As part of their long-term plan to make historic U.S. documents and records readily available to the public, the U.S. National Archives is pursuing partnerships with a number of different organizations to assist with digitization of its holdings.

One such proposed partnership, announced today, is with The Generations Network (TGN), parent company of Ancestry.com. This proposed non-exclusive agreement basically means that TGN will pay for all costs involved in the digitization of the documents in return for being allowed to offer them to subscribers at Ancestry.com. NARA will be able to offer free access to any records digitized under this agreement in NARA research rooms nationwide. This is similar to non-exclusive agreements already in place with Footnote.com and FamilySearch.org. It doesn't mean that these groups are all in competition with one another. Instead, the more such arrangements that NARA makes, the more of their records become available for genealogists online and in NARA research centers. These deals are a win-win for genealogists as far as I'm concerned. If you have comments you would like heard, the National Archives is asking for feedback on this proposed arrangement.

Hat tip to Dick Eastman for the notice.