NHPRC Regrant Progress Report January - June 2006

NHPRC Circuit Rider Archivist Regrant Grant No. 2005-016
Grant Period January 2005 - September 2007
Interim Narrative Report for January - June 2006

Background

The Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board (GHRAB) sought and obtained a $125,624 grant from NHPRC to:

• Provide the services of an on-site professional archivist and regrants to Georgia repositories and local governments to improve their archival programs.
• Demonstrate how the services of a traveling professional archivist can benefit small repositories and local governments thus making grant programs more effective.
• Stimulate the development of a master's level program to educate professional archivists.

Due to a delay in hiring the Circuit Rider Archivist, GHRAB sought and obtained a grant extension from NHPRC to September 30, 2007.

Circuit Rider Archivist Activities

Since the last report, the circuit rider archivist completed the primary visits which had been assigned. These included eight sites which were visited by January 31. They were DeKalb History Center, Echols County Historical Society, Lowndes County Board of Commissioners, Madison County Probate Court, Effingham County Board of Education, Glynn County Probate Court, City of Tybee Island, and Hammonds House Galleries. In order to accommodate the schedules of the host organizations, visits were made to the City of Statesboro and Effingham County Probate Court later in the spring.

In addition, the circuit rider archivist visited Burke County in the Savannah River Region and met with officials from the library, local genealogical society, county government, and county museum to evaluate their plans for creating a centralized archives and records center.

The circuit rider archivist participated in February and March with senior staff members at the Georgia Archives in reviewing draft applications and in evaluating 32 final applications to the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board (GHRAB) for Historical Records Project Grants. Eleven of the applicants were organizations with which the circuit rider archivist had worked. The circuit rider archivist also met in April with GHRAB as it considered applications. Nine of the circuit rider archivist sites received initial grant funding, and the remaining two were funded when additional funds became available.

The circuit rider archivist will provide assistance to 11 grantees which previously received a circuit rider archivist consultation visit. The Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board has requested that the circuit rider archivist to coach an additional five grantees that are not circuit rider archivist organizations on their projects. He has visited with five grantees; Long County Library, Effingham County Board of Education, Rome Area History Museum, Lumpkin County Library, and Cook County Historical Society; by the end of June.

At the request of the preservation manager at the Georgia Archives, the circuit rider archivist visited DeKalb Medical Center in May. There he discussed with library, public relations, and administrative officials and the hospital historian the steps needed to create an archives, including facility and preservation needs. Records management principles also were discussed.

Additionally, the circuit rider archivist conducted follow-up visits with three original circuit rider archivist sites; City of Riverdale, Blue and Gray Museum, and Coffee County Probate Court; in May and June.

In other follow-up and support work, the circuit rider archivist set up e-mail support and discussion groups among the circuit rider archivist sites on a regional basis. He administered the awarding of small, supplemental grants for archival supplies to seven circuit rider archivist organizations; Hall County Library System, Long County Public Library, Peach Public Libraries, Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, Roswell Historical Society, Wesleyan College, and Whitfield-Murray Historical Society.

Overall, the circuit rider archivist program to date has shown great success. The circuit rider archivist is providing assistance to almost 60 local organizations, some of which are grantees. New organizations are contacting the Georgia Archives to request CRA assistance and a second grant cycle will be held next spring for additional CRA consultation visits.

Based on these accomplishments, GHRAB voted to commit its fiscal year 2007 state appropriation to fund the circuit rider archivist program an additional year beyond the NHPRC regrant, through June, 2008. Clayton State University has agreed to also extend its funding support.

Historical Records Project Grants / CRA Regrants

Under the March 2006 grant cycle, GHRAB received 32 grant applications and awarded regrants to 22 organizations totaling $110,000. The Office of Secretary of State subsequently made an additional $160,000 available for the Historical Records Project Grant Program. GHRAB used this additional funding to 1) award regrants to an additional 8 organizations from the March 2006 cycle, 2) to provide full funding for grants that were partially funded under the March 2006 grant cycle, and 3) to expand one of the grant projects related to disaster preparedness to cover county offices through a grant to 1 new organization.

There was a wide range in both the types of grant projects and the amount of the grant awards. The majority of the awards (23) were $5,000 or under, three awards were between $5001 - $10,000, and five awards were over $15,000. The majority of the grant projects focus on conducting records inventories and arrangement and description of records. Four grants are photograph projects, three are microfilm projects, and two involve digitization. However, no federal grant funds will be used for digitization as the organizations will use only local funds for scanning records and will keep detailed records to separate the digitization portion of the project.

Two projects involve disaster preparedness. The Council of Superior Court Clerks (CSCC) will identify the current level of risk of loss of superior court records and provide education and assistance to the stewards of these records. The Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) will conduct disaster preparedness surveys of major agencies in county courthouses, in conjunction with surveys being conducted by GSCC and further the collaboration between the state archives, ACCG, CSCC, and county commissioners to identify and improve the preservation of historical records housed in Georgia's courthouses.

Two projects are cooperative ventures that will take a countywide approach to managing both private and public historical documents. The Morgan County Historical Society will survey and inventory historical documents held in public and private hands as part of a bicentennial project with resulting blueprint for future collaboration on a county archives. The Burke County Commission will inventory county and city records, design a records storage space in a renovated jail, and develop a plan for managing public and private historical records in the county to improve the preservation of historical records housed in Georgia's courthouses. Much of the impetus for this project came as a result of the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) Hurricane Conference held at the Georgia Archives last April.

Clayton State University Activities

In his role at Clayton State University, the circuit rider archivist taught the upper level course, Introduction to Archival Theory and Practice during the spring 2006 semester. He also drafted a proposal for a Master of Arts in Archival Studies and garnered support from students at Clayton State, history and library science faculty at other Georgia colleges and universities, and the archival community for the proposal. The draft currently is being reviewed by university officials.

The circuit rider archivist made presentations on archival topics at two professional meetings. He attended the Appalachian Studies Conference in Dayton, Ohio, in March and the Georgia Association of Historians meeting in Morrow in April. He has been appointed to the Disaster Preparedness Committee of the Society of Georgia Archivists.

These activities accounted for approximately 45% of the circuit rider archivist's time during this six-month period.

Budget

Salaries and Fringe Benefits

GHRAB and CSU committed funds to jointly cover the salary for the Circuit Rider archivist for the period of July 2006 through June 2007 in the following amounts: GHRAB $46,000 in-kind match for salary; Clayton State $10,000 cash match for salary and $16,800 cash match for fringe benefits.

Travel Costs / Archival Supply Grants

Grant funds were used to cover CRA travel expenses totaling $1,174 and to award seven Archival Supply Grants totaling $2,184.

Other Costs- Regrants

Thirty-one regrants were awarded using $110,000 in grant funds and $159,355 in state funds as cash match.

Activities for the Next Six Months

• Administer regrants to 31 organizations.
• Continue to conduct follow up visits to circuit rider archivist sites and coaching visits to grant organizations.
• Present sessions on the circuit rider archivist program at the joint annual meeting of NAGARA, CoSA, and SAA in August 2006 and the annual meeting of the Society of Georgia Archivists in November 2006.
• Begin preparations for a second grant cycle in spring 2007 for CRA consultation visits.
• Promote and advocate for the proposal for a Master of Arts in Archival Studies at Clayton State University.
• Teach two classes at Clayton State during the fall semester on Introduction to Public History and Modern U.S. History Survey Course.
• Contract with Clayton State University to extend the circuit rider archivist program for an additional year beyond the NHPRC grant, through June 2008.