For the Record: newsletter of the Illinois State Archives, & the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board, Secretary of State & State Archivist

              Regional Archives Depository system celebrates 30 years
“The IRAD system is a jewel in the archival community and its success can be attributed to
all those involved since its inception 30 years ago.” — Secretary of State Jesse White
The Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) sys-tem,
administered by the Illinois State Archives and
dedicated to the preservation of local government
records, marks its 30th anniversary this year. Since
1976, county, township, municipal, school district and
special district records having legal, administrative,
historical, genealogical or other research value have
been transferred to regional depositories housed at
universities statewide.
In 1976, Eastern Illinois University-Charleston, Illinois
State University-Normal, Northern Illinois University-
DeKalb, Sangamon State University (now University
of Illinois at Springfield), Southern Illinois University-
Carbondale and Western Illinois University-Macomb
began receiving local records from Illinois counties.
Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago joined the
IRAD system in 1990, receiving records from Cook
County and the city of Chicago.
The IRAD program began as an experiment, funded
for two years by a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and has grown into
an invaluable research source for historians, genealo-gists,
legal professionals, public officials and the
general public.
“Seldom has such cooperation among federal, state
and local governments benefited so many people or
found so workable a solution to the problem of pre-serving
an important part of our historical and cultur-al
heritage,” said Secretary of State and State
Archivist Jesse White. “The IRAD system has sur-passed
all expectations in the area of preserving and
maintaining local historical records, and has provided
accessible venues for researchers, professionals and
the general public alike in seeking historical and
administrative information with regard to their
respective local government.”
To fully appreciate what IRAD has accomplished over
the last three decades, knowledge about the history
of local records management in Illinois is important.
The writings of Margaret Cross Norton, who became
first superintendent of the Illinois State Archives in
1922, reveal her growing awareness of the value of
local government records and her perplexity about
what should be done to preserve them. In January
1940, Norton wrote, “For over forty years American
historians and archivists have been writing and oth-erwise
working on behalf of the preservation of local
archives.” In spite of these efforts, according to
Norton, “The results to date have been negligi-ble….”
In 1942, Norton observed, “It is a curious
paradox that in the United States where local self-government
is highly developed, local records are
often poorly preserved, arranged, and listed.”
The Historical Records Survey, a Works Progress
Administration project, did much good work arranging
and listing county records between 1936 and 1942.
The Survey published inventories for more than 30
For the
Fall 2006
Illinois State Archives
Office of the Secretary of State
Margaret Cross Norton Building
Springfield, Illinois 62756
For the Record is published three times a year by the Illinois State Archives Advisory Board, Office of the Secretary of State.
Jesse White • Secretary of State & State Archivist
Produced by the Secretary of State Communications Department.
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1994-95: Lori Thull Reimers, government
affairs specialist, State Farm
Insurance Companies
1996-97: Amanda Standerfer, head librarian,
Effingham Public Library
1996-98: William (Bill) Cook, University
Archives, Western Illinois
University
1998-99: Neil Dalhstrom, reference archivist,
John Deere Company,
1999-01: Gretchen Shoemaker, National
Archives and Records
Administration
2000-02: Timothy Mottaz, records archivist
intern, Illinois State Archives
The Illinois State Archives is interested in
hearing from other former interns about what
paths their careers have taken since working
for IRAD. Please contact: Illinois State
Archives, IRAD, Margaret Cross Norton
Building, Springfield, IL 62756, 217-785-1266,
kmoore@ilsos.net.
Special IRAD Anniversary Issue
IRAD supervisor Karl Moore (right) explains a Union County
Emancipation Record to Southern Illinois University IRAD
interns (left to right) Angela Jordan, Tammy Smith and Michael
Hall.
(continued from page 3)
“I am sending a heartfelt thank you to all the IRAD system staff and associ-ates
— my internship changed my life and opened doors that were beyond
my reach before my IRAD experience.”
— Cynthia Sutton, executive director, Wright Museum, New Hampshire
(continued on page 2)
(Left) Western Illinois University IRAD intern
Brianna Kraus (seated) practices basic archival
conservation techniques under the guidance of
on-campus IRAD supervisor Marla Vizdal.
(Right) IRAD intern Burt Fields II retrieves
records for a researcher from the storage area
at the University of Illinois at Springfield IRAD.
  
  
Newsletter
of the
Illinois
State
Archives
&
The Illinois
State Historical
Records
Advisory Board
Jesse White
Secretary of State
&
State Archivist
Volume 20
Number 3