Dear Alison and ARLIS colleagues,
In response to this executive order, the ARLIS Public Policy committee has
written a letter to Representative Horn from our president, Ted Goodman, to
express our concern.
The contents of the letter are as follows:
Representative Stephen Horn
Chairman, Subcommittee on Government Efficiency
2154 Rayburn Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Rep. Horn:
I write on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA)
to express our concern with respect to the President’s recent Executive
Order 13233 on Presidential Papers. Founded in 1972, ARLIS/NA is a growing,
dynamic organization promoting the interests of nearly 1,500 members
including architecture and art librarians, visual resources professionals,
artists, curators, educators, publishers, and others interested in visual
arts information. Although ARLIS/NA is not primarily concerned with issues
relating to presidential papers or archives, it does represent a broad
spectrum of academic and public institutions with significant archival
holdings. We are also steadfast advocates for the free access to
information that by tradition and law belongs in the public domain.
On purely legal grounds, we share the apprehension expressed by our
colleagues in the Society of American Archivists that the Executive Order
violates both the spirit and letter of existing U.S. law on access to
presidential papers as set forth in 44 U.S.C. 2201-2207. This law
establishes the principle that presidential records are the property of the
United States Government, and that the management and custody of, as well
as access to, such records should be governed by the Archivist of the
United States and established archival principles. The Executive Order
conflicts with the law by putting the responsibility for these decisions
solely with the incumbent President.
More importantly, we firmly believe that Executive Order 13233 threatens to
undermine the concept of free and open access to information that is at the
heart of our democratic society. To restrict such access by an executive
process without proper public or legislative review or scrutiny is a clear
violation of the principles upon which our nation was founded. I strongly
urge Congress to take immediate action to overturn this action.
Sincerely yours,
Edward Goodman
President
ARLIS/NA
---Barbara (on behalf of the ARLIS Public Policy committee)
At 10:28 AM 11/6/2001 -0800, Alison Pinsler wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>This is an article about an executive order that Bush signed over the
>weekend allowing the White House or former presidents to veto the release of
>their papers.
>The archival community is quite concerned about this and is now figuring out
>what to do and how to proceed.
>I urge everyone to read the article and for ARLIS/NA to take a stand with
>AMIA and the SAA.
>
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27293-2001Nov1.html
>
>Ciao,
>
>Alison
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________________
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Barbara Rockenbach, Instructional Services Librarian
Arts Library
Yale University
180 York St.
P.O. Box 208242
New Haven, CT 06520-8242
phone: (203) 432-7074 fax: (203) 432-0549
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
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