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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