Dear Colleagues:

This is a last minute reminder of Rand Jimerson's plea to organizations and
each of us as individuals to speak out in order to prevent the proposed
elimination of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
which the President proposes to drop from the federal budget. The House
Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Treasury, Transportation, Housing and
Urban Development, the Judiciary and District of Columbia (T-THUD) will be
accepting written public testimony on the National Archives and Records
Administration, National Historical Publications and Records Commission until April 26,
2005.

NHPRC has done great things for the documentation of our national heritage to
be sure. It has also been a premier supporter and funding source for
important research in electronic records. From my own consulting work and involvement
on the advisory boards and in other capacities with NHPRC-funded projects, I
have seen how the work at Pittsburgh and Indiana and elsewhere has been very
useful at the national, state and local government levels as well as in the
private and nonprofit sectors. Professionals at all levels of government are
counting on NARA and NHPRC-funded work with the San Diego SuperComputer Project to
crack the big nut of very long-term preservation of electronic records. This
is an opportunity especially for professionals at the state and local levels to
help make Congressional leaders understand that the benefits of NHPRC-funded
work accrue beyond the federal government down to the state and local levels
that face similar challenges but do not have the resources to solve that
problem and further to ordinary citizens.

I urge all colleagues to provide your own personal testimony using guidelines
published on the SAA website at
http://archivists.org/news/nhprc-testimony.asp Testimony can be emailed to the Committee at
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You are invited to read my own testimony which is accessible on the
www.mybestdocs.com home page or directly at
http://www.mybestdocs.com/barry-r-nhprc%20testimony050424.htm.

Regards,

Rick Barry
www.mybestdocs.com
Cofounder, Open Reader Consortium
www.openreader.org

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