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<DIV>This was sent to me by a fellow genealogist and I thought it might be
interesting to others.</DIV>
<DIV>Linda VanOrden</DIV>
<DIV>Junction City, OR</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Op-Ed Contributor<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><B><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=6><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 24pt">History Lessens
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">By DAVID KAHN<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Published: March 19, 2007<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Great Neck,
N.Y.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">EVERYBODY knows how
to use a library. You look up the card catalogue in the computer, type in the
subject, find the Dewey Decimal System number, walk to the shelf and get the
book. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">It’s different with
an archive, where unpublished memorandums, reports, notes and letters are
organized not by topic but by the agency that created them. You have to know
which agency did the work you are interested in, and whether more than one was
involved. The complexity of government means first-time archive users need help.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Alone among the
world’s great archives, the National Archives of the United States has offered
such assistance to visitors. At Britain’s Public Record Office, for instance, a
courteous official points to rows of volumes listing the contents of files for
the Admiralty, the Foreign Office, Scotland Yard. After that, you’re on your
own. It is much the same at France’s Archives Nationales and Germany’s
Bundesarchiv. Only at the big modern Archives II building in College Park, Md.,
will an archivist sit down and guide a user through the maze.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">But that precious
advantage is being lost — and it’s all started to change in the last few months.
More than a million cubic feet of documents, nearly enough to fill the
Washington Monument, need to be organized, described and filed. This “document
surplus” — a term the archivist of the United States, Allen Weinstein, prefers
to “backlog” — was caused in part by the wait for a new archives building and by
a new emphasis on electronic records. But mainly, with no increase in its budget
in years, it comes down to a lack of money. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">As a result, the
archives have hired less-experienced personnel to organize the records, often
resulting in people having to hunt longer for what they need. And although 50
professionals have recently been moved to processing, that has left only 22
archivists to deal with the public — and with records they do not know well.
Moreover, instead of conferring at their desks, with reference books at hand,
the archivists now answer the questions of walk-ins in a glass-enclosed room on
the busy main research floor. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Written requests for
information should be answered in 10 working days, something the archives once
did 95 percent of the time; this year it is 75 percent. In the military and
civil branch the backlog of unanswered letters used to be 15 to 30; now it is
115 to 130. The financial squeeze has also cut off-peak hours to two nights and
one Saturday each month, making research difficult for visitors from afar, and
for anyone who works a 9 to 5 job. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Why does this
matter? Because the National Archives does more than display the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution. From its astonishing riches emerge not only
the records of one’s immigrant grandparents but the documents and images that
produce books and telecasts about this country. Without the services of the
archives, the nation risks amnesia and loses direction. The president should ask
for the few millions the archives needs to do its job right, and Congress should
appropriate it. America must not forget itself.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><I><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-STYLE: italic">David Kahn is the author of “The
Codebreakers.” <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at <A title="http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000339" href="http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000339" target="_blank"><B>AOL.com</B></A>. </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>