Audit: National Archives At Risk

[unhappycamper]

Audit: National Archives At Risk
BRETT ZONGKER | 10/26/10 09:19 PM | AP

WASHINGTON — An audit prompted in part by the loss of the Wright Brothers' original patent and maps for atomic bomb missions in Japan finds some of the nation's prized historical documents are in danger of being lost for good.

Nearly 80 percent of U.S. government agencies are at risk of illegally destroying public records and the National Archives is backlogged with hefty volumes of records needing preservation care, the audit by the Government Accountability Office found.

The report by the watchdog arm of Congress, completed this month after a year's work and obtained by The Associated Press, also found many U.S. agencies do not follow proper procedures for disposing of public records.

Officials at the National Archives, which houses the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and other treasured documents at its Washington rotunda, had no immediate comment Tuesday on the findings.

~snip~

Meanwhile, some documents face the threat of deterioration even though they're already at the Archives. Figures from 2009 show 65 percent of its holdings need preservation steps. In some cases, a document's condition already is so poor, it can't be read – a backlog amounting to more than 2 million cubic feet of records.



unhappycamper comment: Spend money preserving old papers?

No way. We need more XM-25s for the troops new shotguns for the troops $5 billion dollar destroyers for the troops $243 million dollar F-35s for the troops another engine for the F-35 for the troops $40 billion dollar aircraft carriers for the troops million dollar MRAPs for the troops . . . .

It's always for the troops or jobs, never about the people of this country.

[xchrom]

1. it's stunning that it's in bad shape at all. nt

[MadHound]

2. There has always been a lot of quiet support for letting the National Archives rot away

Too many embarrassing secrets in there that keep turning up and causing headaches, things like IBM's, Ford's and Bush family's aid for Nazi Germany, or how the MIC took over this country after WWII, with the help of former Nazi's, or what certain corporations did to the American people in the past.

[krispos42]

3. So the Ark of the Covenant is in danger?

Damn. Maybe they should have just left it in Egypt.

[Sherman A1]

4. K&R

Sad