Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board Meeting
Minutes, August 12, 2005
Board members present: Charles Arp; John Fleming; Laurie Gemmill; Raimund Goerler; Marjorie McLellan; Julie McMaster; James Oda; Kermit Pike; Julia Michael Scott
Board members not present: Joanne Budler; Barbara Floyd; William K. Laidlaw, Jr.; Carol Tomer
OHS Staff present: Rachel Tooker, James Strider, Todd Kleismit, Pari Swift, Betsy Butler
1. Welcome
Rachel Tooker called the meeting to order at 10:09 a.m. She welcomed members to the
meeting and expressed Mr. Laidlaw's regret for not being able to join the group today.
2. Approval of Minutes of May 6, 2005 Meeting
Mr. Goerler moved to approve the minutes as written. Mr. Arp seconded the motion, all
board members approved, and the motion passed unanimously.
3 (a). Review of Strategic Plan Activities: Public Records Subcommittee
Mr. Arp led discussion of the board's efforts regarding the inclusion of revenue-
generating activities in House Bill 9. On May 19, Rep. Seitz held a meeting with
representatives of the offices of the Governor, Attorney General, and various associations
to discuss the bill. Messrs. Arp, Strider and Kleismit attended the meeting, specifically to
urge that attention be given to local government records management. Although putting
more funding at that level was a popular idea, no one was willing to support it in this
fiscal climate.
During the meeting, attendees also discussed possible ways of addressing issues
regarding the bill with Rep. Oelslager, such as mandatory training on providing access to
public records for public officials. Since substantive changes to the bill were called for,
the meeting concluded with no clear direction for the future of the legislation. Mr. Arp
also reported that he, Jim Strider and Todd Kleismit met with Frank Deaner, executive
director of the Ohio Newspaper Association (ONA), on May 31. Mr. Deaner stated that
ONA believes that management and maintenance of public records has to be done by all
public offices and needs no further funding. He promised to bring up the issue to ONA's
board at its next meeting.
Mr. Arp concluded his presentation by stating that the bill is languishing in committee; it
may come up again in the fall, but it is doubtful that anything further will happen with the
legislation.
Mr. Strider stressed the importance of communicating with others, such as the County
Commissioners' Association of Ohio and local records managers, about this issue.
Therefore, the board discussed the possibility of issuing a press release, drafting op-ed
pieces, and circulating petitions in order to call attention to records management issues,
such as accessibility of information and the use of public records in providing for
responsible government. Ms. Tooker suggested that OHRAB provide documentation
about the decline in funding for public records and examples about why preserving and
providing access to public records is important. Ms. Fleming and Ms. McLellan
suggested that communication could come from the board as a whole, but could be
accompanied by a cover letter from an individual board member to a newspaper in his or
her area.
Mr. Arp suggested that Ms. Gemmill, Ms. Scott, and Ms. McLellan join him and Mr.
Goerler in preparing a first draft of the letter. The letter would be based on the testimony
Mr. Goerler offered on this issue.
3 (b). Review of Strategic Plan Activities: Ohio Electronic Records Committee
In Ms. Floyd's absence, Ms. Swift reported to members that the Ohio Electronic Records
Committee (ERC) met on June 22. Meeting discussion focused on case studies of state
and local government agencies, records management training products and resources,
such as guidance on disaster and emergency recovery. Preparing a survey, submitting an
Ohio Sunshine Laws update, and assembling subcommittees to discuss topics such as
instant messaging and guidelines were also discussed during the meeting.
Ms. Swift also provided the board with an introduction to the National Digital
Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), a program established by
the Library of Congress to support development of methods for digital preservation. The
OERC's next meeting will take place on November 9.
3 (c). Ohio Historical Society Grant Proposal
Ms. Gemmill introduced Angela O'Neal, Katherine Goliver, Ruth Holt and Cynthia
Ghering. These Ohio Historical Society staff members are developing an NHPRC grant
application to preserve and increase access to three historically significant Society
collections by using a multi-faceted workflow model that incorporates Encoded Archival
Description (EAD) and digitization into its existing processing workflow. In July,
OHRAB members reviewed an initial draft of the proposal.
After Ms. Gemmill reviewed the NHPRC grant proposal application process, Ms. O'Neal
gave a presentation summarizing the project. She addressed three main themes that
appeared in the board's initial comments to the proposal: collection size; significance of
the collections chosen; and comments focusing on the access model element of the
proposal. Then, she reviewed digitization projects and defined EAD, which was created
to describe the content and structure of archival finding aids. She pointed out the
effectiveness of the Kentuckiana Digital Library and how it provides full access to
collections in the context of the original collection. To continue discussion of the access
model being proposed, Ms. O'Neal presented a chart picturing basic access (preliminary
inventory), increased access (conservation, finding aid, digitization), and maximum
public access (EAD, integration of digital images in online finding aid, and inclusion of
images in OhioPix and Ohio Memory). She outlined project deliverables for both users
and archives.
Board members provided Ms. O'Neal with a variety of comments designed to strengthen
and clarify the proposal. Mr. Fleming complimented Ms. O'Neal for being responsive to
the OHRAB comments and liked how those responses to comments were presented. Ms.
Gemmill mentioned that the deputy coordinator usually provides a summary review of
OHRAB member comments on the proposal when it is submitted to NHPRC. Since
OHRAB is presently without a deputy coordinator, it is unclear who would prepare the
summary review. While Ms. Gemmill would be happy to, since she was serving as the
proposal mentor, it would be a conflict of interest for her to also prepare the board
summary. She encouraged board members to think about possibilities of other board
members who would be able to submit the summary review.
Conversation on this topic concluded with the consensus that no further drafts of this
proposal needed to be reviewed by OHRAB before the October 1 NHPRC deadline.
4 (a). SOA Sustainability Workshop
Ms. Gemmill introduced discussion of the Society of Ohio Archivists' request for
OHRAB to sponsor training for archivists on sustainability. "Sustainability for
Digitization and Preservation Projects or What to Do When the Grant Ends" would be
offered on October 11, 2005. Led by Liz Bishoff, Special Assistant to the Dean and Head
of the Office of Sponsored Programs at the University of Colorado, the workshop would
introduce participants to how to continue a project once grant funding ends. The program
would cover why business planning is an important element of overall project plan
development, the key elements to include in a business plan, and how to create an
appropriate business plan.
After mentioning that OCLC is also co-sponsoring the workshop by providing parking
and site use at no charge, Ms. Gemmill presented different options for levels of support.
Mr. Strider told the board that approximately $7,500 remains in its administrative grant
budget.
After acknowledging that the proposed workshop was a good use of funding and would
allow OHRAB to reach out to more people, the board deliberated about upcoming
OHRAB expenses, the total cost of the conference, and possible amounts of
underwriting. Following this discussion, Mr. Oda motioned that the board co-sponsor the
workshop for up to $1,500, based on actual participation in the program. Mr. Pike
seconded the motion, all board members approved, and the motion passed unanimously.
4 (b). NAGARA/COSHRC Report
Ms. Swift reported that she, Mr. Arp and Mr. Strider attended the COSHRC/NAGARA
conference July 20-23, 2005 in Richmond, Virginia. She provided highlights of the
meeting summaries that she prepared for the board.
Mr. Arp provided an overview of the presentation he will give at the Society of American
Archivists' conference next week. He provided background on the BACE project, which
develops a core curriculum to create onsite and online workshops on principles and
practices necessary to effective manage archival records and help them take better care of
the collections they have. Ms. Tooker suggested that OHRAB distribute copies of the
CD-ROM version of the presentation, since it supports the board's educational mission.
5. Member Institutional Updates
After Mr. Strider updated the board on the Ohio Historical Society's progress on
identifying and selecting a new State Archivist, members provided updates on recent
activities, accomplishments and attendance challenges at their respective institutions.
Mr. Strider mentioned that he and Mr. Oda met in late May to discuss the board's bylaws.
They are still developing the bylaws, using the draft bylaws as a guide, and hope to have
some general guidelines for the board to review at its next meeting. After reminding the
board that it would meet next on October 14, 2005 at the Ohio Historical Center from
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Mr. Strider invited members to host an upcoming board meeting.
Mr. Pike suggested that the board convene at Western Reserve Historical Society in July
2006.
Ms. Tooker concluded the meeting at 1:56 p.m.
