Hi, Paul (and List)! Thanks so much for the good, up to date explanation of in-house training at NARA. I too benefited from what you correctly refer to as the Career Intern Development System (CIDS). This program, which included two year "rotational" training assignments through various NARA divisions, started in the 1970s, if I understand correctly. I seem to remember CIDS rotations as being a new concept when I first joined NARA in December 1976. Perhaps because I was an employee of the Office of Presidential Libraries, I actually got to do one training rotational assignment outside NARA. I spent about two months at the Library of Congress's Manuscript Division around 1978. Pretty cool! I would add that in addition to the two-year round of rotational placements (which varied from two weeks to two months) in various units, CIDS also included intensive classroom training. When I started out as an archivist, I remember taking a two- week course which was called something like Introduction to Archives. I believe the esteemed Trudy H. Peterson (who later served as Acting U.S. Archivist) was the coordinator for the sessions I attended! (She was great, natch. For a while, Trudy also ran the Modern Archives Institute, which my sister Eva attended even before becoming a NARA employee.) Later during the CIDS rotations I remember returning to the classroom for a course called something such as Archives Management. This got into some of the issues that Peter Kurilecz alluded to (budgets, project planning, etc.) CIDS trainees typically wrote a paper at the end of their two year training periods. Mine (written around 1979) was on plans to process the Nixon tapes. My essay, which I think was called "The Nixon Tapes at the National Archives," famously made into the Kutler v. Wilson litigation exhibits. I remember being startled during my deposition by how annoyed Nixon's lawyer seemed about the paper having surfaced. Yet the paper then was out there at NARA's library. LOL. My sister, Eva Krusten, also wrote a CIDS paper on the Nixon materials. Her 1986 paper, "NARA and the Law: The Peculiar Problems of Processing the Nixon Materials," was written under the guidance of Frank Burke. Her CIDS classroom training was a little different from mine, as NARA experimentally tried for a while a seminar format with Dr. Burke. (As I did, Eva went through a series of rotational assignments.) A few CIDS papers by NARA employees are listed at http://www.archives.gov/research/electronic-records/staff-bibliography.ht ml#train . Back in the early 1990s, many more CIDS papers used to be available in the NARA library. I remember then getting a copy of Paul A. Schmidt's CIDS essay, which also dealt with the Nixon records. I just tried searching NARA's Library catalog. http://www.nara.gov/cgi-bin/starfinder/0?path=marcat.txt&id=demo&pass=&OK =OK The online catalog list's Eva's paper but not mine or Paul's. No, I don't think Paul and I have been blacklisted; a search for the term CIDS only results in 16 entries, far fewer than the total number of CIDS papers written. I doubt the others, like mine, have been suppressed :-) BTW, the full display for Eva's paper notes correctly, "Done in connection with the special CIDS Seminar, conducted by Acting Archivist, Frank G. Burke, from Mar. 14 through May 30, 1986." Eva really enjoyed working with Dr. BUrke. See also http://shrinkster.com/g0t which refers to an outside bibliography of some of NARA's CIDS essays. Thanks for posting, Paul, and my best to you and everyone in NWMD! Maarja ________________________________________________________________________ Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free. A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>