NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 13, #4; February 2, 2007)
2. SMITHSONIAN TV VENTURE ANNOUNCES INITIAL PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE
3. HOUSE BILL CREATES DATABASE FOR CIVIL WAR-ERA AFRICAN-AMERICAN RECORDS
4. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AWARDED GRANT TO DIGITIZE AT RISK BOOKS
5. SMITHSONIAN INSPECTOR GENERAL ISSUES REPORT ON SENIOR EXECUTIVE SALARIES
6. BITS & BYTES: NHPRC changes grant submittal procedures; Smithsonian names new archivist; National History Day reception on Capitol Hill; President proclaims National African American History Month
7. ARTICLE OF INTEREST: "The Saga of the Lost Space Tapes," January 31, 2007, "Washington Post"
1. FY '07 BUDGET RESOLUTION BOOSTS NATIONAL ARCHIVES, BUT CUTS NPS PROGRAMS
On January 31, the House of Representatives passed a continuing budget resolution (H.J. Res. 20) to fund most federal government programs through the remainder of the 2007 fiscal year on September 30, 2007. The continuing resolution passed 286-140, with the support of fifty-seven Republicans. Despite this show of bi-partisan support, many Republicans were upset that the new Democratic leadership brought the bill to the floor under a rule that did not allow amendments. The bill was also stripped of many specially designated projects known as "earmarks."
In general, federal agencies and their programs were flat-funded at the same amount they received in fiscal year 2006. However, the Democrats did show some flexibility in reshuffling those numbers. One agency that fared better than most was the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The Electronic Records Archives program received a $9.9 million increase, which reflected the amount the administration had requested for fiscal 2007. NARA also received $3 million in mainly reprogrammed money to help repair damage to its Washington, DC headquarters from flooding last summer.
One loser because of the deletion of earmarks was the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library. The Nixon Library had been slated to receive a $1.98 million earmark to begin the process of transferring records, materials and staff to the library's site in California. Earmarks to the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson Libraries, totaling almost $2 million, were also stripped from the bill.
It is worth noting that the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), which had its budget zeroed out in the Bush administration's FY '07 budget request, was funded at its FY '06 level. The NHPRC will receive $5.5 million for grants and $2 million for overhead expenses.
The Historic Preservation Fund of the National Park Services (NPS) suffered a $16.5 million cut, down from the FY'06 enacted level of $72.1 million to $55.66 million. The Historic Preservation Fund supports programs administered by state historic preservation offices, including the administration of grants and nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Senate must pass its version of the continuing resolution by February 15 to avoid a shutdown of most of the federal government.
2. SMITHSONIAN TV VENTURE ANNOUNCES INITIAL PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE
Smithsonian Networks, the fledgling television channel, has announced an initial slate of more than 60 programs when its Video On Demand service debuts later this spring. This will mark a major milestone in the development of the controversial partnership between the Smithsonian and the Showtime Networks.
In March 2006, the Smithsonian announced that it had entered into a 30-year, semi-exclusive contract with Showtime to create a digital on-demand television channel. Members of Congress and other stakeholders, including the National Coalition for History, raised issues concerning the contract's potential effects on public access to and use of the Smithsonian's collections, its confidential nature, and the process by which the Smithsonian negotiated the agreement. However, in December, the Government Accountability Office issued a report finding that the Smithsonian followed its internal contracting guidelines regarding competition, oversight, and conflicts of interest.
David Royle, executive vice president for programming and production at Smithsonian Networks, was interviewed in the "Washington Post" and said that they were still in negotiations with satellite and cable television companies to make the channel available as an on-demand program. However, he stated that the Smithsonian and Showtime are considering transforming the venture into a traditional network channel such as the Discovery Networks or the National Geographic channel.
A list of the major programs on the new network is available at: http://newsdesk.si.edu
3. HOUSE BILL CREATES DATABASE FOR CIVIL WAR-ERA AFRICAN-AMERICAN RECORDS
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 390) directing the National Archives to create an electronically searchable database of historic records of servitude, emancipation, and post-Civil War reconstruction contained within federal agencies for genealogical and historical research and to assist in the preservation of these records.
H.R. 390 requires the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to provide grants to states, colleges and universities, and genealogical associations to preserve records and establish databases of local records of such information. The bill authorizes $5 million to create the searchable database and $5 million to the NHPRC for the grants.
A companion bill, S. 295, has been introduced by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA). H.R. 390 is now awaiting action in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
4. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AWARDED GRANT TO DIGITIZE AT RISK BOOKS
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced this week that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded the Library of Congress a $2 million grant for a program to digitize thousands of public-domain works, with a major focus on at-risk "brittle books" from the Library's General Collection and U.S. history volumes. Scanning is expected to begin within a few months after an initial startup period to establish logistics, staffing and resources.
The project, "Digitizing American Imprints at the Library of Congress" will include not only the scanning of volumes, but also the development of page-turner display technology, capability to scan and display foldouts, and a pilot program to capture high-level metadata, such as table of contents, chapters/sections and indexes. Past digitization projects have shied away from brittle books because of the condition of the materials, but "Digitizing American Imprints" intends to serve as a demonstration project of best practices for the handling and scanning of such vulnerable works.
The Library of Congress proposal also includes digitization of works in the following categories:
*U.S. genealogy and regimental histories. The former includes county, state and regional histories, while the latter includes histories, memoirs, diaries and other collections from the Civil War period.
*Six collections of Rare Books including the Benjamin Franklin Collection, selections from the Katherine Golden Bitting and the Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collections of Gastronomy, a selection of first editions from the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division, selections from the Confederate States of America Collection, the Henry Harrisse Collection of Columbiana, and selections from the Jean Hersholt Collection of Hans Christian Andersen.
5. SMITHSONIAN INSPECTOR GENERAL ISSUES REPORT ON SENIOR EXECUTIVE SALARIES
This week, the acting-Inspector General of the Smithsonian Institution issued two reports that investigated compensation practices at the Smithsonian and its income-generating arm, Smithsonian Business Ventures.
The Smithsonian is a unique institution. While it is a federal entity, it also receives funding from a trust from James Smithson that established the Institution in 1846. In fiscal year 2006, the Smithsonian received $615 million in federal appropriations and $274 million from the trust. Because most of Smithsonian's senior executives are funded through the trust, they are not bound by caps placed on federal salaries.
The most startling revelation in the report was that trust executives earn 21 percent more than comparable federal executives at the Institution. The report found that the, "Smithsonian paid 42 of 90 trust executives more than the maximum basic federal pay rate of $165,200 in fiscal year 2006, and 19 of those trust executives were paid salaries greater than the $212,000 salary paid to the Vice President of the United States." Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small's salary in 2006, was $884,733, more than double the $400,000 salary for President Bush.
In the separate report on Smithsonian Business Ventures (SBV), the IG found that since its inception in 2000, its overall inflation-adjusted net gains have declined. In fact, the dollar value of the SBV's contribution to the Smithsonian is lower, in real dollars than the amount Smithsonian businesses contributed in 1999.
Copies of both reports can be found at: http://www.si.edu/oig/
6. BITS & BYTES:
ITEM # 1--NHPRC changes grant submittal procedures: The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) has announced some changes in its grants applications process. While the structure and content of the applications remain largely unchanged, the NHPRC is requiring the electronic submission of grant applications via the federal government's Grants.gov portal.
Beginning with their March 1, 2007, deadline, the NHPRC will only accept applications via Grants.gov and requires that all attachments be submitted in the Adobe PDF format. Step-by-step instructions on creating applications, including links to resources for converting files to Adobe PDF, are available at: http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/apply/grants.html
ITEM #2--Smithsonian names new archivist: The Smithsonian Institution has announced the appointment of Ms. Anne Van Camp as the new Director of the SI's Archives. She will assume her position on March 5, 2007. She most recently served as Director of Member Programs for the Research Libraries Group, Inc. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, holding B.A. and M.A. degrees in American history.
Tom Soapes, who has served as Acting Director of the Smithsonian's Archives since 2005, is retiring at the end of March 2007.
ITEM #3--National History Day reception on Capitol Hill: National History Day is hosting a congressional breakfast reception on February 8, 2007, at 8:15 a.m. in room 385 of the Russell Senate Office Building. Those interested in attending should RSVP at 301-314-9739. The event is being co-sponsored by the History Channel.
ITEM#4--President proclaims National African American History Month; On January 26, 2007, President Bush issued a proclamation proclaiming February 2007 as National African American History Month.
7. ARTICLE OF INTEREST: "The Saga of the Lost Space Tapes," January 31, 2007, "Washington Post"
This article tells the story of NASA's so far futile search for the original video tapes of the first manned moon landing in July 1969. The broadcast images that Americans saw on television in 1969 were actually a technologically inferior version of the live feed from the moon. Somehow after the original tapes were originally stored, they were either misplaced or destroyed. The article details the lengths to which NASA is searching its archives and holdings to try and find the missing tapes.