To Eric and the List:

Wow.  That is interesting, Eric.  Sorry to hear that.  It sounds as if 
NARA is inconsistent.  I applied for a picture ID researcher card at 
Archives I last year, on a day when I had no plans to do research.  
(Archives staf refer to the Washington, DC building as Archives I, or 
Archives One.  The newer building in College Park is informally 
referred to as Archives II, that is Archives Two.)  The staff at 
Archives I did issue one to me and I was in and out of NARA in a matter 
of minutes.  If I got one that way, you also should have been given one.

Sorry for the typos and dropped words in my earlier message.  I guess 
that reflected just how flabbergasted I was, LOL.  As of Monday, I will 
have no researcher card.  And, having been told to trek out to College 
Park to try persuade the research room attendants that I could xerox a 
500 page Nixon Project transcript on a self service machine, no way to 
do comply.  Even if I had a researcher card, I don't think I would be 
allowed to hog a self service machine that long.  As I said, I'm 
totally stymied.  I've been a Federal employee for 33 years now, so 
I've heard plenty of rules and regulations.  But some of this just 
doesn't make sense, even to an old Fed such as I.

Maarja


-----Original Message-----
From: Grundset, Eric <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:46:30 -0400
Subject: Re: Flabbergasted by NARA visit today

I received similar treatment at NARA on two recent visits. My 
researcher card is
the old paper one without the picture. I asked both days I was there 
how to get
a new researcher card, was asked in return whether I was going to look 
at
original records that day, said "no," and was then told I could only 
get a card
on a day that I was going to look at original records.  My first visit 
two weeks
ago was the first time I had been to NARA in a few years, and my visit 
last week
was for a lecture. Both days I had plenty of extra time to spend 
getting a new
card and neither day (the first one being a Saturday) was the place 
busy at all
(in fact, on that Saturday it was empty of researchers). This certainly 
is not
very good public service either.

Eric G. Grundset
Library Director
DAR Library
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
1776 D St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20006-5303
202-879-3313 (phone)
202-879-3227 (fax)
[log in to unmask]

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