On December 9, the Research Colloquium in North American History  will host archivist, Prof. Dr. William McAllister.

The following is to help you prepare for the workshop on the National Archives and Records Administration by Prof. Dr. William B. McAllister at Georgetown University, on Monday, December 9, at 6pm, in Room 340 at JFKI.

The National Archives and Records Administrations (NARA, https://www.archives.gov/) holds and is in charge of the documentation, processing and preservation of the U.S. government’s historical records. Its headquarters are located in Washington, D.C., while a sister facility opened in College Park, Md., in 1994.

If one day, you wish to do research on location, do contact NARA ahead of time.  They expect you to write them about your research interests and then await their response.  The staff is very busy, especially in the summer, so it often takes three weeks for them to reply. If you have not been in touch with them, see https://www.archives.gov/college-park

Also, you also must make a reservation for each day you want to research at College Park. That's easy, it's free, and you can cancel any time you want, so you want to do this early on, right away and select every possible day you might wish to research there. 

As of October 1, reservations must be made here https://www.eventbrite.com/o/national-archives-dc-area-research-appointments-87533423643

If you are targeting State Department records, make sure you sign up for Archives 2 (not Archives 1, which is downtown). Typically you want to start with textual research (rather than microfilm or photos or maps).