Civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings of the Somerset County Court in the 17th century are recorded in (Judicial Record) in series C1774, and reproduced on film in series CM962. The extant records from 1665 to June 1689 are now available through the electronic version of the Archives of Maryland, judicial records series. The first volume, liber B1, 1665-1668, appears within Vol. 54 of the original, published set of the Archives of Maryland. 

The next five volumes of judicial records have become part of the online version because of the generosity of Atwood S. Barwick who transcribed the records from the microfilm copies. He donated his transcripts on disk and in binders to the Archives, Atwood S. Barwick Collection of Transcriptions of Somerset County Judicial Records in series SC5246. This monumental effort has been placed online as searchable text in Vols. 86-91 of the Archives of Maryland, along with corresponding images of the original, handwritten pages. 

Mr. Barwick encountered some problems in deciphering the handwriting, interpreting 17th century abbreviations, and coping with faint or obscured film images. To compensate for these gaps and to enhance our understanding of the records, the Archives has hired an editor to proofread and correct the text, compile a dictionary of terms, and prepare an introduction to the judicial records. These editorial changes and enhancements should be completed by the end of the year and incorporated into the online judicial records. 
 

The Search Room Advisory Committee held its spring meeting at the Archives on May 31. The group was larger than normal because of the presence of members whose term of office expired at the end of last year and those just beginning their 3-year terms. The fall meeting had been missed because of time constraints stemming from the reorganization of the reference department. 

Ed Papenfuse invited the Committee members to the Phebe Jacobsen Memorial Service to be held on Sunday, June 18, at the Archives. Contributions to the Archives in her memory will be used for special projects. One such donation from C. Ashley and Beverly B. Ellefson is helping finance the reproduction of Bacon's Laws of Maryland as Vol. 75 of the Archives of Maryland Online. 

The Committee voted in favor of a resolution to change its name to Reference and Research Advisory Committee to reflect its role in reference beyond the search room. 

Rocky Rockefeller discussed administrative matters pertaining to reference. Policy and procedure changes, made possible by increased staff, were instituted in the search room. When the number of patrons at the circulation desk reaches three or more, the staff may request assistance from any one of the reference administrators. At lunch time on weekdays two people, staff and sometimes a volunteer, come on duty to assist researchers and perform limited record retrieval. John Lyon expressed a desire to have this service available on Saturdays and to explore the possibility of evening hours for the search room. Staff resources prevent implementation of such changes. The additional computer at circulation makes it possible for the staff to more easily instruct patrons on the use of electronic finding aids. 

Developments in publications and finding aids center around web readiness and "e-nitiatives." The Archives of Maryland Online is helping fulfill the Archives' legal mandate to make records available, and at the same time making the texts searchable. The current emphasis is centered on printed materials, including the two published series of the Archives of Maryland, annotated codes, compiled and session laws of Maryland, proceedings of the General Assembly, constitutions, and all editions of the Maryland Manual. 

Revisions to the reference section of the Archives web site are designed to guide researchers in locating information and records. From a page of high demand topics one can link to explanatory text, finding aids for the appropriate records, and some sample documents. Supplements and additions will be based on demands for information. 

Making indexes available online is a long term reference goal. Still being worked on is the scanning of Index 54, the patentee index to patent records and unpatented certificates of survey. Long term goals involve conversion of the images, an approximate total of 68,000, to text and OCR. Even more long term is the linkage from a citation to the record itself. One current project does encompass all of these goals. Entries in Index 38, Prince George's County freedom records, will be searchable online and linked to images of the records. 

Ed demonstrated mapping available online through the plats project for the circuit courts. A proposal for the future, contingent upon funding, concerns the scanning of the registers of wills historical records throughout the state. The Archives is developing a prototype with some of the Talbot County records, many of which contain handwritten entries. 

Rocky outlined several reference e-nitiatives including the acceptance of research and copy requests and credit card payments online and the delivery of copies as attachments to emails. These image attachments would be retained and made available to other researchers on a fee basis. 

Statistical trends for reference in FY2000 contain some surprising figures - slight increase in search room visits (6%), lower record retrieval in the search room (25%), higher microfilm usage in the search room (15%), and substantial increases in email (300%) and phone contact (150%). To meet these demands the Archives and its patrons will continue to rely heavily on the film copies of records. Through the State Treasury pay back program the Archives will purchase five additional reader printers that will have digital capacity. Reference Services has conducted experiments with digital cameras for the reproduction of records, but found none that could copy satisfactorily the pages from large record books. 

Chris reported on the volunteer program by addressing the concerns expressed in the survey report produced by Joe Howard in 1998. Two volunteers work diligently to maintain the readers, and new reader printers will be acquired in the future. A web page on beginning genealogy that includes digital video portions from several genealogical workshops has been created and made available on the Archives web site. Digital video

DISTRICT COURT 1, BC 

    (Civil Docket) 1993 [MSA T1441] 
    (Criminal Docket) 1990-1993 [MSA T1072] 
    (Domestic Violence Docket) 1985 
         [MSA T2821] Restricted

DISTRICT COURT 10, CR 

    (Civil Docket) 1985-1986 [MSA T1744] 
    (Natural Resources Docket) 1994
        [MSA T2969] 
    (Special Proceedings Docket) 1984 
        [MSA T2837]

DISTRICT COURT 10, HO 

     (Civil Docket) 1985 [MSA T1024]

    (Civil Docket) 1992-1994 [MSA T1086] 
    (Natural Resources Docket) 1994 
        [MSA T2816]

DISTRICT COURT 11, WA 

    (Civil Docket) 1995 [MSA T1088] 
    (Criminal Docket) 1995 [MSA T1087]

DISTRICT COURT 2, DO 

     (Civil Docket) 1985-1995 [MSA T1741]

DISTRICT COURT 2, WI 

    (Civil Docket) 1985-1991 [MSA T1643] 
    (Landlord Tenant Docket) 1973-1982 
        [MSA T2974]

DISTRICT COURT 2, WO 

     (Criminal Docket) 1991 [MSA T1074] 
     (Special Proceedings Docket) 1980-1987 
         [MSA T3213]