NATF36final

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Microfilm Order, NATF Form 36 (rev. 05/10)

(OMB Control No. 3095-0046)

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the agency of the Federal Government responsible for identifying, preserving, and making available to the public and to Federal, state, local and tribal Governments all forms of Government records not restricted by law that have been determined to have sufficient historical, informational, or evidential value to warrant continued preservation.

Records of various media are normally used in the several research rooms operated within the National Archives system (36 CFR 1254.1 - 1254.27), including the facility in College Park, Maryland. In order to accommodate those researchers who cannot visit the appropriate NARA research room or who request copies of records as a result of visiting a research room, NARA offers limited provisions to obtain copies of records by mail and requires requests to be made on prescribed forms for certain bodies of records (36 CFR 1254.72).

The National Archives Trust Fund (NATF) Form 36 (rev. 05/10), Microfilm Order, is used by customers/researchers for ordering a roll, rolls, or a microfiche of a microfilm publication.

Since 1941 the National Archives and Records Administration has microfilmed Federal records of high research interest to make the records available to researchers while preserving the original from deterioration and damage from handling. Copies of these microfilmed records are sold to the public, making Federal records accessible to libraries, research centers, and individuals.

The NARA microfilm publications provides ready access to records for research in a variety of fields including history, economics, political science, law, and genealogy. NARA emphasizes microfilming groups of records relating to the same general subject or to a specific geographic area. For example, compiled service records and accompanying indexes for 19^th century volunteer soldiers are on microfilm. Microfilmed State Department records, such as consular dispatches and notes, provide almost complete coverage of relations between the United States and other countries during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

NARA sent a change request for this form to OMB in February 2009. The following changes were made to the form: 1) price changes to domestic and foreign microfilm; 2) addition of digitized microfilm option; 3) mailing address changes; and 4) requiring of a telephone number and asking for an alternate telephone number.

The May 2010 version of the form now includes a Reproduction Quality Statement on the back of the form, between the Privacy Act Statement and Paperwork Reduction Act Public Burden Statement.

NARA sent a change request for this form to OMB in September 2011 to document a price increase to take effect on October 1, 2011.

NARA sent a change request for this form to OMB in December 2011 to document a change a refund policy added to the back of this form on November 10, 2011.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information. NATF is responsible for handling the payments received for reproductions of microfilm rolls. The Research Support Branch (NWCC2) at the National Archives at College Park (Archives II) processes the order for duplicating the microfilm roll and forwards the order to the Special Media Preservation Laboratory (NWTS) for reproduction of the requested microfilm roll.

The information collected by the NATF Form 36 is the minimum identification of the microfilm publication designation and roll number necessary to service the request. If this information collection was not conducted, NARA would be unable to fulfill this part of its mandate in a timely, equitable, and efficient manner.

3. Use of Information Technology and Burden Reduction. Use of improved information technology would have no effect on the burden but would improve customer service. The collected information is the minimum information needed to allow NARA to process the order for duplicating the microfilm roll. Oftentimes, customers may use a fax machine for transmitting the NATF Form 36.

The same basic information is collected as part of the online ordering system which NARA uses to automate the request process. Screen shots of this automated ordering system have been included with the OMB clearance package.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information. NARA is unaware of any duplication. This information is collected only when a customer places an order for reproductions. Each order is unique.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities. The collection of the information has been designed to minimize the burden on customers.

6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently. The information collection cannot be conducted less frequently since it occurs only when microfilm rolls or microfiche are requested from NARA. NARA never initiates this information collection; it only responds to customer demand.

7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5. The information collection is conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside Agency. Additionally, a Federal Register notice announcing NARA’s proposal to request use extension of this new information collection was published to solicit public comment on May 10, 2010 (75 FR 25886). No comments were received.

9. Explanation of Any Payment or Gift to Respondents. No payment or gift is provided to respondents for this information.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents. No assurance of confidentiality is provided.

10. Justification for Sensitive Questions. No questions of a sensitive or private nature are asked. The form does allow the respondent to provide credit card information, which is considered financially sensitive information. Only the original copy of the form contains this information, which is either returned to the respondent if the reply is negative, or filed in secure file cabinets in the Cashier’s office if the respondent is billed.

10. Estimates of Hour Burden Including Annualized Hourly Costs. The total annual number of respondents for the NATF Form 36 is estimated to be 600. The burden per response is estimated to be 10 minutes to read the instructions and fill out the form. The annual burden hours are 100 hours.

10. Estimate of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Recordkeepers. The estimated annual cost burden to respondents is $318. This cost is figured at the minimum wage rate of $5.35 per hour for ten minutes of time so that the cost per response is 54 cents. The cost per response ($0.53) is multiplied by the number of respondents (5,200) for a total annual respondent cost for hour burden of $318.

10. Annualized Cost to the Federal Government. The estimated annualized cost to the Government for NATF Form 36 is minimal. The Microfilm Order would be available on the NARA web page and the form will be printed in microfilm catalogs when they are republished. No cost was assigned to the staff time required to respond to a request because this is a core function of the National Archives.

10. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments. There is no change in burden.

10. Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule. The information collection is not used for statistical studies or publications.

10. Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate. The expiration date for OMB approval of this information collection will be displayed on the forms.

10. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions. There are no exceptions to the certification statement identified in Item 19 of OMB Form 83-1, “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions”.

3