The National Archives at College Park, Maryland will become a restricted access facility 7:9

[Alexander Howard]

Since its founding, US National Archives & its public servants have been dedicated to making public access happen for public records. No longer, under President Trump.

Today, the Trump administration said they’ll make access end at NARA in College Park, MD on July 9th, stating it will become a “restricted-access facility” with access limited by security officers to visitors with a “legitimate business need” — no longer to all of the American people.

https://www.archives.gov/college-park

We’ve moved partially open in 2016 to mostly closed in 2025, opaque by default in 2024 to secretive and corrupt by intent.

Selective declassification & disclosure online or special exhibits at NARA HQ is not a replacement for public access to primary source materials of our democracy.

410-849-9808 | @digiphile

http://e-pluribusunum.org

[Alexander Howard]

NARA has now deleted the notice from its website and released a statement about the misunderstanding they caused: 

https://x.com/usnatarchives/status/1937872088934883624?s=46

“June 25, 2025

We caused a misunderstanding yesterday in the way we communicated long overdue enhanced security standards that are going into effect at the National Archives at College Park, M.D.

First things first: For those who want to come to College Park and look through the records, the research rooms were, are and will ALWAYS remain open to the public. Ensuring public access to records in the archives is part of NARA's core mission and the new security standards do not - and would never- change this.

The National Archives is implementing long overdue enhanced security standards at College Park due to several recent incidents that have left those in the building-including researchers- and our nation's records vulnerable to threats. In addition to other measures, NARA is increasing video surveillance and mandating that traffic bollards stay up closer to the building.

Many of these measures mirror security standards that have been in place for many years at the research rooms at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and research facilities at presidential libraries.

We look forward to continuing to always welcome researchers to College Park.”

—
Sent from my pocket supercomputer
410-849-9808 | @digiphile
Subscribe to Civic Texts: https://civic-texts.ghost.io

[James Jacobs]

Hi Alex. whew I'm glad that this "misunderstanding" was cleared up. It'd be a tragedy if NARA archives would become restricted access.

best,

James jacobs

[Alexander Howard]

Right?!

This was alarming.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "US Open Government" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to us-open-governm...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/us-open-government/e7c17c18-74f5-4892-a1fd-bb1941e82ecan%40googlegroups.com.

[Patrice McDermott]

Absolutely.  Good it was responded to, but....

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/us-open-government/CAD%2BC%3DS5nEQDQdYBWizpWFoEi3ZACm1w-hEK8rXPArMLGKPnx7g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Josh Gerstein]

Despite the spin, this seems to have been more than a "misunderstanding." The de facto head of the Archives acknowledged that some sort of restrictions were supposed to go into effect and have been "rescinded." Sounds like a substantive change, like no tourists or something, was intended. And is now withdrawn 

https://x.com/JimByron_NARA/status/1937903345295085616

://x.com/JimByron_NARA/status/1937903345295085616

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/us-open-government/2c6af169360a4acb8d73ba163fa79f9e%40govinfowatch.net.

[James Jacobs]

Is anyone else bothered that so many agencies have almost completely shifted over to X for their official communications and press releases? I can understand why they want to use social media to expand their outreach, but those should point back to the agency’s site so that those official communications can be archived. 

Best,

James 

[Patrice McDermott]

Yes, absolutely.  Entirely inappropriate – should not be legal as there is no way to ensure their veracity and their preservation as government documents. This Admin does not want verifiable & preservable documentation, nor does this Congress care  (don’t want an accurate paper trail of this Admin).  Speaking of which, what is the documentation situation in Congress??

 

Where are the historians??

 

By the way, Kelly Smith and others at GovDocL are doing yeoman’s work tracking a lot of these…

 

 

Patrice McDermott, Director

Government Information Watch

pmcde...@govinfowatch.net

@pmcd.bsky.social @McD_Patrice

 

DOGE = Death of Government Expertise

h/t@RadioFreeTom (Tom Nichols)

[Daniel Schuman]

Yes, I am bothered by that. There were directives from Musk to do exactly that.

Daniel

-------------------

Daniel Schuman 

Executive Director | American Governance Institute

dan...@americalabs.org | 202/577-6100

Support AGI | Subscribe to the First Branch Forecast

Schedule a 30 or 60 minute meeting

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/us-open-government/E475906D-F8C7-4DB7-BF65-3EAE7EE388EB%40gmail.com.

[Patrice McDermott]

It does look like that.  Someone should test it out, though.  

They have forced out most (if not all) of the long-time senior staff.  Thanks for flagging, Alex, and following up, Josh.

Thanks 

---

From: Josh Gerstein <joshge...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2025 4:06 PM
To: Patrice McDermott
Cc: Alexander Howard; James Jacobs; US Open Government