Following the theme of the last post, it seems the level of knowledge government employees have over public and official records is varied. For those of you from the Michigan you’ll be familiar with the soon to be ex-mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick and his ridiculous lack of knowledge of public records. See the latest Detroit news article “Kilpatrick Takes the Fifth in Public Records Case.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Jordan over at Archives Issues posted a few days ago about Sarah Palin’s administrations use of private email accounts for state business. This is a prime example of how people in power can escape accountability for their actions by deliberately not creating official records.
How can archivists hold people running for federal office accountable for their record keeping practices? I don’t think there is an easy answer here. Especially with the press’ lack of access to Palin for interviewing and questioning.
Hi. Thanks for this post. Your question is related to an item that was just posted yesterday in SAA’s online newsletter, about being an “activist archivist” and bombarding upcoming presidential debate moderator Tom Brokaw with questions related to archives, thereby influencing him to ask an archives-issue related question on national tv. I wondered to myself whether this strategy could actually work – we will only see if we try!
I also remember Elizabeth Adkins, past president of SAA, raising this question a couple of times at the annual meeting in SF. I heard her ask aloud, “How do we get Senator McCain (and his campaign) to take a stance on PAHR?”
Thanks for your comment Lauren. I have been thinking about the call from SAA since I read the email on Tuesday. The great thing about the elections process is that people can get the attention of politicians to address important issues. I don’t think many non-archivists would argue with the idea that preserving Presidential records is a good and necessary part of a Democracy. However, I do think at times when people are concerned about their economy, jobs, and retirement money it is hard to grab candidates attention on archival and history related issues. But, at a time when the executive branch is dealing with such major decisions (ie Wall St. bailout?) we need to ensure their records are preserved and accessible more than ever.
Maybe it would help to frame our questions through the lens of accountability. Without access to federal records our citizens cannot enact their rights to hold elected official accountable for their actions and policies.
[…] commented here on an earlier post about an SAA newsletter encourging members to become “activist […]