The Archivist of the United States, David S. Ferriero, has announced the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA’s) plan for resuming research room operations. In-person access to research rooms is dependent on local health conditions and several requirements are in place to ensure the safety of both staff and patrons. Research room visits will be by appointment only. The new requirements are detailed below. The most up-to-date information about NARA’s reopening can be found here.

NARA is utilizing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) transmission levels to determine when research rooms can be fully reopened while ensuring maximum safety for customers and employees. County transmission levels are available on the CDC website.

To summarize:

• At high transmission levels, a limited number of staff may volunteer to be on-site to complete certain work that must be done on-site. No research rooms will be open.
• At substantial or moderate transmission levels, staff will be on-site to complete core work and research rooms will open at a limited capacity by appointment only.
• At low transmission levels, staff will be on-site to complete all types of work, and research rooms are expected to remain open by appointment only.