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Yosemite Resource Management Records
YCN: 1002 (YOSE 229554)  
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Collection Overview
 
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Description
The Yosemite National Park Resource Management Records consist of the documents created, received, and managed by the National Park Service as the park “central files” from the mid-1950s to 2008. These documents are fundamental program records that contain critical information regarding the administration and management of the park over time, The Resource Management Records are organized in functional record groups, reflecting fundamental park operations including Administration, Concessions, Development and Maintenance, Fiscal, History and Archaeology, Interpretation and Information, Lands, Natural and Social Science, Personnel, Supplies and Procurement, Law and Legal, and Fire Management. These records contain correspondence, reports, agreements, contracts, forms, SOPs, notes, photographs (prints, negatives, and slides), blueprints, diazotypes, maps, plans, drawings, and newspaper clippings.
Background
The Yosemite National Park Resource Management Records consist of the documents created, received, and managed by the National Park Service as the park “central files” from the mid-1950s to 2008. These documents are fundamental program records that contain critical information regarding the administration and management of the park over time, including the establishment of park policies and planning efforts. The Resource Management Records are organized in functional record series, reflecting fundamental park operations including Administration, Concessions, Development and Maintenance, Fiscal, History and Archaeology, Interpretation and Information, Lands, Natural and Social Science, Personnel, Supplies and Procurement, Laws and Legal Matters, and Fire Management. Beginning in the 1950s, the NPS changed the agency’s central file record keeping system from a numerical file coding system, as found in the Old Central Files Collection (YOSE 107896), to an alphanumeric record keeping system outlined in the NPS Records Dispositions Schedule (Director’s Order 19). The agency instituted slight modifications to the schema over the years, but the core structure has remained unchanged. When the new filing system was implemented, official park correspondence was done in triplicate, and the park secretary would keep the park's copy in a central location. Other copies were often sent to the Pacific West Regional Office (PWRO) and the Washington Support Office (WASO). Yosemite records sent to WASO have been transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at College Park, Maryland, and likely contain documentation that is not located on site at Yosemite. The centralized concept began to disappear in the 1980s as offices within the park stopped using the triplicate forms and began keeping copies of records within division or program offices. This change also coincided with park management reducing the number of file clerks and park secretaries so that no single person remains responsible for coding and/or filing records, thus the quantity of records from the more recent past is much smaller than in prior years. The Yosemite National Park Archives has primarily received these records in two ways; through return of materials stored at the Federal Records Center (FRC) at San Bruno, CA, and through direct transfer of inactive records from staff managing the central files at the park. The bulk of the records were returned to the park from the FRC between 1975 and 2005, but park Museum and Archives staff also completed accessions directly from the park Mail & Files Clerk between from 2003 to 2008. The majority of these records were kept in the Yosemite Museum Building until they were transferred to the new archives facility at the El Portal Administrative Site in the early 2000s. The Yosemite Resource Management Records not only contain important documentation regarding the continuing administration of Yosemite, but also reflect important trends and changes in the management of the NPS as an agency over time. The documentation provides insight into some of the developments that have shaped Yosemite, and the national park system, over the last sixty years, including the evolution of park law enforcement, development of a new natural and cultural resource management ethics, administration of park concessions operations, park wilderness designation and management, infrastructure and facilities development and maintenance, changing approaches to interpretation and education, and major park planning efforts and initiatives in the eras before and after passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Extent
389 LF
Restrictions
Materials are in public domain and available to researchers.
Availability
Some folders have sensitive information which requires a park permit to access.