Reference and Research Advisory Committee

Minutes

12/5/2001

The committee met in the electronic classroom with the following staff and members present: State Archivist Ed Papenfuse, R. J. Rockefeller. Chris Haley, Chris Allan, Ann Jensen, Helyn Collison, Fran Webster, Rick Johnson, Lamere Hennesy, Becky Miller, John Lamb, Frank Potter, Paul Jung, and Pat Anderson.

• Meetings are now video taped and archived
• Ed and the committee said goodbye to members Lamere Hennesy, Ann Jensen, Paul Jung, Rebecca Miller, and Frank Potter and thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the Archives.
• The Archives is heading into rough financial waters with an estimated $100,000 budget cut in the General Fund. There will be no new permanent staff or contractual employees. Vacated existing positions will probably remain empty. Ed will know for certain 12/15. The result will be reduced staff and services. "Non-essential" services, most of what we do, will be affected. Possible adjustments include doing as much on the web as possible.
• Chris Allan estimates 24,000,000 web hits this year.
• Should we charge a fee for some services? Will services be delayed?
• The Slavery Commission is collecting information from the Coleman Directories and is working cooperatively with Morgan State University and Howard University. Randall Burkett is compiling the project’s African American source material.
• Adding the Governor’s Papers to the Archives of Maryland online will help fund the project.
• We are recruiting volunteers for the Somerset County judicial records project and thereby creating a "shared environment."
• Regarding the Maryland boundary dispute, Ed found an English document last summer, the "King’s record," that settles the question in Maryland’s favor.
• Chris Haley said we now have a Research Administrator, David Taft Terry.
• Rocky said they are still working on the Archives of Maryland search tools and recommended going through Google’s "advanced search."
• The 1870 census is partly online.
• Web requests are up and search room attendance down by half since 9/11 – people are just not traveling.
• 1/3 of the collection is now in offsite storage.
• Suggestions for Archives funding included an "institute" with several categories of paid membership in exchange for premium services and exclusive online record access such as Special Collections.
• Chris Haley asked for committee nominees from educational and historical institutions.
• On the subject of handicap accessibility for the hearing impaired, the committee agreed that the State should cover the cost. The cost of providing signers has made the genealogy workshops cost prohibitive.
• Rick encouraged all of us to pass along the family history tidbits that we can’t link into our own lines. They may be helpful to someone else.
• Helyn suggested asking the county historical and genealogical societies for volunteers.
• The minutes from the last meeting were accepted pending revisions. Members were asked to send their notes to Pat and she will fill in the blanks.

The meeting adjourned at 2:20. The next meeting date will be announced.

Respectfully submitted,

Patricia Dockman Anderson