On another group that I belong to, someone stated that the Georgia Archives
are only open a couple times a week as it is, but that it will be available
"by appointment only" with only THREE employees left. One of the three
employees is the maintenance person. A second employee is someone who is
very near retirement age and scheduled for retirement. The third person is
the Director of the Archives who hasn't been there very long, being hired
from out of state.
Whether or not this is true, I do not know, but it has been said by more
than one person that most of the employees are already without jobs and that
the close is still going to happen.
Brenda Hare
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Kilby" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2012 9:45 AM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Georgia state archives closing its doors to
researchers
Steve,
Apparently the NYT is behind the news curve. This was reported about two
weeks ago. Since then--due to public outrage--the Governor the Peach State
has at least claimed he will not let this happen. Just how--or even if--he
does this is not yet clear.
Craig Kilby
Lancaster, Virginia
On Sep 27, 2012, at 4:25 AM, Steve Corneliussen wrote:
> On Sep 14, 2012, Henry Wiencek wrote:
>> Some of you may already have heard that, because of budget cuts,
>> Georgia is closing its state archives to the public as of November 1.
>> From what I've read there may be some limited access by appointment.
>> I've seen the news on a couple of blogs.
>
> The news is now in the New York Times, on page A20 of the September 27
> edition under the headline "Budget Cuts to Archives Put History Out of
> Reach."
> (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/us/budget-cuts-to-limit-public-access-to-georgia-archives.html)
> The article uses the Georgia situation as context for reporting on
> archiving concerns generally, including electronic media issues. Here's
> how it starts:
> QUOTE
> MORROW, Ga. — The Georgia Archives, which holds both historical
> curiosities and virtually every important state government document ever
> created, is about to become nearly impossible to visit.
>
> In November, a round of government budget cuts will reduce the staff to
> three, one of them the maintenance man. Thousands of documents that pour
> in every month are likely to languish because no one will be available to
> sort through them, archives officials said. People who view accurate and
> open government records as the bedrock of democracy are outraged.
>
> The move will make Georgia the only state without an archives open to the
> public on a regular basis. But this closing is simply the most severe
> symptom of a greater crisis facing permanent government collections in
> nearly every state, professional archivists say.
> UNQUOTE
>
> Steve Corneliussen
> Poquoson, Virginia
>
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