QuickWire: National Archives Will Shutter 3 Facilities

The National Archives and Records Administration said on Tuesday that it would close three of its facilities—in Anchorage, Fort Worth, and Philadelphia—to save $1.3-million a year.

Records stored at the Anchorage facility will be moved to a facility in Seattle and will be digitized so they remain available to users in Alaska, said David S. Ferriero, archivist of the United States, in a written statement. The statement was released after the Anchorage Daily News quoted Katie Ringsmuth, an adjunct professor at the University of Alaska at Anchorage and president of the Alaska Historical Society, as saying that it “would be devastating to see that national archives and all of the treasures that it holds, and those firsthand experiences of our past, disappear.”

The Fort Worth and Philadelphia facilities slated for closure are smaller “storefront” operations. The records stored at the Philadelphia facility will be transferred to a larger facility nearby. No records are kept at the Fort Worth facility that will close, and Fort Worth, too, has a larger facility that will remain open.