Libraries, Archives & Databases 2011

Wendy Scheir, Director of the Kellen Archives, shared this announcement from a local archivists’ listserv:

An Invitation from Council Member Gale Brewer
A hearing in the City Council Governmental Operations  Committee regarding the proposed merger of the NYC Department of Records  & Information Services (DORIS) with the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) is scheduled for Wednesday, April 27, 2011, at 1pm, at 250 Broadway, 14 Floor, NY NY.

“City Hall is considering a substantial change in the administrative structure of the New York City Department of Records and Information  Services (DORIS), the department that runs the NYC Municipal Archives  and Library. The proposal will merge DORIS into the Department of  Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), a much larger and less specialized agency. The proposal must be brought before the City Council and approved by its members before it can be enacted. Eileen Flannelly,  the Commissioner of DORIS, at a hearing on March 15, described the proposed merger at a public meeting near City Hall. The Muni Archives and Library are the keepers of our city’s official history. They have birth and death records, mayoral papers, photographs of every building in the five boroughs, and old WNYC-TV film footage, to mention just a miniscule fraction of their holdings. They are the repositories of irreplaceable historical information and treasures that must not be  neglected or mistreated, so it is important that this proposal be well  considered. It must be discussed in public with input and feedback from  all of us concerned about the city’s past.”

Directions to the hearing location can be found on the New York City Council website here.