• The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
• Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board (ISHRAB)
• 1999-2000 Strategic Planning Project
• Illinois SHRAB Members

The U.S. Congress established the National Historical Publications Commission in 1934 to make plans, estimates, and recommendations for the publication of important historical documents and to work with various public and private institutions in gathering, annotating, and publishing records of national historical significance. The Commission was inactive until 1950 when it first was provided funding for a modest professional staff. Its role was strengthened in 1964 when it was appropriated funds to make grants to state and local agencies and to nonprofit organizations and institutions for collecting, editing, and publishing significant historical documents. Legislation passed in 1974 changed its name to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and added a records program to its already existing publications program. The new records program began funding grants to state and local governments, historical societies, archives, libraries, and associations for the preservation, arrangement, and description of historical records and for a broad range of archival training and development programs.

The Commission is composed of representatives of the executive, congressional, and judicial branches of the federal government as well as representatives from private professional organizations whose members service or use historical records. The Archivist of the United States presides as chair and staff are provided by the National Archives and Records Administration.

The Commission's current mission is "to ensure understanding of our nation's past by promoting, nationwide, the identification, preservation, and dissemination of essential historical documentation." Beginning in fiscal year 1999, the Commission began to concentrate its efforts and its resources on three equal strategic goals within its broader mission:

• The NHPRC will provide the American public with widespread access to the papers of the founders of our democratic republic and its institutions by ensuring the timely completion of eight projects now in progress to publish the papers of George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and papers that document the Ratification of the Constitution, the First Federal Congress, and the early Supreme Court.

• The NHPRC will promote broad public participation in historical documentation by collaborating with State Historical Records Advisory Boards to plan and carry out jointly funded programs to strengthen the nation's archival infrastructure and expand the range of records that are protected and accessible.

• The NHPRC will enable the nation's archivists, records managers, and documentary editors to overcome the obstacles and take advantage of the opportunities posed by electronic technologies by continuing to provide leadership in funding research-and-development on appraising, preserving, disseminating, and providing access to important documentary sources in electronic form.

The Commission has committed up to sixty percent of its appropriated funds each year to grants for soundly conceived projects designed to meet these three goals. The remaining forty percent will be devoted to grants for other projects eligible for Commission support within its statutory mission, including projects to protect and otherwise make accessible historically significant records, to publish documentary editions other than the eight founding-era projects judged to be of critical importance, and to improve the methods, tools, and training of professionals engaged in documentary work.

Typically the NHPRC annually is appropriated less that six million dollars to award competitive grants, a figure which is split nearly evenly between its records and its publications programs. Each of these programs funds projects nationwide.

As is the case in the other forty-nine states, the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board is the arm of the NHPRC at the state level. The Board serves as a state-level review body for records grant proposals as defined in the Commission's guidelines and as a coordinating body to facilitate cooperation among historical records depositories and other information agencies within the state.

The ISHRAB was first formed by appointments made by the Governor in 1975. By the terms of an agreement entered into by the Secretary of State and the Governor in 1985 the ISHRAB now serves concurrently as the State Archives Advisory Board with its members appointed by the Secretary of State. Each of these boards concurrently is made up of a member of the State Records Commission, a member of the Local Records Commission, a member of a local historical society or museum, a university archivist, a person in the education profession specializing in either history or political science, a genealogist, a research or reference librarian, a business archivist, the director of the State Library, the State Historian, and four public members. The ISHRAB receives support services from the staff of the Illinois State Archives including the State Archives director who serves as Board coordinator.

The ISHRAB issued a Statewide Historical Records Needs Survey and Assessment Project Final Report in 1982. This NHPRC-funded project addressed state government records, local government records, historical records depositories throughout Illinois, and statewide archival functions including archival networks, conservation, and education

The NHPRC has encouraged state boards to involve themselves and their respective constituents in planning initiatives that address statewide historical records needs and issues. Those states with existing plans in place have been urged to update and revamp them. The ISHRAB received a NHPRC grant for this purpose in January 1999. For the period January-July 1999 a project consultant will be employed by the Board to prepare a report assessing Illinois historical records needs and issues as an update and departure from the Board's 1982 assessment report. With this document in hand the ISHRAB over July 1999-February 2000 will draft a strategic plan which addresses current Illinois historical records needs. The Board will be aided in this work by a professional strategic planning trainer/facilitator. When the draft is complete, it and a schedule of public meetings to be conducted in Springfield, Chicago, and Carbondale over September-October 2000 will be posted on the Illinois State Archives homepage. Further some 2,500 paper copies will be mailed to perceived stakeholders. It is anticipated that board members, the professional strategic planning trainer/facilitator, interested stakeholders, and other public citizens will attend the meetings. There they will exchange ideas which will shape the final planning document. Based upon the Board's planning experience in 1982, we believe it essential to have a draft plan prior to public meetings. The draft plan will provide an agenda and a series of talking points from which meaningful discussion can be generated. A final report specifying a plan of action is scheduled for completion and wide distribution in December 2000.

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