Public Records in Chicago: Acquisition and Accessibility

Chicago Area Archivists and Chicago Collections Consortium are excited to announce an upcoming panel discussion, Public Records in Chicago: Acquisition and Accessibility. This event is a follow up to the 2021 panel Chicago Municipal Records: Access and Accountability. In it, we will further explore the archival sources of public records and government activity in the Chicagoland area. We are pleased to welcome representatives from Chicago Public Library, the office of the City Clerk of Chicago, the Inspector General of Chicago, and the National Archives at Chicago.

As our previous panelists discussed, Chicago has a history of decentralized and inconsistent public record retention. While much progress has been made in the last several years, these historical policies have made the process of accessing records about public services, like housing, policing, and education, complicated and burdensome. In this panel, representatives of these local institutions will shine a light on the public records in their holdings. We’ll review their retention policies, how they navigate access roadblocks, and highlight some of their underused records. We hope by learning more about these individual institutions, and drawing connections between them, we can illuminate various paths to access public records in Chicago.

Public Records in Chicago: Acquisition and Accessibility will be presented via Zoom on Thursday, May 4th from 3-4pm. We’re delighted to host this panel during Preservation Week, the theme of which this year is Building Resilient Communities. We hope you will join us in building resilience through awareness of Chicago’s public records!

• Douglas Bicknese, Director of Archival Operations, National Archives at Chicago
• Matthew Messbarger, Archival Specialist, Office of the City Clerk, City of Chicago
• Johanna Russ, Librarian IV, Unit Head, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library
• Deborah Witzburg, Inspector General, City of Chicago

Moderated by Gretchen Neidhardt, CAA Steering Committee and Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center

***Registration for this event is being managed by the Chicago Collections Consortium. Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-records-in-chicago-acquisition-and-accessibility-tickets-597168867157***