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State & Local
Records News |
| Vol. 7, No. 2 | Published by the ADAH Government Records Division | August 2002 |
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Alabama’s successful loose records microfilming program owes a debt of gratitude to the hundreds of volunteers from local historical and genealogical societies who are taking part in loose records preparation. Less well-known, perhaps, is the role of volunteers recruited by the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU). Besides filming the loose records after preparation, these volunteers have flattened and arranged records in several counties that were unable to find enough help locally. So far, GSU camera operators and preparation specialists have filmed loose records in 14 Alabama counties and prepared loose records in six counties. They are now working in five more.
Elsdon and Juanita Howard preparing records in their first project, Crenshaw County
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Unlike our native genealogists, GSU volunteers usually do not have “roots” in the counties where they work. All have come from other states (such as Arkansas, California, Idaho, and Utah) on 12- to 18-month “missions” for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They receive no pay for putting in a 40-hour week and are responsible for their own traveling and living expenses while in Alabama. However, they do have contact with local church members and often form warm friendships with courthouse officials and genealogists in their adopted counties. Since the loose records program’s inception, over 20 GSU couples have come to volunteer in Alabama. Currently, we have Robert and Margaret Burton (working in Blount County), Elsdon and Juanita Howard (Greene County), Richard and Roberta Jones (Henry County), Douglas and Gladys Stoker (Mobile County), and Robert and Connie Stoneberg (Cherokee County– their second mission). Professional camera operator John Reed is filming for the GSU in Winston County. What motivates these people to come so far and undertake demanding, unpaid work in the heat of an Alabama summer? Like their local counterparts who volunteer, it is primarily a love of family history. As Sister Burton told a reporter from the Decatur Daily, it is not easy to follow her training |
| 2 State and Local Records News | August 2002 |
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guideline of not reading the old records. “Sometimes,” she said, “you just can’t help it!” Almost any Alabama genealogist can empathize with that!
ADAH Records “On the Move”
Construction of the west wing of ADAH is moving rapidly. In mid-July, construction workers began pouring concrete and installing an “electrical vault” in the new wing’s foundation. While this work continued, there was also much activity inside the present building, as staff began to move over 11,000 cubic feet of records that must be relocated to clear a basement storage area that will adjoin the new wing. Although some records will move only once and stay within the building, others will reside temporarily at the State Records Center, our offsite storage facility, located several blocks away on Shady Street. Careful planning was crucial to the move. It was necessary to lay out floor plans for shelving, calculate the cubic footage to be moved, then determine the final destinations of all records and exactly how to move them. One essential precaution was to wrap fragile volumes before they were transported. Due to a limited budget, ADAH arranged for state prison inmates to do the actual moving. Different inmates were assigned to us on different days, and few had ever handled archival collections. Staff therefore had to issue clear instructions before beginning work, so that materials would be moved carefully and in the correct order. Because ladders are necessary to access many of our records, it proved most efficient to have the inmates work in two-man teams: one to hand down record volumes and the other to stack them. Earlier, staff and inmates had relocated 2,500 cubic feet of records inside the ADAH building; another 3,500 cubic feet must still be moved to different floors. The most recent project was to disassemble 185 shelving units at ADAH, transport them to the records center, and reassemble them. 100 of the shelving units will hold 5,000 cubic feet
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of records in air-conditioned storage space; the rest will be used in the center’s un-air-conditioned section.
With completion of the west wing still two years away, visitors to ADAH–and even casual passers-by–can watch the progress of the imposing edifice as it arises. We will try to keep readers of State and Local Records News aware of what goes on behind the scenes as well. After all, there is more to expanding a state archives than adding to a building!
Archivists Mike Breedlove and Alden Monroe supervise transfer of records to the State Records Center Records Commissions Approve RDAs and Publication At their meeting on July 24, 2002, members of the State Records Commission approved the following records disposition authorities (RDAs):
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| 3 State and Local Records News | August 2002 |
Local Government Records Commission members approved RDAs for the following agencies:
This commission also approved the ADAH procedural leaflet “Providing Access to Government Records,” which was approved by the State Records Commission in April. The records commissions will next meet on Wednesday, October 23, 2002, in the Milo B. Howard Auditorium at ADAH. Meeting times will be 10:00 a.m. (state) and 1:30 p.m. (local). Help on Records Access Issues Providing access to government records is becoming an increasingly complex issue, as citizens become more concerned with both promoting open government and protecting individual privacy. The State and Local Government Records Commissions recently approved a new procedural leaflet, “Providing Access to Government Records,” which offers guidance to state and local officials in responding to requests to view or obtain copies of their records. The leaflet discusses various issues of public records access, focusing on individual agency policies and procedures. It includes a sample access policy that agencies may use as a model for creating their own. The Alabama Press Association, in conjunction with the Alabama Office of the Attorney General, also offers assistance to government agencies that have records access questions in its publication “Alabama Public Meetings and Records (A |
Manual for Alabama Officials).” This manual discusses the laws, court decisions, and attorney general’s opinions that have addressed records access issues. It also covers the various classes of restricted or confidential records.
Another resource on records access issues is the Alabama Center for Open Government (ALACOG), established in August 2000. This organization recently received a $5,000 grant from the National Freedom of Information Coalition to conduct a statewide information access audit in 2003. Common records to which public access is not restricted by law will be requested from various government agencies across the state. Agency responses will be recorded and compiled to determine how responsive Alabama agencies are to requests from the public to view their records. The results will be summarized and publicized to raise awareness of records access as an important governmental issue in Alabama. The new ADAH leaflet is listed on our web site, www.archives.state.al.us. The APA’s publication may be found at www.alabamapress.org. ALACOG’s web site is www.alacog.org. Archives Roundtable to Meet at New Madison County Archives The next meeting of the Local Government Archives Roundtable will be held on Tuesday, September 24, at the new Madison County Records Center in the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library. Local government agencies with archives, or those interested in developing an archival program, are welcome to attend. For more information, contact the ADAH Government Records Division at (334)242-4452 or records@archives.state.al.us. Ask the Archivist
Question: Why are removable selfstick notes and flags damaging to permanent records? |
| 4 State and Local Records News | August 2002 |
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Removable self-stick notes (“sticky notes”) and flags are meant for short-term use and removal. While paper used for some notes is pH neutral, the adhesive leaves a harmful residue. In tests conducted at the National Archives, evidence of adhesives was found even when the notes were
Text lifted from book by “sticky note” |
applied to paper and removed immediately. This residue results in dirt accumulating on the sticky surface of records, causing them to adhere to each other.
After two weeks of aging tests, both sticky notes and flags lifted text from photocopies. The adjacent photograph of an early 20th-century volume shows typical damage: missing text where the note was attached. A small layer of paper and text was removed by the note, but it was salvaged when glued back in place with a non-acidic adhesive. The photograph also shows text still adhering to the sticky note, which had been left in place for three to four weeks. As an alternative to self-stick notes when creating or handling permanent records, make notes on a slip of paper and attach it with a staple or plastic paperclip. Both fasteners can easily be removed when no longer needed. For questions on records conservation matters, contact Linda Overman at the ADAH Government Records Division, (334)242-4452, ext. 229; e-mail loverman@archives.state.al.us. |
