Iowa City State Historical Society reduces hours for assessment, some fear much worse

Many who spend time researching Iowa's past in one of the state's oldest collections of history are now focused on their uncertain future.

In January, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs reduced public hours by 40 percent at the Des Moines and Iowa City State Historical Society of Iowa centers to allow employees time to conduct a strategic assessment of collections.

The reduction, coupled with a steady decline in Iowa City's staff — dropping from 12 in 2007 to four — at the SHSI Centennial Building, 402 Iowa Ave., has local historians concerned the assessment is aimed at a larger issue.

'There's a sort of a slow fade to black with all of this,' said Iowa City historian and society volunteer Timothy Walch. 'We've got a complicated set of circumstances and the concern I think you hear from interested people is that you're reducing the level of staff and the hours to a point where eventually you're going to close the building and no one will notice.'

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Anthony Jahn, state archivist with the Department of Cultural Affairs, said he has heard the rumors about Iowa City's center but said his current priority is the assessment, which should be done this summer.

'That's not something that I've been focusing on, even addressing that sort of issue. I know that we're in the process right now of strategic planning for the overall institution and collection planning and what we're going to do to take the collections forward, that's my full-time job right now and I'm laser-beam focused on that,' Jahn said. 'For me to comment on going beyond late June or early July would be premature, it's just an unknown at this particular point.'

However, a research report on Cultural Affairs completed in June 2014 by master planning company Lord Cultural Resources offers a list of considerations to the department, including a recommendation to consolidate facilities in Des Moines and Iowa City to focus on more online services. The report is set to be presented to the board of trustees this month.

'The State Archives could eliminate any duplication of efforts by consolidating the two research centers of the state history library collection, thereby freeing staff, resources and space for other program needs, such as building a website with services the public can use,' according to the report.

Statewide survey

Jahn said there are more than 40,000 cubic feet of items in collections at the Des Moines and Iowa City societies.

The assessment taking place at both centers follows the department's Community Conversation engagement effort, which included 30 meetings across the state to gather opinions and priorities on Iowa's art, history and culture.

'Ultimately, people across all 99 counties, they want more access to the content that we have within the state historical society and they want more access to experience the 3-dimensional objects that we have,' Jahn said. 'They want more access closer to where they live.'

But for some, an increased focus on online databases and digitizing archives is not only unrealistic, but is being sought at the expense of existing artifacts.

'The truth of it is we are, as historians, based on our knowledge of the path, skeptical about promises that there will be a technological fix to this,' Walch said.

Iowa ranks 45th in the country for the ratio of full-time staff to cubic feet of non-electronic archival holdings, according to the Lord Cultural Resources report.

The report also shows that, from 2010 to 2012, storage needs for electronic records increased nearly 700 percent. That demand is made exceedingly difficult due to staffing, which has dropped 54 percent since 2000, the report said.

The report indicates that state archives would benefit from a better use of social media and an online presence to draw in a larger audience.

'When the public is aware of the services offered by a program and finds those services beneficial, they are more likely to rally in support of the program,' according to the report.

Left in the dark

Ginalie Swaim, chair of Iowa City's Historic Preservation Commission, spent 30 years as editor of several State Historical Society of Iowa publications. She said one of her concerns has been the lack of communication coming from Cultural Affairs.

'Administration has been putting a positive spin on all these changes and yet the staff is left in the dark, the board is left in the dark, the staff are actually given talking points if the public asks them about changes in hours and such.'

SHSI board member Bill Sherman also noted a lack of transparency.

'I'm fearful that the plan is to close the library in Iowa City and relocate some of those materials and some of the collections to Des Moines,' Sherman said.

Settlement agreement

A 1983 settlement agreement between the state and State Historical Society Inc. — a non-profit organization with original ownership over much of the building's collections — allows the group the first right of refusal for all collections gathered before 1974 — but not after that.

Walch said splitting the collections in Iowa City based on when they were collected would have big ramifications.

'It would be horrible because there's an organic relationship among and between these collections based on subject and decade,' he said.

State officials haven't expressed plans to move collections or close the Iowa City facility.

'We're certainly very committed to history here.' Jahn said, 'and we're very committed specifically to the content that lives within the history and through the history and finding ways to not only make that more accessible, but how do we enable more effective and more efficient research for people throughout the state?'