The Library of Congress came under fire from Congress this week when an internal Inspector General’s report surfaced showing that nearly 17 percent of materials requested by users from the Library’s inventory could not be found. Of that figure, 4 percent were found to be in processing, but nearly 13 percent were considered unaccounted for.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) have announced a five-year partnership agreement to digitize case files of approved pension applications of widows of Civil War Union soldiers from NARA’s holdings.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and UNESCO Assistant Director for Communication and Information Abdul Waheed Khan recently signed an agreement at UNESCO headquarters in Paris pledging cooperative efforts to build a World Digital Library Web site.
The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has announced it will open for the first time all of the individual Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs) of Army, Army Air Corps, Army Air Forces, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard military personnel who served and were discharged, retired or died while in the service, prior to 1946.
Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein recently announced the appointment of Terri Garner as the new director of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. From 2005 to the present, Ms. Garner has served as Executive Director of the Bangor Museum and Center for History. Garner will assume her duties on November 5, 2007.
This week, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein announced that J. William Leonard, Director of the Information Security Oversight Office, who will be retiring from the post at year’s end, has agreed to become Senior Counselor to the Archivist beginning in January 2008.
Dr. Roy Rosenzweig, the Mark and Barbara Fried Professor of History & New Media at George Mason University, passed away October 11, 2007, of cancer.
At George Mason University, Rosenzweig also headed the Center for History and New Media (which he cofounded), and developed it with a pioneering enthusiasm, making it one of the leading centers for digital history.
On October 10, the U.S. Department of Education announced that has begun accepting applications for new fiscal year (FY) 2008 Teaching American History Grants (TAH). The deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply is November 9, 2007. The deadline for transmittal of applications is December 10, 2007.
George Mason University has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Education–valued at $7 million if fully funded over five years–to create a National History Education Clearinghouse. The online project, which will be housed in Mason’s Center for History and New Media (CHNM), will focus on historical thinking and learning. It will also help K-12 history teachers become more effective educators and show their students why history is relevant to their daily lives. CHNM will partner in the project with Stanford University, the American Historical Association and the National History Center.
The Smithsonian National Museum of American History recently elected three historians, Ellsworth H. Brown, James O. Horton and Vicki Ruiz to its advisory board. The Smithsonian’s Board of Regents approved the candidates for three-year terms with the option of serving a second term.
