NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #31; 10 August 2006)
2. NARA HOLDS PUBLIC MEETING ON PROPOSED CUTBACKS
3. BITS AND BYTES -- No Postings This Week
4. ARTICLE OF THE WEEK -- No Posting This Week
1. BRUCE CRAIG TO DEPART NCH NEXT YEAR During the 1 August meeting of the National Coalition for History (NCH) Policy Board, R. Bruce Craig, Executive Director of the NCH and the editor of this newsletter for the last seven years, announced that effective 1 January 2007, he will be leaving the organization and relocating to Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Craig and his wife have a summer home near East Point, PEI (actually, Northlake Harbor --"the tuna capitol of the world") where they operate a seasonal bed and breakfast (www.harbourlightshouse.com ) and artists/writer's retreat. During the summer months for a couple of years, Craig has also been teaching at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI). Beginning in January 2007 Craig will be teaching American history and assisting the UPEI department of history establish a unique public history program targeted to undergraduates. Craig also will be writing the definitive biography of accused spy Alger Hiss -- a book project that he feels has languished far too long.
After Craig made his announcement, Arnita Jones, President of the NCH stated, “I know you will join me in thanking Bruce for his extraordinary contributions to the NCH over these last years, and in wishing him and Pat the very best in all their future activities in the Far North.”
The process of finding Craig’s replacement will begin shortly. A vacancy announcement has already been drafted and will be posted in its final form in the near future – on this listserve and elsewhere.
2. NARA HOLDS PUBLIC MEETING ON PROPOSED CUTBACKS On 3 August the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) conducted a public meeting regarding the elimination of NARA's weekend and evening hours. This report has been compiled from information gleaned from correspondents Brian Martin of History Associates and Robert Townsend of the American Historical Association, both of whom were in attendance.
The meeting was crowded, with mostly professional independent researchers, genealogists, representatives from several national history and archives organizations, as well as a few private sector history research firms in attendance. It was moderated by Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, who was assisted by Nancy Allard and Michael Kurtz who are shepherding the proposed rule through the process. During the meeting the Archivist made it clear that this is just the first in a series of cutbacks that NARA will have to initiate in order to adjust to its anticipated reduced budget in FY 2007.
Weinstein emphasized that this rule was not put forward arbitrarily, but rather was being advanced only after a great deal of consideration. He announced that after the review of the comments gleaned from the meeting and those received in writing, he would announce a final decision on the reduction in research and museum hours by 29 September. According to Martin, “Weinstein and the other NARA staff expressed a genuine desire to consider ideas for compromises on these hours issues.”
The meeting lasted for a full two hours with impassioned and diverse range of views being represented. Although several speakers strayed a bit from the specific issues surrounding the changes in research and museum hours, for the most part the meeting focused on those issues. The general consensus was that NARA faces significant budget challenges and that NARA's staff have many difficult choices ahead, but that eliminating all of the Saturday and evening hours (roughly 33% of the currently available research hours) would cut off access to NARA's holdings by a significant and diverse community of users who are not generally able to access these holdings during the normal business day. Suggestions for compromise were offered.
Participants also made several constructive suggestions relating to how NARA might serve researchers more efficiently and effectively. There was some discussion of possible private sources of funding to make up for the budget shortfall.
As the meeting came to a conclusion, Archivist Weinstein stated that he was gratified to hear from so many passionate supporters of the Archives and its mission. He reiterated his desire to hear from archives users and urged everyone to continue to provide their thoughtful suggestions on how NARA can serve researchers and accomplish its mission more effectively.