On May 21, 2009, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and the National Archives held a hearing to consider the policy issues facing a new Archivist of the United States. Among those testifying was Lee White, the Executive Director of the National Coalition for History (NCH). Read the full article »
On May 29, 2009, the National Archives and Records Administration announced a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of an external hard drive containing copies of backup tapes from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) of the Clinton Administration. NARA learned in late March 2009 that the hard drive was missing from a processing room at NARA’s College Park, Maryland facility. Read the full article »
The National Coalition for History (NCH) recently submitted testimony to the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Financial Services and General Government on the fiscal year (FY) 2010 budgets for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). Read the full article »
On May 27, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum directing an internal executive branch review of federal declassification policies and procedures for handling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Read the full article »
On May 27, 2009, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) recommended to the Archivist of the United States 82 grants of $5.9 million for projects in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Read the full article »
President Obama’s January 21, 2009, memorandum Transparency and Open Government, directed the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA), to develop an Open Government Directive that will provide executive departments and agencies with specific policies to implement the President’s memorandum. The White House is inviting members of the public to participate in the process of developing the policy recommendations. Read the full article »
On May 21, 2009, Dr. Leon R. Kass, a widely published author and award-winning humanities teacher, delivered the 2009 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) sponsored Jefferson Lecture is the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. Read the full article »
Under the Obama administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget request, funding for the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) would increase by $7 million from the current fiscal year’s appropriation to $466.9 million. Read the full article »
The Teaching American History (TAH) Grants program at the U.S. Department of Education would see no increase under the Obama administration’s proposed fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget released this week. The budget for the program would stay at the FY 2009 level of $119 million. Funding for the program has remained relatively constant since FY 2004, fluctuating annually between $120 million and $118 million. Read the full article »
Under the Obama administration’s budget request, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) would receive $10 million in fiscal year (FY) 2010 for grants. The NHPRC received $9.25 million for grants (plus $2 million for administrative costs) for a total of $11.25 million in FY ’09. Read the full article »
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) would receive $171.3 million under the Obama Administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget request that was released this week. The total budget for the NEH would increase $16.3 million from the current $155 million. Read the full article »
Under the Obama administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget request, funding for programs within the Historic Preservation Fund at the National Park Service will generally see healthy increases while funding for cultural and historic partnership programs will remain flat. Read the full article »
In its Fiscal Year 2010 Department of Education budget request to Congress, the Obama administration proposes the elimination of three programs that support activities related to civic education. The Administration would replace these programs with a new $37 million competitive grant program under the Fund for the Improvement of Education that would be targeted toward civic education. Read the full article »
The Music Division in the Library of Congress recently announced that it has acquired archival materials from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publisher (ASCAP) Foundation, the not-for-profit arm of the world’s largest performing-rights organization, representing more than 275,000 creators. Read the full article »
On May 5, 2009 the “Preserving the American Historical Record Act (PAHR)” (H.R. 2256) was introduced by Congressmen Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and John McHugh (R-NY). The PAHR legislation would establish a new federal program of formula grants to the states and territories to support archives and historical records at the state and local level. Read the full article »
In March, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sought public comment on cost effective ways of modifying the present system for archiving and providing public access to Presidential records. On April 29, the National Coalition for History submitted its comments to NARA. To see a copy of NCH’s letter to NARA, click here. The deadline for submitting comments to NARA has been extended until May 22. Read the full article »
The Advisory Committee on the Electronic Records Archives (ACERA) met in Washington on April 29 & 30, 2009. ACERA advises the Archivist of the United States on technical, mission, and service issues related to NARA’s Electronic Records Archive (ERA) project. Read the full article »
On April 27, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress (ACRC) met at the U.S. Capitol. The Advisory Committee is comprised of the officials in Congress responsible for its records (Clerk of the House, Secretary of the Senate, Senate Historian, and House Historian) and the Archivist of the United States, who is responsible for the administration of the archived records of Congress. Read the full article »
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently announced the National Park Service will undertake more than 800 projects at parks across the country. The projects reflect an investment of $750 million in the national park system part of more than $3 billion the Interior Department is receiving under President Obama’s recovery plan. For a full list of the projects, go to the Department’s Recovery Web Site at www.interior.gov/recovery. Read the full article »
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and 32 partner institutions recently launched the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world. The site located at www.wdl.org includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. It provides unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material. Read the full article »
