Government officials have threatened "rogue archivist" Carl Malamud with legal action many times for his efforts to make public government documents widely available for free, but the state of Georgia has set a new standard for fighting this ridiculous battle: It's suing Malamud for infringing its copyright of state laws by -- horrors -- publishing them online.

For more on this story see: http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-state-of-georgia-copyright-wall-20150727-column.html

The Secretary of State of Arizona, who oversees the State Library, wants the space now occupied by the genealogy collection for other uses. Under the misguided notion that everything genealogists really need to use is online, the original plan was to simply close the collection. Pushback from the genealogical community has resulted in a plan to move the collection to the State Archives.

The hitch, of course, is that the State Archives doesn’t have room to make this 200,000+-volume collection accessible to the public. If this move goes forward — and it could be as early as this Friday, July 31st — the collection will most likely end up in storage … and ultimately piecemealed out or lost forever.

For more on this developing story, see:

http://legalgenealogist.com/blog/2015/07/27/raising-arizona/

The National Humanities Alliance (NHA) is an advocacy coalition dedicated to the advancement of humanities education, research, preservation, and public programs – and as such is instrumental in advocating for public funding for the NEH, IMLS, and NHPRC (among others).

Like them on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter. 

• Spread the word quickly and widely when humanities funding is under attack on Capitol Hill
• Keep up on news and opinion pieces that highlight the importance of the humanities
• Learn more about the positive effects engaged humanities work is having around the country

Advancing the Humanities for All
http://www.nhalliance.org/

Tuesday, July 21—SAA learned this morning from the National Coalition for History that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which oversees NARA, will take up a bill tomorrow morning to address the recent data breach at the Office of Personnel Management. Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who introduced the bill, proposes to offset the costs associated with implementing it by eliminating the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. With markup certain today, we thought it important to notify you of this situation with an understanding that it will be very important to take action – both as individuals and collectively – when this bill comes before the House. We will notify you as soon as we’re aware of that timing. SAA is communicating with the Council of State Archivists and the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators regarding this situation and further action.

An article by SAA Intellectual Property Working Group member William Maher, who represented the views of American archivists as a permanent observer at the recent meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. 

In a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office in July, SAA President Kathleen Roe concludes that, “…archival collections are brimming with rich stories and essential information that cannot find their readers because of the long duration of copyright. The failure of Congress to create a workable system for digitization effectively imprisons our shared cultural heritage.” Read the full letter here

http://files.archivists.org/Copyright_Office_OrphanWorks_071015-2.pdf

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SAA issued a Statement on Use of Non-government Email Accounts for the Conduct of Public Business in March 2015. Since then they have worked with the Council of State Archivists and the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators on a joint statement on this important public policy issue. Read the joint statement here.

http://www2.archivists.org/news/2015/joint-statement-on-conducting-public-business-in-non-government-email-accounts-june-2015

Good news since NYPL, BPL, & QPL include some awesome archives and special collections:

NYC Public Libraries Get Largest Funding Increase Ever

As first announced at the A.R.T. Annual Business Meeting, we are pleased to announce the newly elected A.R.T. Board members:

Vice President/President Elect - Kerri Anne Burke

Secretary - Rachel Greer

Treasurer - Michael Andrec

Director of the Advocacy Committee - Dennis Riley

Director of the Communications Committee - Laura DeMuro

Director of the Education Committee - Rachel Harrison

Director of the Programming Committee - Alexandra Lederman

The newly elected Board members will be joining the rest of the Board fulfilling their second year of volunteer service:

President - Janet Bunde

Director of the Membership Committee - Tamar Zeffren

Director of the Outreach Committee - Tiffany Nixon

 

Congratulations to all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Future of Iowa historic records raises national alarm

A Tuesday letter from the Washington, D.C.-based American Historical Association directed to Gov. Terry Branstad and several officials with the Department of Cultural Affairs expresses a “grave concern” about reductions in resources at the state society.

The letter from AHA President Vicki Ruiz and Executive Director James Grossman details the value of historic preservation, but also the repercussions of losing historic state records.

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/government/future-of-iowa-historic-records-raises-national-alarm-20150619