I have always enjoyed visiting
the North Carolina State Archives
that is located in downtown Raleigh. But I rarely have the chance to get down there
on a Saturday anymore. Especially since
I’ve been trying to get my feet in the door with the Wake County Public Library
system. Because of this, I have been working several Saturdays a month for the
past 6 months or so and will continue to do so until I graduate from UNC in
May. Even if I could visit the Archives on a Saturday, they have started
limiting their hours from 9 am to 2 pm. They used to be open until 5 pm. It’s
unfortunate; however, as we’ve seen from archives across the country, funding
is short and they are doing what they can to stay open to the public and I am grateful
that they are open 5 days a week and on Saturdays!
The North Carolina State Archives does
have an alternative for ordering records for those people who have a busy
schedule and cannot visit the Archives during regular business hours. If you
live In-State, you can order records
via an online form found on their
website. They recommend that you read
about what they will and
will not search for you and that you provide as detailed a description as
possible in your request. I decided to give this a try and order some records I
had been looking for.
You can request materials from
the “Services” link on
the left side of the page. Clicking on the “Requesting Information by Mail”
link will take you to the general information page which includes information
about what kind of requests the Archives CAN and CANNOT answer.
This page also has a link by which NORTH
CAROLINA RESIDENTS can order materials – just click on the link
at the top that says “North
Carolina Residents.”
You have the option to submit an
online form via email or to print out the form and submit by snail mail. When
completed, click the “Submit Request” button and if you checked the box to “Send
a copy of this request to your e-mail address,” then a copy of your request
will be delivered to your email box. I created a special filter in my email to
send all of these requests to.
You won’t receive a reply back
from the Archives until an invoice is ready for your review and approval. My first request for a marriage record was
placed on 12/23/2012 and I received an invoice on 1/3/2013. It took 11 days to
receive a reply, however this was probably delayed due to the holidays. In my
reply, I was given the option to print the invoice and either pay by check or
credit card and then mail back the completed invoice to the Archives, allowing
for up to ten business days for delivery of copies of materials.
The alternative option, and the
one I chose to use, is to pay the invoice online using the Archives’ new Correspondence Portal. I
talked about this in a previous post.
This is the section of the online ordering process that Out of Staters can use
to order materials. They are charged a flat $20 fee for each record.
Speaking of fees, although it is free to
order records for North Carolina Residents, there is a $2.00 minimum copying
fee associated with each order. That is what I was invoiced for. I still find
this to be a fairly reasonable rate considering it is about 25 miles from my
house to the Archives. If I were charging the IRS rate of $0.55 / mile to drive
there and back, it would cost almost $30 round trip!
Using the online portal to pay
my invoice was quick and easy. I entered my shipping address and credit card
information into the form and then submitted it. I received 3 emails immediate
after my order was processed. One was from the Archives letting me know my
order was received and would be processed. Two additional emails arrived from
the NC Dept of Cultural Resources letting know that my credit card was charged
$2.00 for my order.
Copies of the record I ordered
should arrive in the mail any day now.
Have you ordered materials from the Archives? If so, feel free to share
your experiences below or email me at ginger.reney [at] gmail.com.
Thanks for posting this. I didn't know they had online payment available until now. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Andrea!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your nomination for the Liebster Award!! If I don't win it, I hope you do. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Grant!
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