Home » State archivist and records administrator retires after 32 years

State archivist and records administrator retires after 32 years

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Sept. 1, 2015) — The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives today announced the retirement of long-time Kentucky state archivist and records administrator Barbara Teague.

Barbara Teague
Barbara Teague

When Teague began her career in 1983, the State Archives and State Records Centers had combined holdings of nearly 130,000 cubic feet, 6,500 customers visited for archival research, and the staff shared three computers. Now, the Archives and the Records Center combine for close to 325,000 cubic feet, the electronic records archives contains four terabytes of government data and the number of research requests and web customers exceeds 6,500 per month.

Teague was responsible for a comprehensive archives and records management program for state and local government, with services for approximately 2,200 government agencies. She managed records appraisal, analysis and scheduling for state and local government agencies; reformatting services for government records; an electronic records management and digitization preservation program; a grant program for local governments; archival description, public services and outreach; and storage and collection management services in the State Archives and State Records Centers.

“It has been very gratifying to serve the Commonwealth of Kentucky as State Archivist, and help ensure that important government records are permanently preserved for historical and legal research,” said Teague. “The Kentucky State Archives is a leader in the state archives community, and it has been a privilege to work with our staff and contribute to the success of this program.”

Teague served as coordinator of the Kentucky State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) providing leadership to archival and manuscript repositories around the state. During her term as coordinator or deputy coordinator, Kentucky historical records repositories received support for 18 projects, for a total of almost $900,000 in grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, with the assistance of the SHRAB.

“Barbara Teague has made significant lasting contributions to records management practices nationwide and to Kentucky’s archives,” said Wayne Onkst, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “The commonwealth and its residents are the beneficiaries of her dedicated service.”

Teague is active in national and regional archival organizations, and serves on several committees for the Society of American Archivists (SAA), the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA), and the Council of State Archivists (CoSA), including SAA’s Committee on Advocacy and Public Policy, and the CoSA-NAGARA-SAA Joint Working Group on Advocacy and Awareness. She is a past president and board member of CoSA, and testified on CoSA’s behalf in 2010, before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. She is a member and past chair of the Kentucky Council on Archives, and a member of the Southeastern Archives and Records Conference.

Teague will continue to work as an archivist and records manager, and after retirement will be relocating to Richmond, Va., where she has accepted the position of government records services division director at the Library of Virginia. Originally from Harlan, Teague holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Kentucky, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.