The 2016 institute will be held in the Innovation Hub, new flexible meeting space dedicated to collaboration among NARA staff and between staff and members of the public. The Hub, located on the first floor in space formerly occupied by the library, is next door to the Consultation/Finding Aids Room and adjacent to the public access computers. This new home will offer easier access to records and staff, allowing participants to make the best use possible of non-classroom time.
Besides the meeting space, the Hub has a scanning room where researchers can digitize compiled military service records and pension files at no charge. Images are shared with NARA and uploaded to the National Archives Catalog. Citizen-archivists can tag records so that future researchers can benefit from their efforts.
The institute has been held on-site at the National Archives Building on Pennsylvania Avenue for most of its long history but, over the years, migrated among classrooms. One memorable exception was “The Year of the Flood,” as 2006 came to be called, when the Federal Triangle Flash Flood overcame Archives I and forced Director Claire Bettag and Assistant Director Patty Shawker to hold lectures at Archives II in College Park and in hotel ballrooms.