ARCHIVES OF MARYLAND ONLINE ADVISORY PANEL MEETING
Minutes B 12/06/02
Present: Allan, Barnes, Berlin, Callcott, Chapelle, Morgan
Alvey, Baker, Hafner, Hare, Lepore, Papenfuse, Polk, Russo, Squires
1. Welcome & Introduction of Members and Staff
2. Recognition of Contributions by Panel Members
a) Agnes Callum B St. Mary=s County Slave Statistics
claims by slaveowners for compensation after state emancipation
provides slice-in-time list of enslaved African Americans
b) Dan Friedman
transcription of debates for Constitutional Convention of 1867
master list of all delegates with biographical information
support for Institutes for judges in history of Maryland laws
authority on Declaration of Rights
Goal: to have online all basic constitutional images transcribed with underlying images & good introductions
Anyone with material to contribute would be welcome to do so
3) Usage
just under 400,000 pages; 6,000,000 visits per year (includes search engine indexing)
figure does not include searching done internally once logged on to the site
(perhaps an additional 600,000 index searches)
overview of geographic range of users, distribution by domain type (.com, .org, .mil, etc.)
total page count is close to half of the total anticipated for the complete legal history project
4) Discussion of content
interest in adding newspapers, particularly the Maryland Gazette
indices to all land records are being put online
summer intern project scanning Sun for runaways, 1850-1859 B 800 ads, 1000 runaways
National Intelligencer is being abstracted; available @ www.accessible.com (free @ LC)
Bodleian Library has Gentleman=s Magazine and Notes & Queries online
University of Michigan & Cornell University have 19th c. journals online
5) Core Goals
session laws; house & senate proceedings
priority: legislation relating to slavery
Berlin: period of greatest change in laws relating to slavery occurred right after Revolution, to deal with increase in size of free black population
ECP: need to understand legal context of freedom cases
Advisory Panel Meeting/#2
6) Appropriated funding
core appropriation of $50,000:
covers core staff salaries & small amount for servers & equipment
$10-15,000 for transcription (c. 5,000 pages)
$30-35,000 for scanned & OCR=d material (c.50-55,000 pages)
appropriation does not cover: image acquisition
special topics
7) Outside funding required for any special initiatives
Slavery related:
Emily Squires has been successful in obtaining grants for research projects
2 grants are for resource materials relating to the Underground Railroad
small prototype grant from Natl Park Service to look at those involved through court records
$255,000 DOE grant for 1 year, with possibility of renewal for 2 more years
as part of project, Baltimore City Coleman & Matchett Directories have been put online
27% overhead in grant funds can be applied to general work
Comptroller=s Office
annual reports & other records put online as part of 150th anniversary of office
at request from & with funding by the office
Governor=s Papers
tried to set up project to computerize Glendening administration papers
will try again with Erhlich administration
7) goal of developing a system whereby volunteers could do online editing
would add to value of site without adding to costs
8) special projects can also be funded through endowments earmarked for that purpose
e.g. goal of putting Rainbow series online B planned giving bequest to support that work
9) fund raising
work proceeding to set up a Friends of the Archives 501(c)3 organization
Chris Allan to head
some funding sources legally required to give only to 501(c)3 organizations, which Archives endowment is not
will also make an annual appeal for donations
top twenty foundations in Maryland do not have history or archival work as an objective
possibility of support from real estate sector, lawyers, Maryland National Guard, etc.
plats.net earns $952,000/year B 20% available as usable overhead
Advisory Panel Meeting/#3
BUT MSA currently has $222,000 salary deficit
must be funded before any income can be used for AOMOL
therefore: need service-oriented web-based products that will generate income
e.g. Atlas grant to do scanned images of many more maps
profits to endowment
query as to whether could sell plats.net package B need personnel to do that
discussion of other possibilities for support:
- students could cooperate with projects as interns
e.g. both Morgan and St. John=s provide matching money for interns
$3700 per student for ten weeks
- Berlin: hardware donations?
- put individuals on board of Friends group with links to groups that could help
lawyers, realtors, equipment manufacturers
- Barnes: could work with Enoch Pratt B start small, work up
expand with St. John=s, USNA?
private industry B get Sun to fund newspapers
- offer classes (for a fee) to teach people how to use the site
have offered classes through UMBC
- Chapelle: connections with National Archives?
communication with IT people from other agencies
links, surplus equipment
10) Berlin: need to make site better known B how?
ECP: a good question
recognition of usefulness from Erhlich administration because used material to understand state government
need people to become more sensitive to what=s been done & what needs to be done
plats.net that has enabled MSA to avoid serious problems of VA State Library
Callcott: pamphlet describing AOMOL could be made widely available
Chapelle: connections with National Archives?
communication with IT people from other agencies
links, surplus equipment
11) please send any advice regarding usability to Greg Lepore via email link on each page
including suggestions for useful material published before 1926
15) meeting adjourned at 2:30 with thanks to panel members for their interest, questions, and helpful suggestions