Agenda - 05-05-2009 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 (O include other NC counties for 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 on microfilm and expand the abstracts of Orange and related counties. No county funds have been expended on the collection. Beginning this January, staff has met with specialists from the State Archives, Government and Heritage Library of the NC State Library, and curator of the NC Collection at UNC Wilson Library. We have collaborated with librarians from Gunn Memorial Public Library, Person County Public Library, Durham County Library, and May Memorial Public Library (Alamance County). Leland Little owner of Leland Little Auctions was requested to provide an appraisal of the Confederate lithograph. In addition a formal inventory of materials in the current NC Room at the Main Library was generated and an inventory of materials that would be housed in the reference collection in the new library facility on W Margaret Lane is also being completed. County attorney Geoff Gledhill was asked to provide a formal opinion regarding the intention of the Rebecca Wall bequest. Archival Visit: During the meeting with the specialists, Becky McGhee-Lankford and Elizabeth Preston from the State Archives in Feburary 2009, an evaluation of the materials was completed by the archivists. They then collaborated with the staff on a Library Action Plan that would address the twin goals of 1) Public accessibility to the collection; as well as 2) Best preservation and protection practices for the long-term sustainability of this collection. The plan included the State Archives working with the County to ensure that appropriate efforts occur for the preservation of documents, contacting the State Genealogy Library for further evaluation of general NC genealogical materials, contacting the UNC curator of the NC Collection at UNC Wilson, and establishing an inventory of items in the Orange County Public Library general reference collection in the new library facility. The county and staff would work with the State Archives to transition the original documents that have been unavailable for public access due to age and condition. The state will digitize these documents and make them accessible via their website. They were found within other county departments and delivered to the library and include: sheriffs records, trial court records, justice dockets, and execution dockets. These documents have been housed in archival boxes located in a closet at the main library's meeting room for at least 5 years. Attachment C (1 Sz 2) Genealogy Visit: The genealogy specialist, Pam Toms, from the NC State Library - Government and Heritage Library, agreed that a choice selection of the local history collection can be housed in the new facility on W Margaret Lane providing a `core collection' for researchers and interested general public. This collection as defined by the genealogist would contain: histories from local areas and genealogy documents. Generally, genealogy research utilizes historical county information. In North Carolina, Orange County's boundaries have changed over the past three centuries. The counties that would be represented in the `core collection' would be Orange County's `parent county' and those that originated from Orange County. These counties are: Orange, Caswell, Person, Granville, Durham, Alamance, Chatham, Guilford, Rockingham, Randolph, and Wake. The specialist suggested steps in paring down the collection such as removing duplicates, items already found in the current non-circulating reference collection and removal of items already available through online electronic databases such as: Ancestry.com, ArchiveGrid and Heritage Quest. Reference staff would be available for assistance and guidance with these resources. 2