ARCHIVIST OP THE HALL OF RECORDS 21

REPAIR AND BINDING

To find experienced people in the art of repairing man-
uscripts and binding manuscript volumes is one of the most
difficult personnel problems at the Hall of Records. It is, insofar
as the State is concerned, a dead end so far as advancement and
increase in salary are concerned. There is just no place to go
except here and young women are not tempted any longer by a
position which has no future and pays very little. We have had
at times, stable staffs but that was at times when there were
dedicated craftsmen still around.

In the fiscal year upon which I am reporting, we started
with three fairly good workers. Then Kenneth Thompson, who
was an excellent bookbinder, died; we replaced him with a young,
inexperienced but willing young woman, who has since left our
employ. Mrs. Boettcher proved to be a good binder, so she was
put in Mr. Thompson's place and the other young woman was
taught the art of laminating documents. Then Mrs. Boettcher,
as young married women will, applied for maternity leave and
was away for four months. Another young woman replaced her
temporarily, but since her interest lay rather in the research
room, we transferred her to that duty which needed another
hand badly. All of this accounts for what appears to be a minimal
output in the Repair Department.

Mrs. Boettcher managed to bind twenty-eight volumes. She
found herself at times getting ahead of the laminators and so
able to do some of the laminating, having been schooled in this
work previously at the Hall of Records.

The one person who worked at the job all the year was Mrs.
Schoenfelder. Her output in quantity does not seem too great,
however much of her work was with Land Office Certificates of
Survey, which were badly in need of attention and were difficult
to handle.

One other thing should be emphasized in regard to our
repair room. The employees there are assumed to be our handy-
men as the list of duties below will demonstrate:

Documents deacidified, repaired, prepared, laminated and trim-
med 16,244 pages
Books Bound — 28 volumes