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Archivist of the United States , Ph.D., is in town and will give a free public talk Thursday at the Seattle Public Library about her role as leader of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), a job she鈥檚 had for about six months.

Dr. Shogan sat down with 成人X站 Newsradio for a sneak preview of what she鈥檒l talk about with Microsoft鈥檚 Brad Smith and revealed some so-far little reported news about the future of the National Archives in the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Shogan was sworn in in May of this year, so she鈥檚 fairly new to the job. She鈥檚 the first woman to serve as Archivist of the United States, and she is getting around the country to visit all 42 facilities managed by NARA, which includes a number of presidential libraries as well as regional facilities such as the one near Sand Point in Seattle.

The National Archives currently has 13.5 billion pages of 鈥渞ecords鈥� 鈥� including documents, photographs, and maps 鈥� and only about 250 million have been digitized so far. Digitization, says Dr. Shogan, is a big priority, as well as adapting to a world where nearly all newly created government records are 鈥渄igital born鈥� 鈥� that is, not printed out on paper.

NARA is also about to launch a new facility to speed up the digitization process across its nationwide network of facilities.

鈥淲e are in the process of standing up in the next couple of months a high-powered, high-speed digitization center in the basement of our large College Park facility,鈥� in Maryland, Dr. Shogan said, 鈥渨hich will be a series of very big digitization machines that will be set up along with a whole staff who will work with those machines to be able to digitize large volumes of records鈥� from facilities including Seattle.

The Seattle facility was threatened with closure 鈥� with the materials held there to be relocated to California and Missouri 鈥� in 2020. A lawsuit by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and a grassroots campaign by Indigenous tribes, historical societies, and others who wanted to keep the archives in Seattle ultimately led officials of the obscure Public Buildings Reform Board to scrap those closure plans.

成人X站 Newsradio asked Dr. Shogan about Seattle鈥檚 long-term future as home to a National Archives facility, given that it was almost shut down and given the fact that NARA has stated that there鈥檚 roughly $80 million worth of deferred maintenance at the World War II-era Sand Point building, including a leaky roof and humidity control issues.

That was when Dr. Shogan shared some pretty big news, which came as a surprise.

鈥淲e’re moving forward with plans to build a new facility in the Seattle area for the National Archives,鈥� Dr. Shogan said. 鈥淎nd there should be funding in the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations legislation once it’s passed.鈥�

鈥淭he full legislation has not been passed for Fiscal Year 2024,鈥� Dr. Shogan cautioned. 鈥淏ut there should be funding to support the planning for a new facility, and the National Archives will work with GSA, who will help us select a site and make plans for a new building.鈥�

GSA is the General Services Administration, the agency that owns the current facility in Seattle and will plan and develop the new one as long as the funding is there. Language in the GSA section of the Senate bill, dated July 13, 2023, reads, 鈥淪eattle, Design of Replacement Facility, $9,000,000.鈥�

Planning for the new facility, says Dr. Shogan, will include opportunities for stakeholders to participate in envisioning a facility to serve the public better.

鈥淚 really want to reinvent and invigorate the public spaces,鈥� Dr. Shogan said. The new facility needs to have 鈥渁reas where we can have people to do research 鈥� we have to have good research facilities and research rooms 鈥� but also places where we could bring school groups [鈥�] where we can bring groups of teachers in from Seattle Public Schools, for example, on their in-service days, where they can come in and take a day-long seminar led by an archivist here.鈥�

NARA is also seeking funding to do some repairs at Sand Point because it will likely take nearly a decade for the new facility to come online. The actual location is also still to be determined, but Dr. Shogan says it will be in the Seattle area.

Thursday鈥檚 public event with Dr. Colleen Shogan is at 5:15 p.m. at the downtown Seattle Public Library. Dr. Shogan will sit down for a conversation with Brad Smith of Microsoft about 鈥渨hat my plans are for the National Archives, what’s the role of the National Archives, [and] what are ways in which I think technology can help us accomplish our mission.鈥�

The event is free, but you do have to register in advance.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle鈥檚 Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O鈥橞rien, read more from him鈥�here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast聽here. If you have a story idea, please email Feliks鈥�here.