Evening and Weekend Hour Restoration at NARA

Hurray!

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NARA Requests Comments About Restoring Research Room Hours
The following was written by the U.S. Naional Records and Archives Administration:

For public comment - NARA rule restoring DC area archival research room hours

The National Archives and Records Administration published an interim
final rule in the Federal Register on February 1, 2008, to restore the
weekly evening and Saturday hours that the archival research rooms at
the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and the National
Archives at College Park, MD are open.

Comments on this rule will be accepted through March 17.

To review the rule and make comments, please go to www.regulations.gov
and type "NARA" in the Search box. The rule is titled Locations and
Hours; Changes in NARA Research Room Hours. Additional information on
the rule is provided below.

The FY 2008 NARA Budget in the Consolidation Appropriations Act of 2007
signed by President Bush on December 26, 2007, includes $1.3 million to
restore evening and Saturday hours in the research rooms in the National
Archives Building and the National Archives at College Park (Archives
II). Prior to October 1, 2006, these research rooms were open three
evenings per week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday) and every Saturday.
Under this interim final rule, the research rooms will be open from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday. On Wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday they will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. We decided to make
this adjustment to the previous schedule so that out of town researchers
will have consecutive evenings along with Saturday to work. This
schedule will also make staffing the rooms easier for managers. We set
the effective date of the new hours as April 14, 2008 to allow time to
hire and train the additional research room staff and to adjust the
terms of the security guard contract.