Excerpted from... F A M I L Y T R E E M A G A Z I N E E M A I L U P D A T E Essential news and tips for family historians. July 21, 2005 http://www.familytreemagazine.com NARA'S NEW SITE TO SEE http://www.archives.gov The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) launched a redesigned Web site yesterday. The overhaul was based on comments from researchers like you. NARA's old site contained tons of useful information, but it could be a bear to navigate. For example, the genealogy page put news front and center, with research information below. Deciding where to go next was difficult: Navigation links weren't descriptive and were listed in no apparent order. Links to HeritageQuest Online and AncestryPlus (now Ancestry Library Edition), non-NARA sites you have use at a subscribing library, were located on the main genealogy page along with NARA databases, rather than on the Other Web Sites page. It's still too soon to say whether the new site is easier to navigate, but it looks promising. The home page features three columns of links. Those on the left tell you about NARA--its mission, publications and the like. The center of the page features changing content such as news. Look on the right to choose links based on who you are, such as General Public, Genealogist, Educator, Journalist. Links to databases and tools such as Access to Archival Databases and eVetRecs are below that. The main genealogy page links you to online finding aids and research overviews. You also can click to a Q&A, records spotlight and microfilmed records guides. One more click transports you to pages about record groups such as census, military and immigration. A horizontal bar at the top of the page shows you where you are on the site. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -- Michelle Tucker Chubenko GSNJ Trustee