Hall of Records Commission
Agenda

for a Meeting to be held
in the electronic classroom of
The Maryland State Archives
March 3, 1997

Call to Order by the Secretary

Election of a new Chair and Vice Chair

Reports and Minutes of Previous Meetings

• June 19, 1996
• Special meetings in 1996 & 1997

Records Retention and Disposal Schedules

• Retention
• Disposal

Old Business

Archivist's Report on Staff Activities

• Bulldog
• most staff activities are reported regularly in the in-house newsletter, The Bulldog, which is now published on the World Wide Web.
• the President's address and Presidential visits to Annapolis
• the First Citizen Award to Jack Lapides
• the Speaker's Medallion

Recent Acquisitions

• Government Records
• Special Collections and Special Collections microfilm

The Archival Challenge: ensuring quality, reliability and permanence for the best of the World Wide Web

An archives is the conscience of the public, the repository of its collective memory, recording the triumphs and failures of the past and pointing the way to remedying the ills of the present. Without an archives there cannot be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Without convenient and affordable access to reliable information gleaned from the Archives no society can call itself truly free. No one understood this better than Thomas Jefferson, who in the Declaration of Independence, severely criticized the King of England for calling "together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."

If we are fatigued by anything today, it is by a government not yet able to guide us through the torrent of change and information that issues daily from the technological revolution. Somewhat like Noah in the face of the flood, the Archives has taken the lead in building a simple, cost-effective ark designed to help government weather the storm and deposit us all safely on dry ground. The vessel is christened appropriately a 'homepage' on the world wide web of the Intranet of state government and on the public servers of the Internet.

• Setting Standards for the preservation of electronic records
• Promoting an Annapolis Campus of State Agency Web Sites
• The Archives' staff is working with a number of state agencies in the Annapolis complex to establish agency maintained Web sites, and to secure a viable electronic link to the Archives for the preservation of permanently valuable electronic records. Two recent examples are the Legislature's website which includes services provided by the Archives and the the Comptroller's Office web site, which also now housed at the Archives where it is able to handle 6,000 inquiries and deliver as many as 12,000 tax forms daily.
• Serving as the clearing house for all State and Local governmental services on line with Maryland Electronic Capital

Finding Aids and Reference

• The Archives on the World Wide Web

Education & Outreach

• Maryland Technology College and other public presentations
• courses on line and in the classroom
• partnerships with Anne Arundel County Schools and Boys' Latin School

Administrative Matters & Fiscal Issues

• Peabody Art Collection
• Budget Issues
• Creation of a subcommittee on the Budget

Seeking non-general fund support to access & preserve the collective memory

• Archives and Anne Arundel County Schools Application to NEH
• National Digital Library Competition (Ameritech/Library of Congress)
• Innovations in American Government
• volunteers
• work/study support from Johns Hopkins for research on the history of the State House (Anne Tria on Joseph Clark)
• David Taft Terry of Howard University on the Murray Packet and Black Baltimore
• holding workshops to raise money for the Archives endowment and to help pay for improved services to patrons
  --April 19, 1997- African American genealogy

Next meeting

Adjournment

Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse
State Archivist

Email: If you have an Email account linked to your WEB browser, click here to activate your mail program to send an inquiry or message to me at archives@mdarchives.state.md.us or contact me at (410) 260-6403.

© Copyright 1997 Maryland State Archives