Archives Found

 Update: According to the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio lawmakers have passed an interim budget that will last through July 7. This means that you have more time to make calls, send emails, and rally supporters for this cause. Get to work!

The Ohio Historical Society (a nonprofit org that serves as the state archives of Ohio) is now facing a massive potential cut in state funding to the tune of 45%– from $13.5 million to $7.5 million over the next two years. This will reduce the OHS to the level of state funding that they held in 1986.

Some of the consequences of this year’s OHS budget cuts include:

• Eliminate teacher training and educational programs that leverage federal funding
• Eliminate National History Day in Ohio, a national program which originated in Ohio
• Eliminate the Local History Office that serves 800 local history organizations
• Eliminate the Civil War Sesquicentennial (2011-2015) initiative
• Eliminate the Ohio Historical Markers program
• Severely restrict OHS services throughout the state
• Reduce our ability to generate nonstate revenues (i.e., federal grants, private revenue)
• Reduce access to historic sites and museums
• Reduce our ability to recruit local organizations to manage sites
• Reduce assistance and resources to sites management organizations

The Ohio Historical Society has been struggling with funding issues for a long time– you may recall that I talked about this back in February; matters have not improved. Since then, they have tried mandatory furloughs for employees, local fundraising, and sustained, tireless efforts at raising the awareness of legislators and Ohioans. Want to know what I think? All Ohioans– past, present, and future have a stake; and thus, a responsibility to get involved. How to get involved, you ask?

• Talk to your colleagues, your students, your patrons, your friends and family. Relate your personal and professional stories about Ohio history and genealogy. Have you used the Ohio Death Certificate Index or Ohio military rosters in your research? Have you used resources from the Ohio Memory project in your classroom?
• Have you been to the Serpent Mound? Watched a vintage “base ball” game in Ohio Village? Visited the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum, the Ulysses S. Grant Boyhood Home, the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Fort Meigs, or the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center? Share your experiences, and urge others to do the same.
• Contact the governor and your legislators. Tell them that cutting funding for Ohio cultural heritage should not be an option. In fact, do it even if you don’t live in Ohio. Let ‘em know that preserving history is important.
• Spread the word via social network– send a letter to the editor, post it on your Facebook, Twitter, and wherever else. In fact, go to Governor Strickland’s Facebook page and post, too. Spread awareness in a firm, factual way, and try to do it before the budget vote tomorrow in Columbus- Tuesday, June 30.

On a personal note- I have already sent my emails and made my calls. Though I no longer live in Ohio, I proudly hold a bachelor’s degree from the history department at The Ohio State University. I have visited many of the historical sites in Ohio, and believe that preserving Ohio history is important not only to Ohioans, but to the nation and to the world. Even if you do not have a personal connection to this situation, I hope that we can agree that preserving, protecting, and providing access to state historical records is of vital importance. Please join me in contacting Ohio legislators and asking them to reconsider these drastic cuts..

Additional links:

Save Ohio Libraries

Save Ohio History

Ohio Library Council

This year, I planned a full day of disaster and salvage-type activities for all staff, but due to scheduling conflicts it will not happen until the end of May. Unfortunately, that means that I don’t get to participate in all of the cool MayDay-type stuff that seems to be going on elsewhere– here are some of the 2009 participants. Take a look at past MayDay festivities from 2007 and 2008. Tell Heritage Preservation about your May Day festivities and you could win a disaster-themed prize here.

Did you see any really neat May Day stuff that I didn’t mention? Please post and tell me about it!

Spring is in the air, and perhaps you’re thinking about becoming a certified archivist? I’ve noticed a lot of folks land on this blog with search terms related to the ACA exam, and so I thought that I would share some of my thoughts and study strategies. The application deadline for the 2009 test is soon (May 15th), so hopefully this will help someone out there.

[Note: there was an upload error with the original post. Everything following this is my reconstruction of that post.]

Studying with a group

Because I knew early in the year that I planned to sit for the exam in August, I had a lot of time to map out a study strategy. I created a list of planned readings and emailed a lot of my also-recently-graduated friends (and friends-of-friends), set up a Google group, and prepared for lots of discussion. Unfortunately, after an initial flurry of activity, the group died off, and out of the initial study group of 7, I’m the only person that took the exam in 2008. The group setup did not work for me, but it has worked for others in the past. Notably, a group in 2007 (the CA Wannabes) used a wiki and weekly chat sessions to plow through the materials– you can read about their methods in the fall 2007 ACA News (pdf here). [Hat tip to Amy Hooker and Russell James for the links.] There’s also a group of archivists in St. Louis who posted some materials to the Washington University libraries website. Also– not a group, but Jason Fowler has posted his brief annotated bibliography of modern archival literature over on NeoArch.

What to study

The ACA divides the exam areas into “domains” of archival interest. Based upon the study guide suggestions and the subject areas, I would say that the best preparation for the exam would be a mixture of hands-on processing experience with various record types/media, and weighted more heavily, an understanding of archival and preservation topics from the readings. Questions vary from those on Schellenberg and appraisal methods to storage and preservation practices for acetate film and lantern slides.

I decided to follow the ACA book guide, as well as read/re-read pertinent articles from the American Archivist, Provenance, and Archivaria.

Readings 

The Handbook for Archival Certification (pdf here) has a list of suggested readings that is divided into topic areas, and the full list with citations can be found in the Handbook, starting on page 34.

This is a (shorter) list of the readings that I focused upon during the study period.

Classics:

Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, ed. Robert Ellis

Modern Archives: Principles and Techniques, Schellenberg
General:
Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives: A How-to-do-it Manual, Gregory Hunter
Managing Electronic Records, William Saffady
Understanding Archives and Manuscripts, James O’Toole
Domain 1: Selection, Appraisal & Acquisition
Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts, Frank Boles
Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts, Gerald Ham
Domain 2: Arrangement and Description
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts, Kathleen Roe
Domain 3: Reference Services and Access
Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts, Mary JoPugh
Domain 4: Preservation and Protection
Building an Emergency Plan: A Guide for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions, Dorge and Jones
Photographs: Archival Care and Management, Ritzenthaler & Vogt-O’Connor
Domain 5: Outreach, Advocacy and Promotion
Advocating Archives: An Introduction to Public Relations for Archivists, Elsie Finch Freeman
Creating a Winning Online Exhibition: A Guide for Libraries, Archives and Museums, Martin Kalfatovic
Domain 6: Managing Archival Programs
Managing Archival and Manuscript Repositories, Michael Kurtz
Domain 7: Professional, Ethical, and Legal Responsibilities
Ethics and the Archival Profession: Introduction and Case Studies, ed.Karen Benedict

To this list, I added several others:

The Law of Libraries and Archives, Bryan M. Carson

Managing Electronic Records, ed. McLeod and Hare

Preservation and Conservation for Libraries and Archives, Balloffet and Hille

Articles from the American Archivist

I looked at articles from 1998-2006 with the knowledge that I’d read all of the articles from 2006-2008 recently enough to recall the content.  Articles from the American Archivist are available through the SAA website.

Here’s a list of the articles that I sent to the group (and that I read before the exam):

-From Spring 1998, articles of interest might be:
Providing Subject Access to Images (Collins)
Preservation Re-Recording of Audio Recordings in Archives: Problems,
Priorities, Technologies, and Recommendations (Paton)
Special Collections Repositories at Association of Research Libraries Institutions: A Study of Current Practices in Preservation Management (Walters)
-From Fall 1998:
Developing a Strategy for Managing Electronic Records: The Findings of the Indiana University Electronic Records Project (Bantin)
-From Spring 1999:
Life with Grant: Administering Manuscripts Cataloging Grant Projects (Hamburger)
The Indiana University Electronic Records Project Revisited (Bantin)
-Spring 2000:
We Are What We Collect, We Collect What We Are: Archives and the Construction of Identity (Kaplan)
Appraising Public Television Programs: Toward an Interpretive and Comparative Evaluation Model (Connors)
-Spring 2001:
Voices From Vietnam: Building a Collection from a Controversial War (Stevens)
A Perspective on Indexing Slaves’ Names (Paterson)
-Fall 2001:

Principles, Methods and Instruments for the Creation,
Preservation and Use of Archival Records in the Digital
Environment (Maria Guercio)

Understanding “Authenticity” in Records and
Information Management: Analyzing Practitioner Constructs (Eun Park)
The Burlington Agenda: Research Issues in Intellectual
Access to Electronically Published Historical Documents
Elizabeth H. Dow, with David R. Chesnutt, William E. Underwood,
Helen R. Tibbo, Mary-Jo Kline, and Charlene N. Bickford
Doing the Best We Can?: The Use of Collection Development Policies
and Cooperative Collecting Activities at Manuscript Repositories (Cynthia Sauer)
Experiments in Deaccessioning: Archives and Online Auctions (Michael Doylen)
The Archivist as Educator: Integrating Critical Thinking Skills into Historical Research Methods Instruction
(Marcus C. Robyns)
-Spring 2002:

Seeing Archives: Postmodernism and the Changing Intellectual Place of Archives (Tom Nesmith)
The Power of Meaning: The Archival Mission in the Postmodern Age (Mark A. Greene)
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t”: Assessing the Value of Faculty Papers and Defining a Collecting Policy (Tom Hyry, Diane Kaplan, and Christine Weideman)
Preservation Strategies for Electronic Records: Where We Are Now- Obliquity and Squint? (Michèle V. Cloonan and Shelby Sanett)
-Fall 2002:
A Comparison of Jenkinson and Schellenberg on Appraisal (Reto Tschan)
-Spring 2003: Depending on how much user-related information we want to
wade through for this exam, we may want to discuss whether we want to
read this entire issue or not. http://www.archivists.org/periodicals/aa_v66/index.asp#66-1
-Spring 2004:
Avoiding the Golden Fleece: Licensing Agreements for Archives (Nancy E. Loe)
Jenkinson’s Writings on Some Enduring Archival Themes (Terrence M. Eastwood)
Trusting Archivists: The Role of Archival Ethics Codes in Establishing Public Faith (Glenn Dingwall)
-Fall 2004:
Back to the Future: Ernst Posner’s Archives in the Ancient World (James M. O’Toole)
Privacy Rights and the Rights of Political Victims: Implications of the German Experience (Elena S. Danielson)
In Secret Kept, In Silence Sealed: Privacy in the Papers of Authors and Celebrities (Sara S. Hodson)
-Spring 2005:
Lester J. Cappon and the Relationship of History, Archives, and Scholarship in the Golden Age of Archival Theory
(Richard J. Cox)
Chatting Up the Archivist: Social Capital and the Archival Researcher (Catherine A. Johnson and Wendy M. Duff)
-Fall 2005:
More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing (Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner)
Picking Our Text: Archival Description, Authenticity, and the Archivist as Editor (Heather MacNeil)
Ernst Posner’s Archives and the Public Interest (Angelika Menne-Haritz)
-Spring 2006:
“The old version flickers more”: Digital Preservation from the User’s Perspective (Margaret L. Hedstrom, Christopher A. Lee, Judith S. Olson, and Clifford A. Lampe)

 Crossposted from Austin is for Archivists

The Texas Capitol and Visitors Center are worth a visit while you’re in Austin for SAA. The Capitol, built in the Renaissance Revival style, was completed in 1888, and the dome is taller than the national capitol in Washington, D.C. It is the largest state capitol building (360,000 square feet) with approximately 400 rooms and 900 windows.

The Capitol was constructed of “Sunset Red” granite that was quarried in Marble Falls, Texas. Construction was not paid for in cash, but in the exchange of 3,000,000 acres of land in the Texas Panhandle that later became the famed XIT Ranch.

The lush Capitol grounds include, among others, statues to the Heroes of the Alamo, volunteer firemen and Texas Rangers. The Visitors Center is located in the southeast corner of the grounds and has both permanent and rotating exhibits, including Voices from San Jacinto, covering the final battle of the Texas Revolution.

Some links for further reading:

Texas Capitol History- Texas State Preservation Board

Monument Guide and Capitol Grounds- Texas State Preservation Board

Beyond the Dome: Hidden Places and Secret Spaces in the Texas State Capitol (exhibit & video link)

How to get there from the SAA meeting hotel (Hilton; 500 East 4th St):

The distance from the Hilton is close to a mile, but easily navigable on foot or by public transportation, and the process is similar– so if you walk there, but want a ride back, you can take the ‘Dillo. Keep in mind that the ‘Dillo runs from 7am-7pm on weekdays only. The ‘Dillo is 50¢ for a two-hour pass.

Link to ‘Dillo information and pdf map here.
Map of area and distance

More recent articles about the effects of state budgets on archives and preservation.

An update to the Oregon Historical Society’s situation:

Oregon Historical Society funded to keep research library open through May- Oregon Public Broadcasting

Historical Society spokeswoman Rachel Schoening says it’s important to maintain the library and to allow researchers to use it.

Rachel Schoening: “It’s extremely important and if you’re trying to write anything that is historically significant and accurate regarding the state, you have to have access to something in our library.”

Schoening says the two new hires may not restore the hours the library had before.  But she says a schedule should take shape by the end of the month.

Downturn forces Oregon Historical Society to slash funding -The Oregonian:

The Oregon Historical Society announced Wednesday evening that it slashed 15 of 45 full-time staff equivalents because of a combination of decreased state funding, a shrinking endowment and a hostile foundation and individual giving environment.

The staff cut lowers the historical society’s $4 million budget by $1 million, says executive director George Vogt.

The cutbacks, however, may be just the beginning: Vogt anticipates further cuts if the state slashes funds next year, all of which may affect the outcome of numerous foundation grant applications the historical society has pending.

“Lovers of history need to call legislators and be very vocal about this,” Vogt says. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

The cuts approved by the historical society’s board were made across the institution, including the museum and development staff. Salaries for management-level employees also were reduced by 10 percent.

The majority of the cuts affected the society’s most vital connection to the community, its research library. The research library, visited by historians, archivists, history buffs, photographers and the plainly curious, contains a encyclopedic collection of documents on Oregon history as well as a comprehensive photography collection numbering more than 2 million prints. There are also countless books and other materials in the library archives.

Archives building: dedicated in January, closed in March- Arizona Capitol Times

The archives closure was perhaps the most notable cost-cutting move by the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records department. Other divisions are operating on reduced hours, said GladysAnn Wells, the agency’s director.

Until the cuts, the library department had $2 million in operating funds, expected to carry it until June 30, the fiscal year’s end. In January, however, the Legislature reduced that by nearly $1.5 million, she said.

There was one place to cut, Wells said.

“All we had left, really, was salaries,” she said.

Making the cuts meant layoffs, furloughs and reducing employee hours to half-time or quarter-time.

The agency had about 115 full-time employees, she said. She didn’t have a figure on the number of people laid off.

“We’re still doing it, so I don’t have a final count,” she said. “Dozens.”

The budget for the next fiscal year will likely lead to even bigger cuts.

 State sells Confederate-era cash to raise money- Charleston Regional Business Journal

The surplus property division of the S.C. Budget and Control Board has listed the Civil War-era money for sale on eBay. For instance, the starting bid for a canceled $4 bank note — issued from the Bank of the State of South Carolina, which collapsed during the Civil War — starts at $150.

The Bank of the State of South Carolina was one of the few banks of the era operated by a state; it was founded in 1812.

“With the state budget cuts, we’ve lost about one-third of our budget in recent years,” said Charles Lesser, senior archivist for the department. “We’re in very dire budgetary times. This is one way, an imaginative way, of keeping our heads above water. And we’re making space (in the vault). Every little bit helps.”

Should any history buffs be offended by the sale, Lesser was quick to reassure that the state is not selling off any original, precious or last-remaining items from the department’s vault.

He estimated that, at one point, the department had some 1 million sheets of canceled banknotes, if not more.

“We would not sell unique documents,” he said. “What we’re doing in this process, we’re keeping two perfect sets of everything for ourselves and giving one set to the state museum.”

Have you talked to your representatives and your state archivist about how you can help support PAHR?

Two years ago, I wrote about a copy of the Declaration of Independence that was found in a Maine attic and sold to a private collector.  The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled this morning that the collector may keep the document.

From the WSJ article:

In 2005, after receiving a tip about the sale, the Maine archivist, David Cheever, sued Adams, demanding the document’s return. The argument: the document was a “public record.” Maine contended the document never should have been sold because of a state law which presumes that public documents remain public property unless ownership is expressly relinquished by the government.

Virginia’s high court disagreed on Friday, saying that a lower court did not err in ruling that Maine didn’t prove the document was ever an official town record.

So how is a copy of the Declaration of Independence, which had originally been distributed throughout Massachusetts (which Maine was once a part of) to be read to its citizens, not a public record? Adams’s attorney argued that Wiscasset’s town clerk copied the text of the Declaration of Independence into the town’s record books on Nov. 10, 1776. It’s that transcription, not the document upon which it was based, that is the official town record, the attorney said. And that’s the argument the court ultimately bought.

After the ruling, Cheever was one unhappy Mainah. He told the AP he found it “incredible” that the state’s rights were trumped by a private collector. “To us, it’s a public document. It was then. It is now.”

Related links:

Virgina Man Beats Maine in Declaration of Independence Smackdown- WSJ.com

Va. Supreme Court says collector can keep Declaration of Independence copy- Richmond Times-Dispatch

Court: Va. man, not Maine, owns 1776 copy of Declaration- Bangor Daily News

A few bits and bobs that tickled our fancy over here at Archives Found headquarters, but don’t really fit anywhere else….

• Archivist-turned-British-secret-intelligence-agent, now mystery novelist Stella Rimington has a new book out this month.  From an article in The Australian:

The ability to think clearly and organise information is more important to a real-life agent than any martial arts skills, says Rimington, who never carried a gun during her glittering secret service career.

Her university training as an archivist turned out to be an enormous asset because, “I mentally program information in quite an orderly way, and one of the key skills of a security service is about organising your own information and being able to relate what you learn to what you already know”.

I think that information science degree programs should start listing “international spy” on the list of potential careers, though I’m not sure I’d choose that over being an archivist… you?

• “The Archivist Cometh, or Mr. DeMille Wouldn’t Like This!” - short column in the Palm Beach Post that talks about the bereft feelings that some donors have after the boxes have been packed and Elvis has left the building…

• Official porn collection from the Dutch city of Leeuwarden is missing in action– short article from the AP and Columbus Dispatch.

Spokesman Erik Krikke of the city’s historical center said the archive — which contained photos, drawings and erotic texts with a connection to the city — may have been taken home “accidentally” by an employee or visitor.

“We’re hoping that someone will say ‘Hey, I have that in my attic’ and bring it back,” he said today. “No questions asked.”

• “Text Message Love Letter from the 1800s”- article from WalesOnline.uk

“DID u thnk th lnguge of txtng strtd wth th mbl fon?

Well, if so a century-old love letter discovered by archivists at Swansea University shows you couldn’t be more wrong.

The missive penned by William Weightman to his “dearest” Fanny was found in a temperance society minute book kept between 1879 and 1890.”

And last, but not least:

• From the Times Online and in honor of Valentine’s Day, Valentine memories from the French- check out the INA website for “14 ways to say I love you” - clips of various love songs, old and new.

I fully support equal civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Americans. Period.

For those of you who haven’t been involved in the various discussions on the Archives & Archivists listserv or on other blogs, this might be a bit of a departure from my usual posts. I’ve been tossing this post around in my head for a few days with no definite idea of what exactly I wanted to say– and I think that much of it has already been said more eloquently by colleagues and friends. Instead of belaboring the point, I’d like to encourage you to visit the links below.

My goal here is to simply add my support for my colleagues and others, and to stand up for what I believe is a fundamental issue of civil rights.

For more on the discussion of SAA and Prop 8, take a look here:

Archives & Archivists forum- first related thread

Beaver Archivist- I <3 equality!

ArchivesNext- Advocating for the rights of gay and lesbian archivists

@rchivista- Sobre archiveros, derechos civiles y el papel de las asociaciones (”About archivists, civil rights, and the role of associations”)

By no means an exhaustive list, but a few links on advocacy:

Human Rights Coalition

Mass Equality

List of rights denied to GLBT populations (compiled by the Kentucky Equality Federation)

 1138 reasons equality matters

Fifteen museums and cultural institutions (including the Smithsonian American Art Museum) are participating in Wikipedia Loves Art , a scavenger hunt/content-building contest that looks like a whole lot of fun. Check out the Flickr group and rules here.

Some of the prizes that looked most toothsome to me:

Indianapolis Museum of Art

The photographer with the most points (who shot at IMA) will win a fabulous prize package that includes a FREE iPod Touch, a fabulous IMA Blog t-shirt and a limited edition IMA Blog Rubik’s Cube.

Museum of Modern Art

Private after-hours tour for up to 10 people guided by an art historian.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

The winner(s) will receive a boxed set of books from our “Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” series. In addition they will receive a special American Art Museum tote with an imprinted design based on our Kogod Courtyard roof, a tie featuring our building, a boxed set of museum note cards, and a copy of our publication Temple of Invention, about our historic building.

What are you waiting for? Get out there with your camera, and don’t forget to include me when you win that free membership or iPod!  (Thanks to Jeff Gates over at the Smithsonian Eye-Level Blog for this one!)

A (somewhat) similar local project is happening on Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio at Gallery Hop in the Short North. Several shops will be holding a photo scavenger hunt using Twitter, with gift certificate prizes. I didn’t find any information about what they’ll do with the pictures at the end, but it’s still a neat way to get patrons participating. Follow the Tweets here.

These are pretty low-budget ways to get tech-savvy folks involved that might otherwise never set foot (virtually or otherwise) in your establishment. Could you make this work for your institution, too?

 A quick roundup of recent articles about the effects of state budgets on archives and preservation.

 Economy hurts effort to preserve the past- The Columbus Dispatch

“Preserving the past is important, but if governments don’t start spending and borrowing less, there won’t be much of a future left for our kids to enjoy,” Sepp said.

The Ohio Historical Society’s budget has shrunk by 13 percent in the past eight years. The society has laid off its preservation staff and is relying on other workers and outside conservators to monitor and maintain collections.

With all of its storage space filled and no money to expand, the society is going through its collections to decide what not to keep. It has virtually stopped accepting donations of artifacts. In some cases, donors sell or give the artifacts away.

 Gov. Jennifer Granholm to propose pay cuts, eliminating departments- MLive.com

Granholm will propose the elimination of one state department, History, Arts and Libraries, and ask Lt. Gov. John Cherry lead a commission to recommend further reductions. The goal would be to reduce the total number of departments from 18 to eight.

Archives chief cuts own job to trim budget - The State (SC)

The Archives and History agency preserves and promotes the state’s heritage. The archives center houses three centuries’ worth of historical documents. The agency also coordinates historic preservation efforts and history education. The latest cuts reduce its staff to 61 employees, Stroup said.

Historical Society puts microfilming state newspapers on hold- Missourian

“There might be people 30 years from now that will be interested in the same kind of research that I’m doing, and it’ll be impossible if there aren’t any archives,” Meyer said.

Off the records- newsreview.com (Reno, NV)

Guy Louis Rocha may be the only state agency chief in Nevada’s capital who has twice experienced his agency being targeted for total elimination by two different state budget directors.

“They wanted to pave paradise and put up a parking lot,” quipped Rocha, referring to the Joni Mitchell song, in which she sings, “That you don’t know what you’ve got/Till it’s gone.”

For more than a quarter of a century, state archives administrator Rocha—like many state agency directors—has been Sisyphus, pushing his operation into the 20th century repeatedly, only to have it roll back down under the pressure of chronic budget crises or intramural state government politics. He was never able to push the agency into the 21st century.

State erases 1.6 billion budget deficit- The Arizona Republic

Even before the budget was finalized, details emerged on what those cuts mean.

The state parks director has said a $25 million cut will force the closure of five parks; the Parks Board meets Tuesday to decide which ones to close.

The state Library and Archives Department is ironing out details for an agency-wide furlough; it could affect operating hours of the new state museum, which was dedicated just two weeks ago.

Arizona State University has announced furloughs of 10 to 15 days for most of its faculty and staff, but that was when the school thought it would share in a $100 million budget cut. The Legislature authorized $141 million in cuts to the three universities.

Some more information:

Preserving the American Historical Record (PAHR)

Legislation “To authorize the Archivist of the United States to make grants to States for the preservation and dissemination of historical records” will be reintroduced soon (with a new bill number) by Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY-22) and John McHugh (R-NY-23). Talk to your representatives and your state archivist about supporting PAHR.

Heritage Health Index by Heritage Preservation and IMLS- 2005 report on the state of collections in the United States can be used in discussions with local and state boards about preservation. (Does anyone out there know if this is being updated?) Full 2005 report can be found here.