DURHAM, N.C. — Although we live in a digital age, the National Humanities Center in the Research Triangle Park is an organization that still heavily relies on paper and physical mail.

What You Need To Know

  • Businesses and organizations in Research Triangle Park must receive their mail through a post office box

  • The change happened earlier this spring

  • Over 100 people signed a letter to the Postmaster General, laying out the issues the change caused

“We are very much paper. We get around 13,000 books every year requested and 1,600 of those, 10% come through the post office,” National Humanities Center CFO and Operations Manager Margo Francis said.

Francis said the center hosts about 35 humanities each academic year. It’s a chance for them to spend the year working on research and writing papers.

That also means during that year they need access to receiving mail.

“A big part of that service is that we offer them a full availability of library research materials, which some of them we can get locally, but others we have a subscription, we get them from all over the world,” Francis said.

Many of the places they order from internationally won’t send to a post office box. For years, that hasn’t been an issue.

However, earlier this year, the center and other businesses and organizations in RTP received a letter from the U.S. Postal Service, informing them they could only receive mail to post office boxes. Mail sent only to their street addresses would be returned to sender.

In the letter, it said that the USPS is trying to deliver mail in the “fastest, most cost-efficient manner possible” and sending to post office boxes will help with that process.

The letter said that the postal service needs “accurate, and legible address” and that when there is no post office box number, “it creates uncertainty about the correct address,” and they would rather return to sender than deliver to the wrong address.

Francis says the center had a box already, but they’re still working to shift all of their mail to that address.

It’s time out of their day, confusion for senders and additional costs.

They see what they get but do not know what’s been sent back.

Francis says sometimes they uncover weeks later that a book was returned by the postal service, and they have to order it all over again, which means paying all over again.

“So part of what we’re known for is that we can find anything from anywhere. And if we can’t get the materials through the post office, we can’t fulfill our mission,” Francis said.

Francis isn’t alone in her frustrations. Over 100 RTP businesses sent a letter to the Postmaster General, and North Carolina elected officials in Washington, D.C. also added their voices to the mix.