---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 11:19:24 -0400
From: Giuliana Bullard <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Association of Moving Image Archivists <[log in to unmask]>
To: Multiple recipients of list AMIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: NHPRC Approves Changes to New Strategic Plan

National Archives and Records Administration News Release
For Immediate Release
June 19, 1997

Contact: Gerald George, NHPRC
National Archives and Records Administration
700 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20408
(202) 501-5600

NATIONAL HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDS
COMMISSION CONFIRMS PRIORITY FOR FOUNDING FATHERS'
PAPERS

        Washington, DC?Archivist of the United States John Carlin
today announced that the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission has restored top level priority in its strategic plan for projects
to publish the papers of America's Founding Fathers.

        The action came as the Commission modified and approved a
strategic plan recommended by its Executive Committee with Mr. Carlin's
endorsement.  The plan gives top priority to three objectives:
        ? completing publication of the Founding Fathers papers;
        ? helping archivists solve electronic records problems and
helping prepare for electronic publication of documents; and
        ? collaborating with state records boards to widen the range of
protected records available in archives to scholars, students, and the
public.

        The action overturns a previous plan that would have reduced
priority for editing and publishing the Founding Fathers papers in favor
only of projects to save and provide access to historical records not
already preserved in archival repositories.

        "For anybody who cares about our nation's history, this is good
news," Mr. Carlin declared.  "These priorities meet needs of all our
constituents, assure Americans that records covering many parts of our
history will be saved, enable us to deal with new kinds of records as we
enter the 21st century, and make the words and thoughts of the
founding fathers available to everyone on library bookshelves.

        "Through these priorities," he continued, "we can get states'
assistance to help protect a wide range of records, we can help save
the history in electronic records that we are now in danger of losing, and
we can help provide the public with access to those particular records
that best help us understand the creation of our country and its
democratic institutions."
        As head of the National Archives and Records Administration, Mr.
Carlin chairs the NHPRC, which is the program within NARA that makes
grants throughout the nation for preserving and providing access to
valuable historical records.

        The NHPRC helps support eight projects that collectively
document the beginnings of the United States and the formation of its
basic political institutions?projects to publish the papers of George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and
James Madison, and projects to publish documentary histories of the
ratification of the Constitution, the First Federal Congress, and the early
Supreme Court.  Documentary editors are working on these projects at
Princeton, Yale, the universities of Virginia and Wisconsin,, George
Washington University, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the
Supreme Court Historical Society.

        The Commission also collaborates with state historical records
advisory boards nationwide on jointly funded programs to strengthen
archival institutions and save a wide range of records that illustrate
American history in all its diversity.  And the Commission is a recognized
leader in funding efforts by archivists to master the problems of
preserving and providing access to the computer-generated records in
which history is increasingly recorded.

        "We've had a good, long debate over priorities,"  Mr. Carlin
declared, "but the Commission is now reunited around goals that deserve
the support of all Americans."

        The final wording of the strategic goals in the plan adopted by the
Commission is as follows:

?  The NHPRC will provide the American public with widespread access
to the papers of the founders of our democratic republic and its
institutions by ensuring the timely completion of eight projects now in
progress to publish the papers of George Washington, John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and papers that
document the ratification of the Constitution, the First Federal Congress,
and the early Supreme Court.

?  The NHPRC will promote broad public participation in historical
documentation by collaborating with State Historical Records Advisory
Boards to plan and carry out jointly funded programs to strengthen the
nation's archival infrastructure and expand the range of records that are
protected and accessible.

?  The NHPRC will enable the nation's archivists, records managers, and
documentary editors to overcome the obstacles and take advantage of
the opportunities posed by electronic technologies by continuing to
provide leadership in funding research-and-development on appraising,
preserving, disseminating, and providing access to important
documentary sources in electronic form.
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