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Letter to Governor Blanco - September 8, 2005
Society of Southwest Archivists
Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Dear Governor Blanco: As president of the Society of Southwest Archivists (SSA), I'm appealing to you for assistance in allowing representatives from New Orleans archival institutions back into the city so that they may inspect their facilities and collections and assess any damage that may have happened as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding following that event. SSA serves over 500 archivists, special collections librarians, preservationists, conservators, records managers, and others interested in the preservation of our documentary heritage in a six-state region, of which Louisiana is one. Our organization is very familiar with the irreplaceable historic records housed in New Orleans repositories; and, having just held our annual meeting in Baton Rouge in May and participated in the Society of American Archivists annual meeting in New Orleans just a week and a half before the hurricane, our awareness of what is at stake in the absence of immediate action propels us forward with this appeal. Staff members from these cultural institutions, which document local, state, national, and international history, in some cases, need to be allowed back into the city to assess damage. It is the only way to avoid a cultural catastrophe, albeit one on a different plane than the physical catastrophe, but a significant loss nonetheless to Louisiana and the United States. Without an immediate assessment, the materials in these institutions will succumb to damage that will be irreversible. And the effects of this loss will be nothing less than a loss of a significant portion of our collective heritage. The answer is to facilitate the return of staff members to their repositories: Tulane Special Collections, The Historic New Orleans Collection, the New Orleans Public Library, the Notarial Archives of New Orleans, and other libraries and repositories within the city. Their attempts to gain access to this point have been thwarted by guards in the city. None are asking to return permanently, nor are they asking to stay overnight. A day, an afternoon will make the difference to those materials that are in peril today. On behalf of our Louisiana members, our other regional members, the archival profession at large, and the history that is to be written from those records, I respectfully request that attention be paid to this matter in the form of access to the institutions. Sincerely, Brenda Gunn
SOCIETY
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