additional instructions on our Citizen Archivist Dashboard.
Q: Where can I find help searching the Catalog?
A: We’ll be updating the Catalog help pages as we continue with Catalog development. Check them out at Using the National Archives Catalog.
Q: How do I give feedback about the new Catalog?
A: We’d love to hear what you think about the Catalog! Email us at catalog@nara.gov or fill out the Catalog feedback survey.
Q: How do I learn about new Catalog enhancements?
A: We share the latest news about Catalog enhancements and search tips in The Catalog Newsletter.