While this has been sent to and from librarians, the consequences of such actions would effect anyone who uses research data. Please consider taking action. Write, comment and forward this email. Thank you, Joy Cytryn PhD Candidate EES CUNY Graduate Center
Dear Friends and Colleagues: One of the Stanford librarians has alerted us to a request from the US Department of Interior to destroy thousands upon thousands of records. I forward his message below. As with so many of the current administrations actions, the timeline is very tight. We have until next Monday, October 29 to submit comments to NARA. Clearly, the administration hopes that in the endlessly tumultuous news cycle, their proposal will disappear from view. I dont need to explain to you the consequences of the large-scale destruction of public records. But it seems to me that we as a profession do need to speak up. I have written to the presidents of AHA, SHOT, and HSS, and to about 20 or so chairs of university departments. Meanwhile, as individual professionals, we must also write. The full weight of the historical profession must be deployed in defense of the very ability to tell the truth. mailto: request.sched...@nara.gov Even a single sentence would help. Id offer a template, but research suggests that such mailings are much less effective. Yours, Gabrielle https://gabriellehecht.org/ Frank Stanton Foundation Professor of Nuclear Security Professor of History Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute Stanford University On 10/23/18, 2:16 PM, "cidr-insiders on behalf of Mr. James R. (Librarian) Jacobs" <mailto:cidr-insiders-boun...@lists.stanford.edu on behalf of mailto:jrjac...@stanford.edu> wrote: Hi all, I wanted to alert you to a very disturbing thing happening in the National Archives world that may severely impact research, especially historical and scientific research. The Dept of interior is asking for permission to destroy records about oil and gas leases, mining, dams, wells, timber sales, marine conservation, fishing, endangered species, non-endangered species, critical habitats, land acquisition, and lots more. Basically records from every agency within the Interior Department, including the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and others. This is all content that would normally go to NARA for collection and preservation. This is disturbing because previous administrations would obfuscate records by classifying/reclassifying records. This admin is basically just destroying records so theyll never be accessible. Theres an October 29 deadline for comment to NARA: Email request.sched...@nara.gov Fax 301-837-3698 Mail NARA (ACRA) 8601 Adelphi Road College Park MD 20740-6001 (Be sure to say that youre referring to DAA-0048-2015-0003.) Please forward to your networks and researchers who may be effected. Dept of the Interior: Records Destruction Request https://altgov2.org/doi-records-destruction/ NARAs appraisal memo https://altgov2.org/wp-content/uploads/DAA-0048-2015-0003_Appraisal_Memo.pd f James James R. Jacobs http://library.stanford.edu/people/jrjacobs US Government Information Librarian 123D Green Library Stanford University P: 650.862.9871 E: mailto:jrjac...@stanford.edu Gchat: freegovinfo T: @freegovinfo Digital Federal Depository Library Program https://www.lockss.org/community/networks/digital-federal-depository-library -program/ Frank Stanton Foundation Professor of Nuclear Security Professor of History Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute Stanford University
