LVA hours slashed
The Legal Genealogist is appalled.
Just appalled.
I am the descendant of generations of Virginians and people who left Virginia generations ago only to come back to Virginia in my lifetime.
My Pettypool line was in Virginia in the 1650s when my 10th great grandfather William Pettypool arrived as an indentured servant; he was referenced in a 1658 land patent1 and 1660 court order.2
My Gentry line began in Virginia, with Nicholas the immigrant who showed up for the first time in the records of York County in 1680.3
My Davenport line was in Virginia well before the end of the 17th century. My 8th great grandfather Davis Davenport was named as an adjoining landowner in a survey of 939 acres in King & Queen County in 1696.4
My Baker line can be documented at least as far back as 1744, when Thomas Baker patented 516 acres in what was then Brunswick County and later became Lunenburg County.5
Two of my forebears — David Baker of Culpeper County and William Noel Battles of Albemarle County — served in the patriot forces of Virginia during the Revolutionary War. Baker was a corporal in the 3rd Virginia;6 Battles a private in the 10th Virginia.7
My mother, maternal grandparents and maternal great grandmother all spent their last days in Fluvanna County, and are buried together in the Byrd Memorial Methodist Chapel Cemetery in Kents Store.8
There are others in my family who were from Virginia and literally dozens of my kinfolks who live there now — those should be more than enough for now to make it clear that I have deep deep roots in the Old Dominion. And I am hardly alone: Virginia is one of the cradles of American democracy and the American experience. In its records may be found the very foundations of our nation, as well as the foundations of so many of our families.
And, today, we should all — every last one of us — be appalled.
Because we have allowed one of the very best research facilities in the United States to come under fiscal attack… and to lose substantial resources and assets.
The Library of Virginia is Virginia’s state library and archives. It houses some of the oldest and most important archival records in the country. Vast troves of original materials from the earliest colonial periods can be found within its doors, along with parish and county documents recording some of the most important moments of our history.
It is a jewel of a research library, and should be ranked among the great treasures of Virginia: prized above all else, protected, cosseted even.
Right.
When was the last time you saw a library or an archive that even got a break from the politicians? It’s just so easy to cut the budget of a place that “merely” serves the public, day in and day out, quietly, without fanfare, serving up historical treasures.
And that’s exactly what Virginia just did. It cut the budget of the Library of Virginia so deeply that the Library has just announced that — effective November 14th — its reading rooms will no longer be open on Saturdays and Mondays.
The press release about the closings came yesterday. And it is heartbreaking:
The reading rooms of the Library of Virginia will be closed on Saturdays and Mondays starting November 14, 2016. The move is a result of the drop in recent revenue projections, which led to Governor McAuliffe reducing the operating budgets for executive agencies by 5 percent for the current fiscal year. The Library had no option but to turn to staff cuts to absorb the 5 percent operating budget reduction. With the loss of 18 employees, the Library is unable to keep the reading rooms open six days a week. Effective November 14, 2016, the reading rooms will be open Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM.
“The decision to close the reading rooms was made reluctantly but providing effective service on Saturdays and Mondays for patrons without adequate human resources was no longer possible. Since the Governor’s announcement of the staff reductions at the Library of Virginia I and other members of the Library Board have been contacted by members of the general public who are very upset about these staff reductions,” said R. Chambliss Light, Jr., chairman of the Library Board.
Librarian of Virginia Sandra G. Treadway said, “Closing on Saturdays and Mondays is necessary because of the loss of 12 full time and 6 part time employees. Suspending our Saturday hours and closing our reading rooms on Mondays is heartbreaking for us, but is necessary. It will make it difficult for citizens who do research in the Library’s unique holdings; however, we will continue to offer our constituents alternative avenues to information. When the Library is not open, citizens can still access numerous reference and re search resources through the Library’s main website (www.lva.virginia.gov) and also via Virginia Memory (www.lva.virginiamemory.com).”
Other service areas will also be affected. It will take longer, for example, to fill orders for digital images of material in the collections. Training for state and local records officers will be offered less frequently, and response times for records management–related questions may be extended. Moreover, it will take longer to provide access to new collections, and the Library’s ability to offer programming will be diminished.
The Library of Virginia has been open on Saturdays throughout the years since shortly after World War II. The Library holds the world’s most extensive collection of material about the Old Dominion. Its collections now total approximately 123 million items. The Library of Virginia attracts more than 200,000 visitors annually from across the state and nation. Since its 1997 opening at its 800 East Broad Street location in historic downtown Richmond, the Library has consistently ranked among the area’s most visited cultural attractions.
Since FY 2008, the Library’s general fund budget has been reduced nearly $3.5 million. The Library has taken previous reductions from its limited discretionary funds and from staff reductions in behind-the-scenes departments so that it could keep the reading and research rooms open to the public six days a week. Before the economic recession in 2008, the Library employed 195 full-time and 45 part-time staff members. At the start of the current fiscal year, before this new round of reductions, its staffing level stood at 123 full-time and 14 part-time employees. The loss of these 18 employees necessitated the closing of the reading rooms on Saturdays and Mondays.
The agency will remain open from Monday through Friday. Full-time public service staff will continue to respond to mail, e-mail, and telephone requests and will pull materials to fulfill research, photocopying, and digitization requests. This work will primarily be done on Mondays, since there is not sufficient staff coverage to complete this work when the reading rooms are open to the public.9
One of the very best research facilities. With records of one of the very oldest colonial jurisdictions. No evening hours. And no weekend hours.
Worse, no prospect that things will get better — and a very real risk that they will get worse.
It’s appalling. And it’s up to us to turn this around — or at least to stanch the bleeding.
Live in Virginia? Contact your legislator and the Governor. Tell them this is not the way to balance the budget. Tell them you will vote accordingly. Now and in the future.
Live outside of Virginia? Contact the legislators who represent the districts where your ancestors are from. Tell them you may not vote in elections… but vote with your wallet when you choose where to visit and how much to spend in tourism dollars.
We cannot sit idly by and let this jewel of a research facility wither away, hour by hour, day by day.
Speak up.
Or there will be even more dark days in Richmond.
SOURCES
Image: Library of Virginia, Wikimedia user Tokyogirl, CC BY SA 4.0.
- Virginia State Land Office, Patents No. 4, 1655-1662: 254; Land Office microfilm reel 4, Library of Virginia, Richmond. ↩
- York County, Virginia, Deeds, Orders, Wills 3: 95 (13 November 1660); York County Microfilm reel 2, Library of Virginia, Richmond. ↩
- November 1680, order as to Nicholas Gentry, York County, Virginia, Deeds, Orders, Wills 6: 268; York County Microfilm reel 3, Library of Virginia, Richmond. ↩
- Survey, 29 May 1696, by James Taylor for Major John Waller; Waller Family Papers, 1667-1816, Accession #260356; Library of Virginia, Richmond. ↩
- Virginia State Land Office, Patents No. 22, 1743-1745: 200; Land Office microfilm reel 20; Library of Virginia, Richmond. ↩
- Compiled Military Service Record, David Baker, Cpl., 3rd Virginia Regiment, Revolutionary War; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, microfilm publication M881, 1096 rolls (Washington, D.C. : National Archives Trust Board, 1976); digital images, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com/ : accessed 1 Nov 2016). ↩
- Ibid., Noel Battles, Pvt., 10th Virginia Regiment. ↩
- Byrd Memorial Methodist Chapel Cemetery (Kents Store, Virginia); on Venable Road (Virginia Rte. 601), 0.25 miles east of the intersection with Virginia Rte. 659; Hazel Cottrell Geissler, Clay Rex and Opal E. Cottrell, and Eula Robertson markers; photograph by the author, 27 Dec 2014. ↩
- “Library of Virginia Reading Rooms to Close on Saturdays and Mondays Effective November 14,” News & Events, posted 1 Nov 2016, Library of Virginia (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/news/index.htm : accessed 2 Nov 2016). ↩
Legislators and government administrators have no concept of how important libraries and archives are. Most apparently have not been inside a library since they were in school.
You are correct that the Library of Virginia, which acts as the state’s archive, has one of the finest collections of original historical and genealogical materials in this country. The colonial era documents are essential to research by historians, genealogists, sociologists, cartographers, and others who are involved in disciplines that relay on the accessibility of the collection’s assets. My personal experiences there have been exceptionally good – better than in some other state archives.
Slashing funding, jobs, and hours at this facility smacks of the same crises experienced in Georgia and Michigan. Once again, it is absolutely imperative that WE get involved and let the government officials in Virginia know our displeasure. Public outcry by citizens of the states and people outside the state made a difference in the rescinding of the directives in both Georgia and Michigan. It can also make a difference in Virginia. Tell the governor and the legislators that this will hit them in the polls AND in their visitor and tourism dollars. No matter whether you have ancestral ties in Virginia or not, you need to make yourself heard. The genealogical community has power and it needs to be exercised.
Judy, thank you for bringing this announcement to everyone’s attention. We at The Genealogy Guys Podcast will certainly be talking this issue up and urging our listeners to get involved.
Thanks for your commitment, George. We CAN make a difference.
I would add, join a genealogical society and get involved. When you join a society you are countable and our numbers carry weight.
Absolutely! And the Virginia Genealogical Society is one of the best. (And yes I know its website is undergoing reconstruction. Patience…)
here’s a link to the whole budget savings plan
http://dpb.virginia.gov/forms/20161013-1/2017SavingsPlan_10-13-2016.pdf
In which you will see that no other agency is losing staff like this — LVA had already been cut to the bone and had nowhere to cut except staff.
Sending this blog out to all my relatives and friends, asking them to contact all their contacts to help with this. If we can set up a hue and cry to Virginia legislators it just might make a difference!
Thanks, Stan. It’s too late for this budget year, unless the Legislature can be convinced to make a special appropriation. But it will be CRITICAL for the next budget year — that really is a make-or-break.
Similar to what happened in Georgia in 2012:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/us/budget-cuts-to-limit-public-access-to-georgia-archives.html
And most of those responsible were re-elected to office.
Yes, as noted at the time in Archives and Ancestors, and it happened in Indiana, see Speak out for Indiana!, and in Oklahoma, see Eyes on Oklahoma, and Arizona, see Raising Arizona, and…
As I read your comments, I immediately thought of George Santayana’s words “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
A Google search led me to Churchill’s comments on about the same theme, “When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong–these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”
I especially like his line, “confirmed unteachability of mankind.” and may I be so bold as to change “mankind” to “politicians” but I also point a finger at us, the public, who do not stand up for the preservation of our own heritage.
Each morning I am taken aback when I hear about the millions, billions and trillions of dollars that have recently been spent on ‘unwinnable’ wars, nasty election campaigns, ridiculously expensive business ventures and failures, paid speeches that only a few benefit from.
The Ancient Greeks told us, “Know thyself” and yet we fail over and over to heed their advice.
So sorry that the general public is again experiencing limited access to the history of our nation and people have lost jobs while millions are being spent on personal pride and greed.
As it is I can only be there on Saturdays, (unless there is a Federal or State holiday on Friday or Monday and they are closed). I arrive as the doors open and I leave at last call. I can easily get lost in the rich records and cultural materials. I have been going for years and still have not mined all there is. And as I continue my own research and for others, I find myself going back to records I thought I had already gleaned all the information I would need…only to find something new highlighted with my more recent discoveries.
I agree that budgets are necessary and at times tough calls have to be made, but libraries, archives, schools and educational treasures should not be where we pinch pennies! I have already sent one letter to the Governor’s office, now I shall be starting a letter, email and call campaign so that our voices are heard. This genealogist will ROAR.
I couldn’t agree more: this is not where pennies should be pinched.
Any suggestions for who to contact when our ancestors were in the parts of Virginia that are now Kentucky or West Virginia, but for whom there are still pertinent records at LVA?
I would contact the Governor — and I would absolutely join the Virginia Genealogical Society and join forces with others of like mind.
Been a member of VGS for several years!
Many archives facilities have a sign-in sheet at the front desk. I don’t have statistics on how often guests fill these out, but I think some genealogists don’t understand their purpose, and probably skip the trouble of doing so. I’ve been told by archivists that their guest logs help show how often their collections are accessed and are used by the funding entity to determine how important the archive is to the public. I encourage researchers to make use of them whenever they visit places like this. Does the Library of Virginia have one?
It has many different ways of recording usage, including sign-in sheets.
This isn’t a crisis, it’s business as usual here in Virginia. Agencies are given their yearly funding based on state income projections, not on money the state actually has. I’ve been connected one way or another with Virginia higher education since 1993. Every year universities (thinking libraries and archives here) get a budget, sometimes with a modest increase, at the start of the fiscal year, they plan hiring and budget allocation accordingly, then as we head into the end of the calendar year they have to “give back” a percentage of their money. People are let go, hours are reduced, projects get scrapped, services and morale go down the toilet. And they get the old “do more with less” speech. It doesn’t seem to matter who’s sitting in the governor’s office.
This slash job on the Virginia Library seems excessive, but 5% is about average for the annual “give back”. It sounds like they’ve been getting hit hard for years.
By all means follow the suggestions here about advocating for your state archives and libraries! But understand that this is far from an isolated event. It happens every year, and will continue as long as state “income” doesn’t meet projections. That means taxes folks, or paying for services that we have always thought was the government’s job to provide for free. I think these resources are worth it. Sadly, not all of our citizens in Virginia do.
We all have to be willing to pay the piper — and convince others to do so.
OMG, I have had a trip planned to the library for several months. I am flying in from CA. First l found out the library was closing for Veteran’s Day, then I found out the library will be closed on Saturday for a marathon and now on Monday. My trip was from Thurs to Thurs. I am now down to two days of research, Tues and Wed. I love this library and like many of the other comments my family roots are in VA. This is a shame.
This is so discouraging. In NY we are constantly having to fight this battle with respect to our local public libraries and I am hearing from people in Scotland that many of the local Councils there are so strapped for funds that they are having to close down libraries altogether in order to keep the schools open.
My family came to VA in the mid 1600’s and have had a constant place in VA history since that time. Now that I am retired and can actually travel and research the VA records, you close on two of the most important days on which I would be able to visit and conduct my research. I live in MO so I can’t just jaunt over to VA for an afternoon. You are closing your records to millions of us who would be able to use your facilities. Thanks! This is just what I need to ruin my research plans. I will make sure all my VA relatives are aware of this problem and ask them to support researchers with the ballot box. Your records are priceless to those researchers like me. What a precious treasure trove for those with Virginia roots, and now we are limited on when we may use them.