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IOWA CITY — Despite a lawsuit fighting the State Historical Society of Iowa's unexpected and "haphazard" closure of its Iowa City research facility and archives — and a court hearing scheduled in the dispute next week — the state on Monday began moving some of the historical documents with help from prison inmates.

"We don't know what provisions are made, if any, for caring for these materials," former University of Iowa historian and archivist David McCartney told The Gazette on Monday after watching the unloading of dollies and pallets outside the Centennial Building that for nearly 70 years has housed the historical research facility and its archives.

“This is not a regular household move

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