Thursday, November 5, 2009

More Bad Economic News

The nightmare continues as two more state institutions have suffered significant budgetary cuts. It seems as though more and more states are looking to save money by eliminating their history. To say the least, this is a short sighted idea that only serves to harm the states in their long term.

Earlier this week, the State Historical Society of Missouri announced cutbacks in staff and hours as a result of budget with holdings of 25 percent for the 2010 budget. In the future the hours of the Historical Society will be from 8 to 4:45 Monday through Thursday. Researchers will no longer be able to work on Fridays or Saturdays. The change in hours will have enormous consequences on students and professional researchers. Genealogists traveling to conduct research will particularly suffer.

This announcement comes on the heels of the Governor of Massachusetts announcing the closing of the State Library. This institution has been open since 1826 and houses some of the more important documents in New England and Colonial American History. There is still hope to save the Massachusetts State Library, the friends of the library are circulating an electronic petition to present to the Governor. Simply go to the website to add your name to the petition to stave off the closing of the Massachusetts State Library.



http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveyourstatelibrary/?e



Please sign the petition and help save our history, and our libraries.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mike,

I'm writing from StoryCorps, America's largest nonprofit national oral history project. I thought you and your readers would be interested in listening to StoryCorps' latest story to broadcast on NPR this morning. Sam Reed, a mortician and the caretaker of Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery talks about how his interest in the funeral business started at a young age. You can take a listen here: http://www.storycorps.org/listen/stories/sam-reed.

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening. Since 2003, tens of thousands of people from across the country have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share and is also archived for generations to come at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to the award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. Select stories have also been published in the New York Times bestselling book, Listening Is an Act of Love.

I hope you take the time to listen and share.

Thanks,
Amber Leigh