by Beth Maser, CEO and President, History Associates Incorporated (HAI)
At HAI, we have been closely tracking the insights and online concerns our colleagues in the records management, archives, and historical consulting industries are raising regarding the recent firings and layoffs at the National Archives. To that end, we were heartened to see Maegan Vazquez write a piece on Monday in the Washington Post about the ripple effects some of these changes are bound to cause for those parties who access the Archives on a regular basis.
An additional aspect of the firings and potential lack of access to the Archives and their records we haven’t yet seen covered is the effect this will have on corporate America. Some of the hidden super users of the National Archives are our nation’s largest businesses, which rely on access to public records to assess risk, navigate litigation, understand their competitive landscape, and meet compliance obligations. Our team at HAI is deeply involved in this work and knows firsthand how important it is that access across the country be kept open and transparent.
HAI has worked inside the National Archives for decades, supporting corporate clients, law firms, and government agencies HAI has worked inside government agencies and corporate entities, aiding them in analyzing historical documents to inform critical decisions. If access is restricted or revoked, several risks may arise, including: in navigating historical records for legal and strategic decision-making. Should access be limited or, in the worst case, taken away, we foresee a few risks listed below:
- Just two percent of the Nation’s archives are digitized, meaning that FOIA requests will likely grind to a halt without expert navigation. Since the news began to break last week, HAI has encouraged all clients to submit FOIA requests ASAP, as the current 6–8-month queue could extend to years if resignations and firings continue. Not only is FOIA a cornerstone of day-to-day operations for many of the biggest companies in the US, but it’s also a critical lever for our media. Between both parties, a slowdown of FOIA request fulfilment would profoundly affect ongoing business-related operations.
- HAI estimates that one percent of the US population has the required understanding to navigate the complexities of research at the National Archives. HAI staff have spent hundreds of thousands of hours on research at NARA and have managed the contracts for accessioning archival materials to NARA, alongside the management of private archives for major organizations. Without this subject matter expertise, the billions of records stored in the Archives cannot be expertly datamined or researched.
- The risk is more significant than that of access to Presidential papers. (The Kennedy Library has already had a closure due to decreased NARA staffing.) The National Archives houses millions of documents with a much more significant impact on the day-to-day running of the country. Notably, this includes essential Veterans Affairs records, millions of photographs, archival films, and other record groups critical to businesses, students, filmmakers, and other groups that have little to do with the federal government.
The National Archives is a place of incredible importance, and the roles within it keep our country running—in invisible ways, big and small, every single day. HAI is committed to championing continued open access to these important places that preserve our nation’s history. The unintended consequences of quick actions can still be reversed, and the impact on our economy and those who keep some of its largest parts moving can be lessened.
