With budget shortfalls galore, many states are having problems just paying the bills, let alone expanding archives space. Pennsylvania is in just such a pickle…
PHILADELPHIA — The 18-story tower across from the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg is where
millions of records from centuries of commonwealth history are kept to keep them safe for future generations — but it’s running out of room.
Officials say the archive, which receives several thousand new boxes of records each year, can take more for another year or maybe two, and the building must either be renovated and expanded or the material must go to a newer and more functional facility.
“We are almost at 99 percent capacity right now,” said David A. Haury, Pennsylvania’s state archivist, who said more than 200 million pages of paper were stored in the tower. “We don’t want to be in a position where we can no longer take in documents. We’re running out of options.”
Read the full AP article in the August 2, 2010 edition of The Mercury.
