New archivist nomination stirs controversy.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: News, Trends & Analysis

On April 8, President Bush nominated historian Allen Weinstein to be archivist of the United States and head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Weinstein currently serves as a senior advisor at the International Foundation for Election Systems and was a founder and former president of the Center for Democracy.

The move has garnered much controversy. The nomination caught the archivist community off-guard--current NARA head John Carlin had indicated his intention to serve until July 2005. Carlin, a former governor of Kansas, had said he wanted to complete an electronic records project initiated under his watch.

Archivist groups said they were not consulted about the nomination, as has been the custom. Some partisans claim the nomination of a new archivist is a defensive maneuver in an election year by the Bush administration. Some papers from the Bush presidency are due for release in January 2005.

"We were blindsided by this," Society of American Archivists (SAA) President Tim Ericson told Newsday. "In the past, it's been done by having either a call put out saying they are looking for a nomination for the archivist for the United States or a call to react to possible nominees."

On April 14, a coalition of archives groups, led by the SAA, released a statement relaying their concerns about Weinstein's qualifications to be the archivist of the United States, as well as questioning whether his nomination was politically motivated. The White House, however, released a copy of a December 19, 2003, letter from current Archivist John Carlin to the media indicating that the search for his successor should begin in the spring of 2004. In the letter, Carlin states that he would resign when a new archivist is confirmed and sworn in to ensure a smooth transition.

Best known for his 1978 book on Alger Hiss, Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, Weinstein previously served on the...