Archives may be Trump’s Achilles heel
RECORD keeping and the lack of it appears to be the main source of con- troversy now surrounding former US President Donald Trump. Events leading up to the raid on Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, on 8 August 2022 started in May 2021 when the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) realised a number of items were missing from the presidential records. In January 2022 it flagged-up that, after negotiations with Trump’s lawyers, it had retrieved 15 boxes of documents taken from the White House and that these had con- tained classified documents. The Washington Post reported this story in February 2022 with quotes from the then Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero – a former director of NYPL and academic libraries and the first librarian to hold the post – who said: “NARA pur- sues the return of records whenever we learn that records have been improperly removed or not been appropriately trans- ferred to official accounts.” He said: “[The Presidential Records Act] is critical to our democracy, in which the government is held accountable by the people… there should be no question as to
the need for both diligence and vigilance. Records matter.”
NARA had taken its concerns to The Justice Department which began an investigation and, in June 2022, it obtained surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago which – according to the New York Times – showed “boxes being moved out of the storage room sometime around the contact from the Justice Department. And it also showed boxes being slipped into different con- tainers, which alarmed investigators.”
This, and other information from a number of witnesses, prompted the search warrant on 8 August in which FBI agents seized 26 boxes including many that were marked as classified and some at the highest possible classification that were only supposed to be read in secure government facilities. The criminal investigation continues in three areas: the Espionage Act; destroy- ing or concealing records; and the illegal removal or destruction of records.
HLG anniversary celebration
A SPECIAL event to celebrate 75 years of CILIP’s Health Libraries Group is tak- ing place on 14 October, at the Friends House, Euston Road, London. The group was founded after 33 health librarians met for the first time to discuss their roles and impact on health services on 14 October, 1947. That initial meeting
National library of France reopens
after 12 years THE historic birthplace of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France reopened in September 2022 after renovation and refurbishment work. Long reserved for researchers, the BnF now aims to bring knowledge and culture within everyone’s reach by inviting “anyone simply wishing to pop in” to see the collections and access the Oval Room, described as “an architectural mas- terpiece that has been fully restored and which now serves as both a reading room and enlightening visitor attraction”. As well as a spectacular public reading room it also has new rooms for researchers, a museum, temporary exhibi- tion gallery, bookshop, café and garden.
soon led to the formal group being estab- lished.
As well as a face to face event on the day, there will also be an opportunity to join the celebration online via Teams. To register for the online event visit https://bit. ly/3LAPJH6 and for the in-person event go to
https://bit.ly/3BuXjym.
La Galerie Mazarin. Photo © Guillaume Murat/BnF
Cabinet précieux. Photo © Guillaume Murat/BnF September 2022
Façade sur la rue Vivienne. Photo © Élie Ludwig/BnF INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 11
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