Agenda - 05-18-2010 - 8a - Laserfiche WebLink

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15 transfer its files, which are of research value, to another location in order to regain space. Other agencies are willing to give copies of their research and files, while retaining original material on site for their own continued use. While such a Center might have workshops or classes, and possibly exhibits, the goal is to provide research space. In the end, staffing should be focused on preserving and caring for research materials and archival documents and assisting researchers. Other Heritage Centers stated that approximately two-thirds of their researchers were local, and therefore were not seen as a tourist destination. Armed with the knowledge of the size of total collections in Hillsborough, a building or space of approximately1000 sq. feet with some environmental controls would accommodate the need for research space. The issue then becomes who is willing to pay for this. The County has limited funding. The individual agencies are unable to fund a percentage of the cost for working together to pay the total cost. A review of grants available for construction or renovation, and ongoing budget are few and far between, and would never sustain the total operation. (Attachment Ej The next question becomes: Can we accommodate the bringing together of these documents so that researchers will have the benefit of using these resources, without the need to go from agency to agency? There are two possible answers. 1) The fact that the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has offered to digitize a number of collections for free, including artifacts, allows the agencies to get the research in one central location. Even though this "central location" might be on the World Wide Web, it would in fact accommodate the need to assist researchers with finding Orange County history in one spot. Each document will indicate what institution provided it. If the researcher wished to see the original, they would then have the ability to do so by making an appointment with the agency. This information will be available on the World Wide Web along with other North Carolina collections, thus making it available to all. If all the materials are not digitized in this initial project, many grants are available to fund such projects. Then all it takes is a computer to access this information. One strong reason to digitize, with or without a heritage center is the need to preserve the original documents that are in fragile condition. As Richard Ellington, member of DOGS, relayed to the group, he stated that Dick Langford with the N.C. Department of Archives and History in Raleigh literally "sweeps up history at the end of each day after the researchers are finished looking at original documents". While allowing researchers to look at the original document, small fragments of the papers often crumble away. Digitization does allow for the long term preservation of each document.