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National Archives at College Park, MD, will become a restricted federal facility
- bennettnate5 1y agoNot to be confused with the National Archives _Museum_, where you can still readily visit to see important documents such as the declaration of independence.
- hooverd 1y ago[flagged]
- jekwoooooe 1y ago[flagged]
- treetalker 1y agoAbandon all hope, ye who seek reflective reasoning from this government. But my guess is that less public access to national information helps, and does not hinder, a speed-run to autocracy.
- Dig1t 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- AnimalMuppet 1y agoI dunno. I'm very much not a Trump fan, but I don't see how restricting access to "national information" would help him. And if it would, how does restricting access to one of them help him? I could more see this as being just random action without any real purpose, or aimed at petty revenge on someone, or something.
- LastTrain 1y agoEverything they do is meant to sew mistrust. It doesn’t need to have any other benefit. I don’t think they are trying to hide anything, and I don’t think this is about staffing - they just want to wreck government and your trust in it.
- mschuster91 1y ago> they just want to wreck government and your trust in it. ... and eventually, privatize the wreckage or cut even more services because it's obviously "not working out".
- samus 1y agoYou're assuming competence. They are simply not giving a flying s**t about many things, break stuff and cause chaos somewhere else (Chesterton's Fence applies), cut funding, and affected agencies now have to deal with it.
- DonHopkins 1y agoWho in their right mind ever assumed anything about the Trump administration was competent? You don't need to be competent to break things on purpose out of spite and malice and hate. That's easy!
- treetalker 1y agoTaking your points in reverse order: > I could more see this as being just random action without any real purpose, or aimed at petty revenge on someone, or something. This was essentially my first point, and I think we are in agreement. > I dunno. I'm very much not a Trump fan, but I don't see how restricting access to "national information" would help him. And if it would, how does restricting access to one of them help him? I did not intend to claim that the closure necessarily helps Trump himself. My point was that reducing access to public information (either wholesale, or by placing additional hurdles) hurts democracy and favors autocracy.
- dkjaudyeqooe 1y ago
- LastTrain 1y agoWho knows, why should they feel obligated to supply any kind of rationale for their actions? [edit: /s]Here is the sum total of detail they have provided: “ All researchers must apply and present a researcher card, which may be obtained in Room 1000. This ensures that proper identification is on file for all individuals accessing the building to establish a legitimate business purpose. Abuse of any researcher registration to circumvent access by the general public may result in a trespass situation and a permanent ban from access to all NARA facilities.”
- goda90 1y agoEvery aspect of government should provide the public with rationale for its actions unless providing that rationale is an actual threat to national security or an individual's freedoms. And any time they can't provide rationale for those reasons, an independent agency should review them confidentially. You can't have government by the people, for the people, of the people without accountability.
- dkjaudyeqooe 1y agoThis is the sort of bureaucratic nonsense people actually rail against. You're assuming you'd get something truthful or informative out of that process, when in reality you'll get the opposite due to the inherit (dis)incentives.
- vkou 1y agoRight, I guess we should throw up our hands and let the dictator of the week run things as he sees, with no oversight. If it meaningfully impacts the public, the public should have input. The input doesn't need to be binding, but it needs to be taken into consideration. Representative government is not a once-every-four-years exercise, nor is it something that should only be accessible to the mega-rich. There's an entire process for this among many rule-making agencies in every level of government, across the world. It serves as, at minimum, a public record of objections and concerns, and at times that public feedback identifies a problem that the rule-drafters failed to address. It doesn't, and can't prevent outright malice by a capricious autocrat, who only works to make his backroom friends happy. But it does make a public record of that malice.
- recursivegirth 1y ago[flagged]
- recury 1y agoStaffing cuts, most likely: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/06/trump-administration-resumes-layoffs-targeting-national-archives-staff/406112/ https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/06/trump-administrati...
- LastTrain 1y agoHow does adding a new bureaucratic vetting process in room 1000 make things more efficient? How does adding additional security, as stated, do that?
- cogman10 1y agoI think if you take the view of "they just want to shut down the central government" you'll get answers to why they are doing things. The first step in killing the national archive is making it worthless. Adding extra stupid barriers to access data helps with that goal. The harder it is to use, the more likely a Coca-cola archive sponsored by taco bell will be able to compete.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- relaxing 1y agoSo the administration can decide who gets to conduct research.
- pnw 1y agoFrom their orientation page: Protect the holdings of the National Archives from theft, damage, misfiling, and inappropriate disclosure of information.
- jacobmarble 1y ago[flagged]
- simonw 1y agoThis is about "the National Archives at College Park, MD". That's one of quite a few facilities they operate: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Archives_at_College_Park https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Archives_at_College...
- thrdbndndn 1y agoIt's actually their "main" one.
- dotty- 1y agoThere are multiple 'National Archives' across the country: https://www.archives.gov/locations https://www.archives.gov/locations Looks like this only affects the one in College Park, MD.
- LastTrain 1y agoOr this is the first.
- ChrisArchitect 1y agoCan we update the title to National Archives at College Park, MD to restrict public access starting July 7?
- tehjoker 1y ago[flagged]
- ggm 1y agoI appreciate analogous cases are often not helpful, but in the UK some institutions like the national library of scotland are so-called "copyright libraries" and they have always restricted access to people who register and declare an interest grounded in research, or some gatekeeping around legitemate need otherwise. In many instances the documents held in these institutions are both rare, and contextually unique. Like paleological holotypes their role is different to objects on display in museums and collections. I also believe in the general public's right to see and access things which relate to government. I'm just trying to point out that whilst this probably is reactive to current affairs (cost management? risks? FUD?) there are reasons and situations outside the USA where this is normal, and I do not mean "has been normalised to disadvantage you" -I just mean that identifying who you are and why you want to do something isn't that unusual, in archive access.
- WarOnPrivacy 1y ago> in the UK some institutions like the national library of scotland are so-called "copyright libraries" and they have always restricted access to people who register and declare an interest grounded in research As an 8yo, I'd walk into the US Library of Congress alone and ask for rare books. I like this way best.
- efitz 1y agoUntil some random crazy person exercises the same right and destroys an irreplaceable rare book. You have to get a library card for the library. I don’t see why there is so much outrage over this, and I think the timing is more about budget cuts than about Trump [caveat- firing the archivist might have been personal]. I find the arguments that “he just wants to sow distrust” etc. are completely unbelievable; he has bigger fish to fry than micromanaging the national archives.
- cogman10 1y ago> You have to get a library card for the library. I don’t see why there is so much outrage over this Why do they need a "legitimate business need" to access the material? Why aren't they instead requiring a simple library card and/or identification. That's why people are upset. This is more than just requiring a library card. > Until some random crazy person exercises the same right and destroys an irreplaceable rare book. Every library I've been in with rare books requires supervision by the archivist if you want to browse them. Sometimes only the archivist can handle the book. The fact that these rare books aren't all being destroyed in mass tells me that this system works pretty well at screening crazy people from destroying books (and, frankly, there's not a whole lot of people dedicated to destroying rare books).
- gardnr 1y agoLooks like NARA are underfunded [1] and trying to grapple with how to prioritize digital transformation while still meeting KTLO demands. They closed three facilities last year. [2] The goal was/is to digitize everything to increase access to the archives for everyone. The current administration reduced NARA funding and, in February, dismissed Shogan as "Archivist of the United States" but it appears a plan for a strategic shift was underway before those changes. 1: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/foia-audit/foia/2024-03-15/us-national-archives-2025-budget-request-threatens-mission-failure https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/foia-audit/foia/2024-03-15/us-nati... 2: https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2024/nr24-37 https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2024/nr24-37
- Cheer2171 1y ago> KTLO Keep The Lights On?
- ajkjk 1y agoyes
- slantaclaus 1y agoSeriously? James Joyce everyone
- Cheer2171 1y agoW-hat?
- IvyMike 1y agoFrom the site: > All researchers must apply and present a researcher card, which may be obtained in Room 1000. This ensures that proper identification is on file for all individuals accessing the building to establish a legitimate business purpose. Abuse of any researcher registration to circumvent access by the general public may result in a trespass situation and a permanent ban from access to all NARA facilities. What the hell does "legitimate business purpose" mean? What "business" need is there for JFK Assassination records (which I think are at this site), for example? If I'm getting a PHD or writing a book, is that a "business" need? I suspect not. Also, "Abuse of any researcher registration to circumvent access by the general public may result in a trespass situation and a permanent ban from access to all NARA facilities" seems like a very poorly constructed sentence.
- atrettel 1y agoI've been to NARA 2 in College Park several times. I'm reading this as meaning that only researchers who will request records can enter the building now. The statement seems to be clumsily worded. It suffices to say that it would be hard to justify closing down NARA 2 for researcher access. Room 2000 is the main reading room and it is one of the largest reading rooms I have ever been in. The building was built for people to come and visit and do research. NARA 2 is a high security facility as it is. The last time that I visited was in 2019. You are searched one time upon entering the building. You (as a researcher) enter and go down to a large basement locker room where you can place most of your items in a locker. You can take a laptop and a scanner/camera to the first floor, get searched another time, then go up an elevator to the Room 2000, get searched again, and then take a seat and request materials (using triplicate forms, the last time I was there). You are searched again upon leaving the reading room. Based on my experience, it sounds like they are going to remove one of the searches and put it at the entrance rather than at the elevators for the second floor, though I admit this is speculation. The more difficult aspect would be having no parking access at the facility itself and having to take a bus there. I've taken the Metrobus to NARA 2 before and it was quite complicated the last time I went there, and I generally like public transportation. Every time I visited after that, I drove and parked in the garage, usually on the roof. That said, I can learn to manage the bus.
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- Molitor5901 1y agoI have a researcher card, it's not an arduous process. The staff are very kind. When you show up to the National Archives in Washington, DC., prepare to encounter a general group of 2 dozen pros carrying scanners, laptops, etc. It's quite the experience. I don't see this is that big of a deal. It's open, you can access it, but they are controlling more. Given the propensity for the theft and destruction of archives documents in the past, I'm ok with more security.
- londons_explore 1y agoI want more lockdown of the original documents (put them in a cave somewhere), but more openness of digital scans. Please just make a huge torrent and let everyone take a look.
- thadt 1y agoThere are a significant number of digital scans available online. The problem is that they're only a tip of the iceberg of the available material, and digitizing records costs time and money (that apparently they don't have much of right now).
- londons_explore 1y agoThe smart move is to downsize the reading rooms and use the money for a high speed scanning team. The scanning should focus on volume not accuracy or quality. If anyone needed that sort of thing, they could always go back to the original documents. So many digitisation projects spend half their time perfecting metadata etc - which IMO is of far lower value than just getting the paper scanned and sorting the rest later.
- cvoss 1y agoIndeed, the archive has cavernous branches, in the literal sense you desire. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/spring/historian-frcs.html https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/spring/h...
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- almosthere 1y agoIt's comical to me that anyone is complaining here because a) everyone with a business purpose are the only ones going. b) NO one on hacker news is ever going to go.
- mandevil 1y agoProof by counter example: I've been to NARA II at College Park dozens of times, researching and writing various papers or games I have worked on as side projects. So for example I did a lot of research on WW2 era naval damage control for a video game I was working on that never actually got out of the prototype stage. Depending on exactly how this is enforced it could be nothing or could be a big deal. It depends entirely on how much you trust the people who will be setting and enforcing the policies, and right now there have been a lot of withdrawals and very few deposits into the organizational trust of the US Government supply.
- almosthere 1y agosounds like a business purpose to me, and also, how much do you want to bet if you were to do that today, you'd find all the naval damage control information on chatgpt.
- mandevil 1y agoSo you think that ChatGPT is a substitute for primary source research?
- almosthere 1y agono, but you have two avenues - you have a business purpose and for what you were building, a video game, could probably be best approximated through chatgpt. If you're a historian writing a non-fiction book, then visit the fucking archives. the point I'm making is that everyone is making this a thing, when it is not. This is classic TDS. Everyone is attributing everything wrong with anything to Trump, his administration. And it's just insane.
- voganmother42 1y agoOn display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of the Leopard”.
- runlevel1 1y agoLooks like they quietly took the message down. For posterity, it said: > ⓘ Restricted-Access Federal Facility, Effective July 7, 2025 > > Effective July 7, 2025, the National Archives at College Park, MD, will become a restricted-access federal facility with access only for visitors with a legitimate business need. It will no longer be open to the general public. Security officers will enforce these restrictions, and your cooperation is appreciated.
- angry_octet 1y agoIt also requires special permission to access the Kremlin archives.
- patel011393 1y agoI recently used this archive for a course paper and it only took 1-2 days of training and paperwork to get approved. I don't strictly need this archive anymore, but I recall when the federal layoffs were first being announced that staff were down about it. As a first-time archives user, this is a major loss to the research community. I met people who flew in from around the country for various projects, working on their graduate degrees and consulting here. When I used the facilities, I saw signs in multiple areas about people who were caught stealing records and warnings that the consequences are significant (federal crime). But this action is senseless. Their security is very tight with scanning before entering, restrictions on materials and bags that can be brought upstairs, and people monitoring to ensure that special procedures are followed. These places are understaffed and underappreciated. Funding should increase for these national treasures.