One recommendation I would make at least for future related situations:
VOTE.
On 10/29/2018 12:17 PM, Buma, Brian wrote:
I second this - how can we best help your effort? My work has made
extensive use of old records, I'd hate to see some of that potential lost.
Brian Buma, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Integrative Biology
CU Denver
www.brianbuma.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
<ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU> on behalf of Katharine Leigh
<kl...@cornell.edu>
*Sent:* Monday, October 29, 2018 6:47:15 AM
*To:* ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
*Subject:* Re: [ECOLOG-L] FW: Reactions to the thread: Government
request for the destruction of archives, please consider writing
Thanks Joy!
Okay so what do we do? What is the mass public, share on social media,
take action "ask"? Give me instructions for a task I can complete in 5
min to help this, and I'll do so, and then share info. Thanks.
Best
Kat
Katharine L. Leigh
My Linkedin <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/katharine-leigh/9a/175/482/en>
On Sun, Oct 28, 2018 at 11:17 PM Joy Cytryn <jo...@earthlink.net
<mailto:jo...@earthlink.net>> wrote:
Feedback from the librarian at Stamford from whom I originally
posted this thread......
-----Original Message-----
From: Mr. James R. (Librarian) Jacobs <jrjac...@stanford.edu
<mailto:jrjac...@stanford.edu>>
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2018 1:29 PM
To: Joy Cytryn <jo...@earthlink.net <mailto:jo...@earthlink.net>>
Cc: Cindi Katz <ck...@gc.cuny.edu <mailto:ck...@gc.cuny.edu>>;
Athanasios Koutavas <athanasios.kouta...@csi.cuny.edu
<mailto:athanasios.kouta...@csi.cuny.edu>>
Subject: Re: Reactions to the thread: Government request for the
destruction of archives, please consider writing
Hi Joy,
Thanks for contacting me. NARA’s official response makes it seem
like it’s business as usual that there’s nothing to be alarmed
about. And in some respects, I guess that’s right. However, what
I’m learning as I dig into this is that:
1) many more records across the Federal govt are listed as
“temporary” than I originally thought. Somewhere between 1-5% are
ever actually deemed “permanent." In essence, all records are
temporary. Most records are innocuous, but some, like those
referencing the lawsuit Cobell v. Salazar, the largest
class-action lawsuit in history against the US government over
Indian trust funds, was designated under the label Energy &
Minerals rather than BIA for some reason. Was this done on
purpose? I don’t know, but would think that those files would be
of high research value. I also talked with a former county
supervisor in Mendocino, CA who thought that some of those
records, if destroyed, could end up opening up much more logging
and off-shore oil extraction in his area with historical precedent
being erased.
2) that the scheduling process is not nearly as public and
transparent as it needs to be, and that decisions seem to be more
frequently based on "Adequate from the standpoint of legal rights
and accountability" or "significant actions of Federal officials”,
3) that, rather than an expansive idea of research value or public
policy history, agencies and NARA have a very narrow definition of
research value.
4) And sadly, this seems to be a regular bureaucratic occurrence
(banality of evil right?!), not necessarily some nefarious
political machination to delete history — though many are seeing
this within the context of the recent ICE request to destroy
documents on detainee deaths and rapes and the recently leaked DoJ
memo advising silence and delaying tactics on Fish & Wildlife FOIA
requests. Preservation of history and precedence need to be the
primary reasons for records schedules, but instead, the primary
seems to be based on whether or not it is "Adequate from the
standpoint of legal rights and accountability” (CYA) or covers
"significant actions of Federal officials” (also CYA).
Unfortunately, the way the process is set up currently, if there’s
an agency(ies) records for which your work depends, it’s up to you
the researcher to delve into the agency's schedules, track on the
Federal Register for announcements of scheduling changes, and let
the agency know when files deemed “temporary” or “having little or
no research value” are actually important. My hope is that any
larger response would include suggestions for making these
decisions more transparent, open and public, and that there be
some sort of process put in place so that records deemed temporary
could, instead of being destroyed, be tranferred to libraries and
archives if at all feasible. This should be seen as a teaching
moment for both NARA and the academic/library/archives
communities. Please feel free to forward this to any listservs you
know that are currently talking about this issue.
best,
James Jacobs
> On Oct 28, 2018, at 9:51 AM, Joy Cytryn <jo...@earthlink.net
<mailto:jo...@earthlink.net>> wrote:
>
> Mr. Jacobs,
> This has produced quite a storm on a number of listservs. This
is a post from Arian Ravanbakhsh the Supervisory Records
Management Policy Analyst in the Office of the Chief Records Officer.
https://records-express.blogs.archives.gov/author/arianravanbakhsh/
People on the left have expressed concern about the current
administrations stand on public access and retention of
information, especially in light of the changes at the EPA. Is
there concern about the material scheduled for destruction that
Russ Kick has pointed to or in your opinion is this just smoke.
>
> I accessed your website The Digital Federal Depository Library
Program
https://www.lockss.org/community/networks/digital-federal-depository-library-program/
Has your organization seen changes with the current administration
that cause you concern?
> Best,
> Joy Cytryn
>
>
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