Monday, September 26, 2011

Information for Researchers at the National Archives at College Park, MD


Research at the National Archives in College Park

Textual Records:

  • Civilian Records: We hold records that originated in civilian agencies of the Executive branch of government. Most of these records were created after 1900 and include documents created or accumulated by bureaus within the departments of State, Justice, Treasury, Interior, Labor, Commerce, Energy, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Health and Human Services, and Transportation.
  • Modern Military Records: Records that originated in military agencies of the Executive branch of government. Most of these records were created after 1900 and include documents created or accumulated by the various components of the Department of Defense and its predecessor, the War Department.
Contact the Textual Records unit at: The National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001, by telephone at 301-837-3510, or via Contact Us.
  • The FOIA and Special Access unit of the Textual Archives Services Division provides reference services on those federal records in the National Archives at College Park that require administration of special access provisions. Examples of these types of records include those accumulated as part of the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection and those accumulated by Independent Counsels. Contact the unit at: The National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001, by telephone at 301-837-3190, or via specialaccess_foia@nara.gov.
  • The Nixon Library staff in College Park, Maryland, provides reference services on the accessible textual (paper) materials from the presidency of Richard M. Nixon. Contact the unit at: The National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001, by telephone at 301-837-3290, or via nixon@nara.gov

Cartographic:

The holdings of the Cartographic and Architectural Section in College Park, Maryland, include over 15 million maps, charts, aerial photographs, architectural drawings, patents, and ships plans, constituting one of the world's largest accumulations of such documents. These holdings are arranged in 190 record groups, which reflect the origins of the records in specific federal departments and agencies. On-site researchers may examine these records and finding aids in the Cartographic and Architectural Research Room.
  • Architectural and engineering drawings relate almost exclusively to structures and equipment built by or for the Federal Government.
  • Holdings are arranged by the Federal offices that created or accumulated the records.
  • Maps that predate the Federal Government and 19th century maps of areas outside the United States are rare among the unit's holdings.
Online finding aids and informational materials about Cartographic and Architectural records holdings at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, include:

Microfilm:

National Archives holdings include records on microfilm reels, microfiche, and a number of other micrographic formats. These records were either transferred to NARA by the originating agency in that form or converted by NARA for the convenience of preservation and reference of the original record. The latter are released by NARA as part of its Microfilm Publication Program.

On-site researchers may examine records on microfilm, and other micrographic formats, and finding aids in the Microfilm Reading Room at the National Archives at College Park.

Electronic Records:

The Electronic and Special Media Records are located at the National Archives in College Park. We accession, preserve, and provide access to electronic records transferred to NARA from agencies in the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Motion Picture Films and Sound and Video Recordings

The Motion Picture, Sound, and Video unit, Special Media Archives Services Division, located at the National Archives at College Park, makes available on-line some information about NARA's motion picture, sound, and video records holdings. Online finding aids to holdings and informational resources include:

Photographs and Graphic Works

The Still Pictures unit in College Park, Maryland, has an estimated 8 million photographs and graphic images, ranging in date from the 1850s to the present. There are many thousands of additional photographs interfiled with textual records. The Cartographic and Architectural unit in College Park, Maryland, has approximately 9 million aerial photographs in its collection.
The Still Picture unit makes available online some information about NARA's photographic and graphic works holdings. Online finding aids to holdings and informational resources include:

Pull times:

Records are retrieved Monday through Friday for use in the research rooms at:
  • 10:00 a.m.
  • 11:00 a.m.,
  • 1:30 p.m.,
  • 2:30 p.m.
On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday there is an additional pull at 3:30 p.m. There are no pulls on Saturday.
The Nixon tapes are available, self-service, during regular Research Room hours.
Most of the microfilm collection is stored in research rooms for self-service retrieval. Reference copies of some videos, still pictures, and maps are housed in specialized research rooms for self-service use.
Researchers must be at least age 14.

Phone Numbers (area code 301)

  • General reference information: 837-2000
  • Nixon Library (College Park) reference: 837-3290
  • Cartographic reference: 837-3200
  • Military records textual reference: 837-3510
  • Civilian records textual reference: 837-3510
  • Motion Picture, Sound, & Video reference: 837-0526
  • Electronic Records reference: 837-0470
  • JFK Assassination Records reference: 837-3190
  • Still Picture reference: 837-0561

Orientation and Research Room Procedures

New researchers will view a short PowerPoint orientation emphasizing the safe handling of records and explaining the most basic research procedures, responsibilities, and rules. New researchers should plan for a total of 15-20 minutes to complete the registration process.

Research Rooms

The Research Center contains these rooms:

Summary of Research Room Rules

  • Paper and pencils are provided to researchers. Pens and notebooks are not allowed.
  • Researchers may bring approved loose paper research notes, hand-held wallets, and coin purses into research rooms, but those items are subject to inspection when researchers enter or leave the research complex.
  • Researchers may not bring briefcases, backpacks, purses, boxes, or other large containers into the research rooms.
  • Lockers are available. A quarter is required, but is refunded when the locker key is returned. The lockers are emptied nightly.
Please see the following additional information:

Security

Electronic surveillance is in use.

Self-Service Copying

Paper to paper copies of most documents can be made on self-service copiers at a cost of 25¢ per page. Microfilm to paper copies are 50¢ per image. Before copying any textual records researchers must show a staff member the original material they wish to duplicate. Read more about copying...
A debit card system is used to pay for self-service copies. You may use your research card as a debit card. Machines to add money are located in the research rooms. These machines accept bills and credit cards. Do not bring coins. Unused money on your card cannot be refunded. When the cashier is closed (after 4:30 Mon-Fri and all day Sat), it is not possible to get change in the building.
Researchers may copy certain audiovisual records using their own equipment or may rent the use of a dubbing station available in the research room. For details, call the general reference number to obtain the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Research Room orientation handout. Some audiovisual records may not be copied such as the Nixon White House tapes and copyrighted newsreels.

Special Equipment

Researchers may use their own personal computers (laptops, notebooks, etc.), approved scanners, tape recorders, tape decks, cameras (we provide copy stands for small format cameras only), and other equipment in the Research Center, but cases, bags, and boxes must remain in lockers located in the basement. Equipment carts are available in Room 1000. Personal copiers and auto-feed or hand-held scanners are not permitted.

Contact Information

PDF files require the free Adobe Reader.
More information on Adobe Acrobat PDF files is available on our Accessibility page.
Washington, DC Area >
Posted by at No comments:

We've heard it all before....Simpler Forms and New Program Reduce Paperwork and Speed Process

Posted by at No comments:

More veterans are using PTSD as defense in criminal cases


Joshua Stepp
As awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder grows, veterans' lawyers are finding juries sympathetic. But the case of Joshua Stepp, who killed his infant stepdaughter, is testing how far that defense can go.
After a decade of combat overseas, growing numbers of veterans are relying on PTSD as a central element of their defenses in criminal cases. [Joshua] Stepp's trial is being closely watched as one measure of just how far defense lawyers are able to push in arguing that the disorder influences veterans' criminal behavior.
The number of such cases will rise as more veterans return from Afghanistan and Iraq with post-traumatic stress or other trauma from repeated combat tours; already, more than 170,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
[...]
A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2009 helped pave the way for combat trauma — and military service itself — to mitigate sentences. In that case, the court reversed the death sentence for a Korean War veteran because his military service and combat-induced psychological damage weren't presented at sentencing.
Noting that the U.S. has "a long tradition of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service," the court said "juries might find mitigating the intense stress and mental and emotional toll" of combat.
Today, more than 80 special veterans' treatment courts have been established nationwide and hundreds more are planned, said Christopher Deutsch, a spokesman for the National Assn. of Drug Court Professionals.
Reporting from Raleigh, N.C.— 
He killed her, Joshua Stepp admitted. He slammed the face of his 10-month-old stepdaughter into a carpeted floor, roughed her up as he changed her diaper, stuffed wet toilet paper down her throat, and soon she was dead.

But Stepp, a 28-year-old former Army infantryman who saw combat in Iraq, insists that he is not guilty of first-degree murder. His post-traumatic stress disorder left him incapable of premeditating the killing of tiny Cheyenne Yarley in November 2009, he and his lawyers say.

Because of his severe PTSD, Stepp was not able to "form the specific intent to kill," his attorney Thomas Manning said. He asked jurors last week to find Stepp guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder, which lacks the potential for the death penalty.

After a decade of combat overseas, growing numbers of veterans are relying on PTSD as a central element of their defenses in criminal cases. Stepp's trial is being closely watched as one measure of just how far defense lawyers are able to push in arguing that the disorder influences veterans' criminal behavior.

The number of such cases will rise as more veterans return from Afghanistan and Iraq with post-traumatic stress or other trauma from repeated combat tours; already, more than 170,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Thousands of veterans accused of nonviolent crimes have had charges or sentences reduced in the last several years after citing their PTSD as a mitigating factor. Veterans with combat trauma are now often sent to counseling and treatment programs rather than to prison for low-level offenses.

"The idea isn't to get the guy off; it's to help the veterans get the treatment they need. They deserve our help," said Shad Meshad, founder of the National Veterans Foundation and a Vietnam veteran who has counseled soldiers for 40 years.

The prosecutor in the Stepp case told jurors that his defense insults veterans because it "taints their suffering" and "perverts this disease."

::

On the night Stepp killed Cheyenne Yarley, he had downed rum, bourbon and beer, plus painkillers prescribed for his wife, an Army veteran and Cheyenne's mother, his lawyers said.

He was angry about being called home from a bar by his wife to care for Cheyenne and Stepp's 4-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, his lawyers said. His wife had to go to work.

In vague, halting testimony a prosecutor called "convenient," Stepp said he couldn't recall many details of that night. Cheyenne died of head trauma from multiple blows.

"I can only, like, remember really intense parts," he testified.

He added later: "I don't know, it just like happened, and then I'm there and I'm like, 'What the hell?'"

Stepp's PTSD and his drug and alcohol abuse left him incapable of plotting or intending Cheyenne's murder, Manning said.

"People with untreated PTSD do not have the same checks and balances, or brakes, that the rest of us hopefully do," Manning told jurors.

Stepp had seen fellow soldiers blown apart by roadside bombs in Iraq, his attorney said in court. In one instance, he had to put those pieces in the container available to him: a pizza box.

When Stepp came home from Iraq, he grew more and more damaged by deepening PTSD, his attorneys said. The night Cheyenne died, she wouldn't stop crying and kept soiling her diapers, and Stepp lost control, Manning said.

"There is no pity being asked," Manning told the jurors. All he asked was for them to find that Stepp's PTSD left him incapable of deliberately killing his stepdaughter.

But prosecutor Boz Zellinger pointed out that Stepp repeatedly lied to his wife over the phone and to a police dispatcher while his stepdaughter was dying in the family's apartment.

"What shows his competency more than his deceit?" Zellinger asked the jury. "He had a fixed purpose: to kill that child so no one would see what he had done to her."

He added: "Every single piece of evidence shows the defendant was in control of his actions that night."

Zellinger scoffed at Stepp's PTSD claims, saying defense experts relied entirely on Stepp's own, unreliable statements in concluding that he suffered from the disorder.

He raped Cheyenne intentionally, the prosecutor said. Blood was found on Stepp's underwear, Zellinger said, and the girl's injuries were so severe they could not possibly have been caused by vigorous wiping. "Every orifice that Cheyenne had was injured," Zellinger said.

But Stepp denied sexually abusing Cheyenne; Manning said that the bruises around the infant's anus and vagina occurred when Stepp wiped her roughly as he changed her diaper.

On Sept. 8, a jury of six men and six women found Stepp guilty of first-degree murder and sexually assaulting his stepdaughter.

Manning immediately began putting on witnesses in the penalty phase, where Stepp's PTSD remained central to the lawyer's attempt to save the veteran from the death penalty.

::

Courts and prosecutors are far more willing now than during the Vietnam era to consider a veteran's combat trauma in sentencing for nonviolent crimes, lawyers say. Veterans' groups credit a growing awareness of PTSD, activism by advocates for the mentally ill and a nation sympathetic to the conditions under which soldiers must operate.

"There is definitely a recognition that the emotional and psychological scars of our veterans are real," said Stephen Saltzburg, general counsel for the National Institute of Military Justice, which studies the military justice system.

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2009 helped pave the way for combat trauma — and military service itself — to mitigate sentences. In that case, the court reversed the death sentence for a Korean War veteran because his military service and combat-induced psychological damage weren't presented at sentencing.

Noting that the U.S. has "a long tradition of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service," the court said "juries might find mitigating the intense stress and mental and emotional toll" of combat.

Today, more than 80 special veterans' treatment courts have been established nationwide and hundreds more are planned, said Christopher Deutsch, a spokesman for the National Assn. of Drug Court Professionals.

Veterans' courts do not provide "a get-out-of-jail-free card," said Brockton D. Hunter, a Minneapolis lawyer and veteran who since 2002 has represented more than 100 veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Instead, the courts steer defendants toward treatment and probation, often working closely with Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.

Although many prosecutors are sympathetic to combat veterans, some PTSD-related defense tactics are viewed with skepticism.

"Prosecutors are always wary of the 'defense of the day,' or trends that … may be overused because there is some perceived broader understanding or acceptance by courts and juries," said Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Assn.

The law, said Elizabeth Hillman, a law professor and president of the National Institute of Military Justice, "is uncertain and evolving."

On Tuesday, jury members told Judge Osmond Smith that, after deliberating for two days, they could not reach a unanimous verdict on a sentence. Following state law, the judge sentenced Stepp to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Posted by at No comments:

Contacting the National Veterans Foundation

toll=free-888-777-4443
webpage-www.nvf.org
email-http://www.nvf.org/contact/gr/index.php
Chat live with a counselor- http://nvf.org/livehelp/
Posted by at No comments:

Vets Disability Claim Backlog Getting Worse


Our Vets are still waiting too long to receive the benefits they have earned. 
The USA Today reported yesterday that the benefits claims backlog within the Department of Veteran Affairs has continued to grow. Making matters worse is that there are accusations from Congress and Veterans groups that the VA knew a massive influx of claims would be coming, but failed to take action ahead of time.
The number of claims taking four months or more to process has increased from 200,000 in the last year to 450,000.  The total number of pending claims has risen from 448,000 to 756,000. VA expects that Veterans submitting new claims will have to wait six months for their claim to be processed, and that next year, the estimated wait time will jump to eight months.
While 3,000 claims processors were hired last year - a move which brought the total to 14,000 - many were untrained and inexperienced, resulting in rampant administrative errors, causing even more problems in the system.
What this means is Veterans will have to wait even longer to receive compensation for their combat-related disabilities.
VA says there are three underlying reasons for the growing problem they are facing:
1) Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have more complex claims than in past wars, and that reviewing them takes more time.
2) Requirements for Agent Orange-related claims were recently relaxed, which meant there was a sudden spike in claims stemming from Vietnam-era soldiers who were in contact with the dangerous chemical.
3) Claims always increase during a bad economy.
Regardless of the reasons, there is a simple, incontrovertible fact—our soldiers are fighting an incredibly violent and dangerous war, and they deserve the benefits they have earned.
An article in Wednesday’s L.A. Times reported that the number of multiple-limb amputations has tripled, going from 21 in 2009 to 65 in 2010. While fatalities are thankfully lower compared to past wars, this means that surviving soldiers will need even more of VA’s help reintegrating back into society.
These factors have worked together to create a perfect storm where the VA is unable to properly help Veterans, and as more and more Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans are preparing to come home, the cycle stands to get worse.
Because we have an all-volunteer military, the number of troops is finite.  As these wars drag on, soldiers are being kept in combat longer than originally anticipated and being asked to serve multiple tours of duty. All soldiers who endure the horrors of war are at risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and other combat-related injuries, and when one tour becomes four, the chances of being diagnosed with these conditions increase with each passing day.
The process of applying benefits claim is difficult enough as it is, and this arduous process can be made tougher when war-related physical and psychological injuries turn simple tasks like reading and writing into uphill battles. This delays the time in which a claim can be filled out. Once the paperwork has been sent to the VA, there are a multitude of technicalities which can stall a benefit claim from being processed. All the while, Veterans, our nation’s heroes, are left to fend for themselves for months on end.
For 25 years, the National Veterans Foundation has helped tens of thousands of Veterans navigate these waters so that they can receive the help they deserve. Among the many services we offer, NVF helps Vets access their local VA hospital and VA benefits administration office. In addition, we’ll help any Veteran in accessing and completing their benefits claim forms. Also, NVF provides invaluable assistance to Vets in helping them document their claims, as mistakes or losses in paperwork are a major cause for delay. We also help Vets in the appeals process, should their initial claim be denied.
The NVF works tirelessly to help our heroes, but we cannot do it alone. We are grateful for all the help our cherished network of supporters have given us over the years. With the struggles our Veterans are unknowingly coming home to, please consider making a donation to support our work today.  Even $5, if everyone chips in, can make a world of difference.   
The National Veterans Foundation and Veterans everywhere thank you for your support.
 Reprinted from the National Veterans Foundation website
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)