Leadership for Document and Records Preservation

L. Reynolds Cahoon was the keynote speaker at the 2006 Archives and Records Management Seminar.

The Bureau of Archives and History provides leadership to other state agencies, local government and non-profit historical organizations in support of their efforts to preserve government records and historical documents. This year's annual Archives and Records Management Seminar featured L. Reynolds Cahoon, Senior Advisor on Electronic Records at the National Archives and Records Administration, who delivered the keynote address. More than 250 participants also attended sessions providing information on disaster response, grantsmanship, excellent public service, replevin and more. Workshops presented by staff throughout the year covered other topics and reached a large audience throughout the state.

More than 700 individuals attended the annual Family Heritage Day activities, featuring representatives of more than two dozen local and county historical organizations, free appraisals of documents and advice on preserving documents and photographs.

From many pieces to a continuous record of military service.

Actively acquiring new historical documents and accessioning state records is slowing down and must soon be halted as the Pennsylvania State Archives building will soon reach its capacity. In addition to the lack of space, our current facility requires significant and expensive renovations to protect the irreplaceable historical treasures within. Given the cost of the renovations and difficulty expanding the facility at its current location, a new archives building will be much more cost-efficient. We have initiated and will continue efforts to release the funding appropriated to replace the facility.

Archives

• Served more than 3,000 onsite patrons who consulted approximately 15.7 million pages of original records and 9.2 million microfilm pages.
• Acquired the papers of the Reverend LeRoy Patrick (1915-2006), a central figure in the fight against racism in Pittsburgh during the height of the civil rights struggle in America. Dr. Patrick presided over the Bethesda Presbyterian Church in the city's Homewood section for 35 years, and served seven years on the local school board to which he was elected president in 1976. He served on the board of the Pittsburgh NAACP and as a commissioner of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission from 1980 to 2003.
• Entered into an 18-month, multi-state grant pilot project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commision with North Carolina and Kentucky for the preservation of e-mail designated as possessing archival and historical value.

Preservation of the Civil War muster rolls continued through 2006-2007.

Records Management

• Guaranteed permanent preservation of historically valuable local government records by microfilming 586 volumes and three cubic feet of loose paper records from nine public institutions. Generated more than 101 million computer output microfilm images and nearly 12 million bitmapped images; scanned more than 1.75 million paper images; and scanned more than 900,000 film/fiche images for 27 state agencies.
• Accessioned 38,598 cubic feet of state records and disposed of 26,070 cubic feet at the State Records Center, while responding to 29,224 requests for information from 55 agencies. Accessioned 1,325 cubic feet (7.9 million pages) of state and local government records, 2,091 cubic feet (12.5 million pages) of manuscript materials and 757 rolls of microfilm containing more than 900,000 images.
• Reviewed and updated state policies and procedures related to records management and electronic records in conjunction with the Offices of Administration and General Counsel, and implemented a greatly expanded schedule for general administrative records. The Office of General Counsel directed each agency to designate an attorney to work with each state agency's records coordinator on records management issues, and two special records management training sessions were conducted for 32 designees.

Walter A. Lyon (left) is joined by Executive Director Barbara Franco and state archist and Bureau of Archives and History Director David  Haury, in a reception honoring Mr. Lyon's contributions to the commonwealth and to the State Archives.

Events, Training and Programs

• Conducted PHMC's "30th Annual Conference on Black History in Pennsylvania" at Lincoln University and featured Dr. Martin Kilson, professor emeritus of Harvard University, as the keynote speaker on the history of Lincoln University in the mid-twentieth century.
• Hosted a reception with the Pennsylvania Heritage Society honoring civil engineer Walter A. Lyon, an important figure in Pennsylvania and national environmental history who donated his papers to the Pennsylvania State Archives as part of a conservation heritage initiative.
• Offered a series of archives and records management workshops, training sessions and public history programs for more than 2,750 individuals representing 1,200 public and private institutions. Completed training for agency records coordinators on the Enterprise Records Management System, which provides a secure means of requesting agency records from the State Records Center.

Co-published with the Pennsylvania Heritage Society, Pennsylvania Heritage is a leader in state historical magazines

Publishing

• Co-published Pennsylvania Civil War Trails: The Guide to Battle Sites, Monuments, Museums and Towns with Stackpole Books as part of the Department of Community and Economic Development's statewide Pennsylvania Civil War Trails branding effort.
• Co-published four issues of Pennsylvania Heritage, our award-winning quarterly history magazine, with the Pennsylvania Heritage Society.