In late July, the National Archives announced they were planning
to cut back the hours of the Washington DC area facilities of the
archives. This would eliminate all evening and Saturday hours
and greatly harm the ability of the average genealogist to access
the records. For full details, see
http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2006/nr06-125.html
While the Archivist of the United States was at the FGS
conference he reported that they had received very little
feedback from the country's genealogists asking for
reconsideration. He was also presented with a request from the
chair of the FGS Records Preservation Committee to consider some
alternatives and a petition was started to allow genealogists to
express their disagreement with the changes and to endorse
alternatives that will allow the evening and Saturday hours to
continue.
You can see more details about that in Dick Eastman's weekly
newsletter at:
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/09/quick_please_jo.html
The petition can be signed at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/FGS2006
I would encourage each of you, as board members of The USGenWeb
Project to use your influence to publicize this information
throughout the project. Note that the deadline for receiving
comments on the proposed changes by the archives is September 9,
so there isn't much time. And I suspect that if they succeed in
reducing the Washington hours, the regional archives will be soon
to follow.
I appreciate all that each of you do in support of the project
membership and all genealogists with US ancestry. I believe that
a little effort in support of this effort by FGS will pay off
long term in enhancing our ability to deliver free information to
our clients - genealogists everywhere.
Mike St. Clair