On this date in 2006, the Associated Press broke the story that the United States National Archives and Records Administration had signed a secret agreement with the CIA and the Pentagon in 2002 to keep silent about a government reclassification program. The 2002 agreement showed archivists were concerned about reclassifying previously available documents — many of them more than 50 years old — but nonetheless agreed to keep mum. April 14 On this date in 2003, military forces of the United States of America refused to intervene when mobs looted and burned the Iraqi National Library and Archives in broad daylight.
April 10, 2020

On this date in 2003, military forces of the United States of America refused to intervene when mobs looted and burned the Iraqi National Library and Archives in broad daylight.
April 14, 2020

On this date in 1935, the Roerich Pact was signed. It was one of the earliest international agreements addressing cultural heritage. It affirmed that monuments, museums, and scientific, artistic, educational, and cultural institutions and their personnel were to be considered neutral in times of war and accorded respect and protection in peacetime.
April 15, 2020

On this date in 2006, the family of late US columnist Jack Anderson rejected the FBI's demand to allow government investigators to search the famed muckraker's papers and remove documents the investigators deemed confidential or secret. Anderson ’s papers were housed at George Washington University in preparation for their formal donation to the school. Coming in the wake of the Patriot Act and attempts to reclassify as secret documents at the National Archives, observers of academic freedom and libraries viewed the FBI's request as part of a broader renewed emphasis on secrecy in American government, focusing particularly on libraries and archives.
April 18, 2020

On this date in 2004, the National Library and Archives of Canada Act received Royal Assent. The act combined Canada's separate national library and archives into a single institution, the National Library and Archives of Canada, created a new executive called the Librarian and Archivist of Canada, and amended the Copyright Act.
April 22, 2020

On this date in 2006, archivists of the province of Quebec launched the Quebec Declaration on Archives. The declaration was a reminder of the essential role documents play in our daily lives, an acknowledgement of the importance of archives in remembering, a commitment to continue to preserve and make documentation accessible, and a way to invite the general public to symbolically support archival work.
April 24, 2020

On this date in 2004, the New Zealand parliament passed the Public Records Act. It replaced the Archives Act of 1957 and took into account changes in technology and record-keeping practice.
April 25, 2020

On this date in 2004, couriers hand-delivered a letter from the Juanita Skillman, Chair of the Board of ARMA International, to United States Senators Susan Collins and Joseph Leiberman, the chair and ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. The letter requested "that the Committee assure itself and the American people that the recent nomination of Allen Weinstein [to be Archivist of the United States] presents the professional qualifications and capabilities necessary to perform the duties of the office of the Archivist and to promote the important function of preserving for public access the documentation and information within the jurisdiction of NARA." The action by ARMA, along with similar actions by SAA and other organizations, helped stop an attempt by the Bush administration to quietly railroad the Weinstein nomination through the Senate and instead helped insure that the nomination received deliberate Senate consideration and appropriate oversight.
April 26, 2020

On this date in 2003, Eric Ketelaar, Professor of Archivistics at the University of Amsterdam, was recognized by HM Queen Beatrix in the Queen's Birthday Honour List as an Officer of the Order of Oranje-Nassau. Ketellar was recognized for "his accomplishments as an inspiring educator and as an eminent scholar and legal expert in the field of archives, both in The Netherlands and abroad."
April 29, 2020