Classified and Declassified Records Management: Structure and Activities of the Information Security Oversight Office of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
| 10 July 2025
Posted in
Publication of archival documents
УДК 94(73).651.5
Stepanov V.A., Moscow, Russian Federation
Classified and Declassified Records Management: Structure and Activities of the Information Security Oversight Office of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Abstract
The article is devoted to the structure and activities of the Information Security Oversight Office, subdivision of the National Archives and Records Administration. The necessity to highlight the work of the Office is dictated by weakness of historiographical base on issues concerning American archives and is to update and add to national historical and archival thought on records secrecy and declassification. In this view, the article offers an introduction to and some conclusions about regulatory framework of the Office's activities, including a detailed description of and comments on its organizational structure, functions and tasks of its advisory committees and commissions, and also some statistical data. Thus, it provides an overview of top secret and declassified records management at an institutional level. The research concludes that activities of the Office of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration play a significant role in ensuring information security not just of federal institutions, but of state, local government bodies and tribal organizations as well, overreaching the framework of American archival service status set by the Act of 1984. Moreover, considerable authority of the Information Security Oversight Office allows address issues of technical, regulatory and methodological provisions for protection of classified documentary information. This is done by records management and selection of documents for archival storage with universal or restricted access by joint consultations with agencies as stipulated by applicable legislation, allowing for considerations of basic principles of freedom of information and those of national security. Further study of the issue would reveal insights into legal and technical mechanisms of managing classified and declassified records, the analysis of the data would provide a theoretical interpretation for national archival and document science.
Keywords
National Archives and Records Administration of the USA, executive orders, records, Information Security Oversight Office, archives, secrecy, declassification.
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About the authors
Stepanov Vladislav Aleksandrovich, postgraduate student, lead specialist of the documents selection division of the Russian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation (RSASTD), Moscow, Russian Federation +7-916-992-86-08, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it