Archives Budget and Administrative Matters

Fiscal Year 1998

The Archives operations for Fiscal Year 1998 concluded with a deficiency of $40,000, the first since 1975. Costs incurred for the Maryland Manual On-Line and the transportation of records to storage were the primary cause of the shortfall which was predicted but not funded at the time funds for FY 1998 were appropriated.

Earned revenue for Fiscal Year 1998 amounted to $936,283, an increase of almost 19 percent over income of $788,505 in Fiscal Year 1997.

The current balance of the Archives Endowment is $236,744.34 with contributions in FY 1998 of $15,531 and in FY 1999 to date of $6,800.  Almost all of this increase in principal comes from seminars given gratis by volunteers and part-time staff at the Archives and from donations.

Fiscal Year 1999

The Fiscal Year 1999 budget provides the Archives sufficient resources for the first time since 1991 to properly manage an archival program, with the exception of the deficit caused by the FY 1998 shortfall and the need for funds to improve intranet communications to the Annapolis Campus from the Archives.

Funded initiatives include the acquisition of storage space for the burgeoning paper archives of government and the  preservation of electronic archival material created by the state's massive investment in information technology systems. Funds are also available for editorial staff for the Maryland Manual,  for publication of the 1999-2000 paper and electronic editions of the Manual, for maintenance of the present Hall of Records Building, and for planning additional space at our present location.

The Archives has moved rapidly to make the best use of these resources:

With the assistance of the Department of General Services a lease for 20,000 sf adjunct archival facility will be presented to the Board of Public Works for approval on September 2. A purchasing contract to obtain shelving to accommodate 12,500 cf of records has been awarded. Inventory work and the transfer of materials from the Archives to remote storage to accommodate heavily used records at the Hall of Records are underway. The first transfer from a state agency as a result of this initiative are the records of the Comptroller's office which are scheduled for delivery in the second week of September.

Acquisition of information technology equipment to start the electronic archives program is complete. An individual has been recruited to direct this operation and will be starting work at the end of October. Software design and development has been initiated. Work with the Annapolis Data Center to provide fail safe data backup will begin in October. In cooperation with the Comptroller's staff, efforts are underway to acquire electronic data for deposit from the Registers of Wills. We have proposed a similar program to the Administrative Office of the Courts.

With the assistance of the Department of Budget and Management the installation of a new telephone system will be completed October 15.

A  $100,000 grant from the Information Technology Fund that would make it possible to begin placing over a million pages of primary records on-line for reference and research use.

Assistance from the Year 2000 Program Management Office that would make it possible to redesign and convert the Archives' database management system. The Archives currently manages 12,000 databases containing over 1.5 million records with 963 associated program files. Conversion is expected to require about $250,000.

Proposed Resolution: the Commission confirms its support of the ITF request and recommends that the Year 2000 Program Management Office fund the redesign and conversion of the Archives database manag ement system to make it Year 2000 functional and compliant.

Fiscal Year 2000

The Archives FY 2000 budget baseline general fund budget request will be $2,627,995. This is figure is $366,787 beyond the Department of Budget and Management's recommended Current People Services budget level of $2,261,208. It is also $245,989 more than the general fund appropriation for FY 1999.

Within this baseline appropriation are funding requests for two additional positions to further the electronic archives, contractual conversion of Maryland Manual staff, additional shelving for records storage, sufficient bandwidth for internet operations, a program for electronic reference management, and a replacement vehicle.
 

Proposed Resolution:  That the Archives should submit an FY 2000 budget request for the baseline services as outlined,  in the amount of $2,627,995 in general funds.

On behalf of the State House Trust, we are recommending that a historic structures report be prepared to fully document the building, that  all art and furnishings (including the Peabody Collection)to be exhibited in the building be conserved, that all exhibits be replaced or refurbished, that the visitors' center be reworked, that interactive electronic kiosks be installed for visitors, and that a gala reopening be held in the spring of the year 2000 when renovations are complete. Our request for this work is $1,191,370. See the attached proposal and summary budget.

Additional support also will be sought for the conversion of vital paper records to digital form. There are two reasons we are advocating this approach. First, we believe the quantity of the permanent paper records of Maryland  government now exceeds 525,000 cf, almost three times the Archives' current capacity. With a viable electronic archives, much of this paper can be reduced to exlusively electronic form. Secondly, many of these records are found on paper of very poor quality that would cost far more to preserve than to accurately scan.  We are recommending a program which complements the electronic archives to preserve this material digitally and dispose of the paper. The  request for this work will be $250,000.
 

Proposed Resolution:  That the Archives should submit an over the CPS request for the FY 2000 budget that would encompass the work for the State House and for the digital conversion of paper records in the amount of $1,441,370 in general and special funds.