Latest news with #CentennialBuilding
Axios
01-07-2025
- Business
- Axios
Backlash grows as Iowa closes historic research center
The State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) is closing its historic Centennial Building research center in Iowa City, will no longer edit the Annals of Iowa journal, and has ended its popular mobile museum. Why it matters: The decisions were made without public input and risk abandoning a core SHSI mission to safeguard the state's heritage, according to an online petition from the Save Iowa History Coalition. Catch up quick: SHSI staff made the decisions in the last six weeks with the help of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) as the agency faces a projected $800,000 budget shortfall. The staff had only a few weeks to close a budget gap for the fiscal year that starts in July 2026, Valerie Van Kooten, administrator of the SHSI, told the SHSI Board of Trustees in a meeting last week. The decisions did not require the board's approval, DAS director Adam Steen told trustees who asked why they hadn't been informed about the research center closure prior to a June 17 press release. State of play: The SHSI has used the Centennial Building as a research center for nearly 70 years, providing public access to tens of thousands of one-of-a-kind documents, photos and newspaper articles. The building needs at least $750,000 in maintenance, which factored into the decision to close it, Van Kooten told the board last week. A $5 million revamp of archival storage at the State Historical Building in DSM will be completed in 2028 and will accommodate the Centennial Building's collections, SHSI said in a news release. Zoom in: Annals of Iowa, which has been part of the government for more than 160 years, will no longer be edited by the state starting in July 2026. SHSI staff are seeking a collaboration with a state university to take over the work. Meanwhile, SHSI recently ended its Mobile Museum — a 38-foot custom-built Winnebago that had traveled to every county in the state multiple times since 2017 — because of costly repairs, Van Kooten said. What they're saying:"You're not being transparent," Mary Bennett, a retired special collections coordinator at the Iowa City site, told SHSI staff in a contentious public meeting last week. "Gov. Reynolds and your office made this decision unilaterally, relying on a very small handful of people, and I'm sorry, but this is erasing our history," Bennett said. The other side: Historical items will be protected and the service decisions will ultimately position the SHSI to grow, Steen said at last week's meeting.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
State Historical Society of Iowa to shutter Iowa City's Centennial Building. Find out why
After nearly 70 years of housing some of Iowa's most treasured historical documents and collections, The Centennial Building in Iowa City will close its doors. The facility will shutter on June 30, 2026, due to "ongoing financial considerations" and "duplicative in function." The historical society plans to move all Iowa City's records, books and artifacts to Des Moines. The Centennial Building, established in 1956 in agreement between the State Historical Society of Iowa and the University of Iowa, has long served as a hub for historical preservation and research. The building is located at 402 Iowa Ave., near the University of Iowa's Stuit Hall. A 2019 video from the state historical society states that the Iowa City and Des Moines facilities house more than 200 million records, photos, books and other pieces of Iowa and national history. More: Iowa City's Mercer Aquatic Center will likely close for roof replacement. Find out when: "The decision was not made lightly," said Administrator Valerie Van Kooten of the State Historical Society of Iowa in a news release. "We take seriously the stewardship of Iowa's history through its collection, artifacts, and programs, and we are committed to providing the highest level of care for these items as well as the best possible experience for our patrons and the people of Iowa." The Centennial Building Research Center will be accessible only by appointment starting July 9, Wednesday through Friday. The State Historical Society press release said the arrangement will be in place through Dec. 31. Iowa City's State Historical Society research facility is home to thousands of books, newspapers, county records, and microfilm on the main floor. The second floor houses manuscripts, letters, photos, maps, oral histories, and organizational and corporate collections that date back to the 1800s. The Centennial Building manages 34,700 cubic feet of archival materials. The State Historical Society of Iowa is "continuing dialogue" between its partners and institutions across the state, as logistics and collection management considerations are weighed." More: Six things to check out in Iowa City include Juneteenth events and other Pride Fest faves Gov. Kim Reynolds approved House File 1039 on June 11, which sets aside $5 million to "revamp the archival storage shelving units of the State Historical Building in Des Moines." The project is scheduled to be completed in 2028, featuring modernized storage for incoming materials from the Iowa City facility. The renovation will "provide streamlined and centralized public access." Jessica Rish is an entertainment, dining and education reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. She can be reached at JRish@ or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rishjessica_ This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: State Historical Society is closing Iowa City's research center. Why?
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Yahoo
A robotics tournament in a power outage
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — As if the challenge of building and programming a completely autonomous robot weren't enough, hundreds of teams and thousands of students from across Oklahoma and Kansas had to complete preparations in the dark Saturday morning. Regional Botball Organizer Steve Goodgame got an early phone call explaining the situation. 'I got a call about 5:30AM that the power was out,' he says. 'They said they were working on it.' An overnight rainstorm cut power to the Centennial Building at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. Junior Botballer Presley Bolton and friends from Pratt, Kansas worked through morning overcast away from the dark interior of the building. She admitted, 'It's kind of hard to code in the dark but we moved right next to the window.' Two separate divisions, two different eras in history met in one building, the Age of AI and the Stone Age. Junior Botball contestants worked on a series of challenges that included retrieving soda cans from a pre-arranged grid. Senior Botball teams worked with two robots at a time preparing food in a simulated kitchen. Practice was supposed to start at 8 a.m. for these first time competitors from Allen-Bowden south of Tulsa. 7th grader Jesse Whitlock explained, 'A major obstacle is probably that we crammed in a lot of the programming last minute.' The same went for a team from Millwood Schools in OKC. 'We coded five times,' chuckles one member of the team. 'We've had to run it and re-run it,' Organizers like Goodgame present different challenges each year, a course impossible to fully complete. The only think lacking in this simulated kitchen happened to be a Stone Age staple. 'No open flames?,' we ask. 'No open flames here,' Goodgame agrees. 'In fact, no kitchen. No power.' In the cave of the Centennial Building where light came from cell phone flashlights and laptop screens, robots on battery power and students on cold Poptarts solved the kinds of problems humankind has always faced, getting a meal ready fast with no heat or light. Survive and move on. The 2025 Regional Botball Challenge did get underway later Saturday, April 5th. Winners from both divisions qualified for the World Botball Conference scheduled for early July 8th in Norman OK. For more information on Saturday's event, click here. For more information on the World Conference go to Great State is sponsored by True Sky Credit Union Follow Galen's Great State adventures on social media! Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
