Staff Present: C. Haley, E. Papenfuse, C. Allan, P. Melville

Meeting called to order at 12:20 p.m.

Introductions: Committee members and staff introduced themselves.

Minutes of May 10, 1999 were approved.

Remarks by Edward C. Papenfuse

• Reference Services: The current emphasis rests on providing web based services and making indexes available, activities contingent on adequate funding.

• Plats Project: Ed showed the plats available online and discussed the project in the framework of preservation of oversized documents. The plats for eight counties are accessible off the Archives' web site, with the rest to be completed in eighteen months.

• Martenet Project: This project deals with oversize materials held in private hands, the S. J. Martenet & Co. Private and public funds are being used in a cooperative venture to make available in digital form maps and plats of land in Baltimore City and County.

• Potomac Research: The Archives at the request of the Attorney General's office is conducting research for the U.S. Supreme Court filed by Virginia against Maryland concerning use of the Potomac River. Tracts along the river are being mapped. The results of this and other aspects of the research will be made to attorneys through a lock down web site.

• Card Indexes: Digitalization of card indexes preserves the information and makes them more widely available through the Archives' web site. Eventually it is hoped that an index entry can be linked to an image of the cited document. Some test work has been done with Card Index 38, Prince George's County Freedom Records.

Online Services: Current law requires government agencies to make services available online. Chris Allan speculated that such an initiative could mean 300,000,000 images for the Archives' site. At present the total is approximately 300,000. Priorities will be based on usage of records and resources to get the work done. Other online services can include registration of researchers and orders for copies of records. Committee members listed materials that should be given high priorities for digitalization, including vital record indexes, city directories, Land Office records, Prerogative Court records, and tutorials on how to do genealogy and to use the Archives' web site. It was suggested also that a patron's registration number could be used as a user name and/or password when access is so governed.

Reference Activities Reports:

• Statistics: Statistical trends for reference show that search room visits, averaging 15,000 annually, remain steady. About twice that number of patrons contact the Archives by phone; calls now average 100 or more per day. Mail is increasing by about 11%, and 21,527 letters are expected this year. Email has grown from a few hundred a year to 100 to 200 per month.

• Adoptions:  A new state law permits access to information in restricted adoption files through research done by authorized intermediaries, usually social services personnel. An intermediary can extract information and relay the data to the person looking birth parents or a child given up for adoption.

• Web Site Usage: The current number of hits is averaging 300,000 per week.. The most popular pages are the homage, search the Archives, Maryland Manual, who are your elected officials, and reference services.

• Film readers: Ken Zimmerman, an Archives volunteer, arranged for the donation of about 12 used reader printers from the Social Security Administration. These are 3M 500 motorized machines that are ideal for 16mm films, but are usable with 35mm. The printer functions will be disabled because the machines utilize thermal paper and funds are unavailable for the purchase of additional debit card readers. Helyn Hatton Collison, recording secretary for the Maryland Genealogical Society, donated funds for the acquisition of two motorized readers for the Archives. Upon delivery of these two units the Archives will create a memorial wall in the microfilm room, along which will be placed all the readers donated to the Archives.

• Reader Printers: The Archives has purchased four Minolta SP 2000 reader printers through the state lease/purchase plan. Delivery is expected in the next week.

• Scanners: Reference services will begin soon to fill many copy requests by scanning documents, including the larger record books, and producing paper copies from the images. The long term objective encompasses giving patrons access to their copies online through a password system.

• Card Index 54: The scanning of this name index to patents will be completed by the end of the month. The project involved the digitalization of approximately 68,000 cards, all done by volunteers.

• School Teachers: Bob Barnes demonstrated his database of school teachers of early Maryland, material stemming out of research for his master's thesis. Basic information on the site includes the names of the teachers, counties, and teaching dates. Over time he has accumulated additional data, such as, time of arrival in Maryland, family members, property ownership, or death and probate records. Bob will incorporate substantiated information into the databases.

• Somerset County Mapping: John Lyons demonstrated his mapping of tracts in what are now Wicomico and Worcester counties in Maryland and Sussex County in Delaware. These areas were once part of Somerset County. The database contains surveys of 6000 tracts, derived mostly from certificates of survey and patent records.

Volunteer Program: Few new volunteers have been added in the past several months. The need for a new brochure has yet to be fulfilled.

Policy Discussions:

• Children in Search Room: Sometimes the presence of children in the search room creates noisy, distractions for patrons. Committee members suggested checking policies adopted by other institutions for ideas.

• Digital Cameras: Some patrons want to use personal, digital cameras to photograph documents in the search room. The committee discussed a proposal to require patrons to notify the Archives in advance of a visit in order to obtain approval from Reference Services. Another proposal centered around the staff making on demand digital copies for a fee.

• Saturday Lunch Hour: Discussion of ways to provide some reference during the lunch hour on Saturdays did not lead to the development of viable solution.

Meeting Adjourned about 2:45.