Closed Archives Should Be History

Orange County has important history and records. Our Orange County Archives should be a resource for those researching that history. At present, it is not possible to use the archives for research because the facility is closed and not staffed. We hope to change this situation, with help from those who know how important it is to have access to public records.

The county began generating, receiving and accumulating records when it became an autonomous local government in 1889. At the time, the population was only 13,000. As the population increased, the volume of records being stored in county offices grew. These are public records, documents such as wills, and items such as photographs and maps. In 1940 the county began a microfilm program for some of the records.

In 1978, the County Records Center opened. It wasn’t until 1983, when the Board of Supervisors established the Orange County Archives, that provisions began to be made to identify which of the county’s records were historically significant and should be saved.

The archives has been attached at various times to the County Records Management Program, the Orange County Library System and the county clerk’s office. The archives eventually became a casualty of the 1994 bankruptcy and lost its archivist and eventually was closed to research. This, of course, is only one of the functions that a working archives should be providing for the county and its people.

Our county is populous and growing. Its archives should be the main resource for those researching county history. The archives should have a program of reaching out to the community, both through the schools and the media.

It is even more important that the various county departments send to the archives those records that document this history. A county archivist will need to establish good working relationships with people who manage county records and the heads of the various county departments. It will be important that the person selected have the knowledge, experience, professional training and personality required.

The archives is intact in a climate-controlled facility in the old county courthouse. It should stay there.

Please join us in urging county supervisors to hire a county archivist and open the archives so that historically significant records will be available for research.