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