The Past Speaks

I got an interesting appeal for advice in my inbox today. I have no expertise in this area but am re-posting the email here for you guys to read.

One of the toughest tasks an archivist faces in making decisions about which documents are worth saving.  Ideally, we would save every scrap of paper but this simply isn’t possible. Some form of sorting and sampling is required, but the task  of sorting through all of the documents is complex because the nature of historical research has changed dramatically over the years, with the focus broadening from the activities and papers of a few famous individuals to the activities of regular people.

“The National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) is embarking on a major project relating to bankruptcy case files.  Marvin Kabakoff is an appraisal archivist at NARA’s Northeast Region in Waltham, MA, and one of the project team leaders.  Mary Eschelbach Hansen of the Department of Economics at American University is helping NARA to solicit the input of economic and business historians.

Currently, Federal Records Centers (FRCs) maintain over one million cubic feet of bankruptcy records from Federal courts, consisting of some 25 million individual (personal and business) bankruptcy cases.  While many cases could be disposed of 20 years after their retirement to an FRC, there is currently a hold on disposal.  Nearly all case files are extant. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts pays a large fee for storage of case files in FRCs, and it would like the retention issue resolved as quickly as possible. If case files are assessed as permanent, they are legally transferred to NARA, which is then responsible for storage costs.

NARA must determine the historical value of the case files. It has already been determined that files relating to cases closed prior to 1940 will be permanent, as will specific types of bankruptcies filed under the Acts of 1898 and 1978, such as railroads, municipalities, stockbrokers, etc.  Court dockets will also be permanent. The main problem is the large number of post-war case files. We are considering several options, including keeping a large percentage of case files from districts on a ten-year rotating basis and keeping a smaller sample of case files from each district in each year.

Your input will be valuable for assessment of the records, and we have several questions for you:
•   Did you know that historical case files were available at the FRCs?
•   How valuable might case files be for your personal research or for research in your field?
•   Would you be more likely to use case files if they were digitized?
•   Are there specific case files that NARA should identify as historically significant?

To answer these questions, and to request more information about this project, please respond to our very brief survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HCVNV2R by Friday, September 10, 2010.”

Act soon!