The emphasis of the Genesee County History Department during 2009 has been the continued development of the Research Library, County Archives and maintaining the Records Management program. [Note: the County Historian is the Records Management Officer for the County.] The major accomplishments this year were the improvements to the Archival Records access and storage.

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

From the County’s Comprehensive Plan for Parks, Recreation and Culture (PR01) the History Department is involved in supporting tourism and encourages people to visit the county; and within the Government Administration (GA16) the County Historian continues to interact with the public schools. To accomplish both goals the Department established a Research Library, County Archives and continues to assist genealogists. The department’s volunteers create indexes which improves public access to our records, increases tourism and programs for area schools.  
In addition the County Historian has worked toward improving communications with the Tonawanda Indian Reservation (GA07) by including representation with the Municipal Historians Association activities.  The County Historian provides support and organizes the meeting of the Municipal Historians and prepares presentations in an effort to coordinate history related cultural events (PR02).  In an effort to provide support to the Municipal Clerks, the County Historian as Records Management Officer provides assistance with writing State Archives grants (GA11). To continually meet with representatives of adjacent counties to discuss areas of common concern (GA09), the County Historian serves on the New York State Archives Region 8 Regional Advisory Committee and is active with the Government Appointed Historians of Western New York State.

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CURRENT STAFF

Susan L. Conklin, County Historian/Records Management Officer	37.5 hours per week
Judy Stiles, History Department Research Assistant	37.5 hours per week
Robin Goetze, Microfilm Clerk/Records Management	37.5 hours per week

VOLUNTEERS, STUDENT INTERNS, GRANT & AMERICORPS

Name	Affiliation	Project
Lee Hendershott	Bethany Town Historian	1955 Obits & births
Rick Brewer	Volunteer	Great Depression & 1960’s Events
Larry Barnes	RSVP	Donations/Archives
Jim Carr	RSVP	Daily News Indexing and Birth 2001-February 2009 were indexed
Mary Carr	RSVP	2009 Daily News Clipping & Filing
Leilani Spring	RSVP	2009 Daily News Indexed
Bill Dougherty	RSVP	Baseball History
Ruth Newton	RSVP	Veterans Records Re-filing
Vickie Becker	RSVP	Property Title Searches
Bill Galliford	Volunteer	Property Title Searches
Sharon Larsen	Volunteer	Indexing Marriage Records

Our volunteers have worked 1,806 hours during 2009 and projects completed provide increased public access to the collection.

AmeriCorps Project:

The 5th Genesee County History Department’s AmeriCorps project completed the creation of a community history of World War II.  The project was sponsored by the Genesee County Historians Association, who provided $1,975 to support the 900 hour project.  Project activities included reading and copying Daily News articles from the time period and arranging them into notebooks. Ruth Koch was our 2009 AmerCorps member and volunteers assisted with the project.  Judy Stiles, the History Department Research Assistant is preparing the index for public access to the collection.  The World War II notebook collection includes thirty-two 3-inch binders and once the index is completed in 2010, it will be available on the internet.
Ruth also began working along with volunteers on the Great Depression project which included researching, clipping and arranging articles into seventeen 3-inch binders.  She also began the indexing processes and has completed up to December of 1939.

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RESEARCH LIBRARY

1. Assisted the public in the Research (Judy, Sue & Robin)
   Total assisted = 2,517 walk-ins & phone inquiries [About average as compared to previous years.]

2. Answered genealogies & requests for local history (Judy)
   Total of 97 paid request provided $2,929 in revenue. [The revenue includes the “User Fee” for non-county residents, payment for staff to conduct research and the cost for copies.]

3. Improvement of the File System for Hospitals which included replacing old file folders, creating uniformed file labels, photocopying newspaper clippings and removing duplicate copies. [Total of 1 drawer] (Judy).  The project is labor intensive and was worked on so as not to interfere with researchers using the Research Library.  A finding aid was created to assist with the retrieval of records.

4. Continue improvements to the Photograph Collection – The scanning of the department’s photograph collection continued with Batavia Architecture – East Main Street through Roads [which represents 37 binders]. (Judy)

5. Genealogy Collection was increased by the addition of 202 family files. (Judy)

6. Research Library’s collection of microfilm (908 rolls of film) was cataloged and a Finding Aid was created to improve public access. (Robin)

7. Civil War Articles Project continued which includes locating soldier’s obituaries on microfilm, making copies, typing the articles and creating an index to provide public access. Years compiled include 1887 thru April 1889. (Judy)

8. Suicides Collection continued up to April 1889 which includes locating articles, copying them and organizing them into binders.  Information is being collected to document gender, age, community, era and method which will be used to prove or disprove theories regarding suicides. (Judy)

II. PUBLIC RELATIONS (Promotion of Local History)

1. A total of 28 Presentations were provided including 13 to area schools and 15 to various organizations.  The total attendance was 597. (Sue)

2. The Historians partnered with the Batavia Cemetery Association to improve the Ghost Walks during the month of October.  A new power-point presentation was researched and created to provide a program for those in our community who can not walk.   The Historians Association again this year sponsored a special lecture provided on October 30th.  A total of 84 participated in this year’s Ghost Walks and the proceeds collected by the Historians Association generated a total of $1,057 which will be used to publish books, pay for AmeriCorps, purchase historic markers and/or to promote local history. (Sue & Robin)

3. The manuscript for Famous Genesee III – Entertainers was worked on which included collecting and typing articles.  Articles for future publications were also collected and organized.

4. Continued to work with the IT Department and Roots Web to improve and provide information for the Internet.

5. Continued working with neighboring historians to develop the Government Appointed Historians of Western New York (GAHWNY)and the Genesee County Historian was appointed the first Executive Council Chair and hosted the first full day meeting/training of the new organization which was a great success and well attended with 70 historians from 10 counties.  The web site is www.GAHWNY.org.  The fall meeting was held in Dansville on October 3rd and was also well attended by 80 historians. (Sue)

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RECORDS MANAGEMENT

1.  Records Center Activities (Sue)
   

   Departments	Dispositions	Transfers	Requests	Disposition within Offices
   Central Services	1
   Cooperative Extension	4	9
   County Clerk				4
   County Manager		8	1	5.08
   District Attorney			24
   DSS				102.69
   Elections		34
   Facilities Management	1	2
   Genesee Career Center	43
   Health	9	14	44
   Human Resources	8	18	2	1
   IT	3
   Legislature	1			3.9
   Nursing Home	70	91	7
   Office for the Aging	3	15	3
   Planning		2	2
   Public Defender		32	18
   Real Property				7
   Sheriff	12		28	6.2
   Soil & Water			2
   Treasurer	47	40	1	.5
   Youth Bureau		3		1.25
   Family Court		31
   Supreme Court		172
   Grand Totals	202	471	132	131.62

 

2. NYS Archives Grant   (Sue)
New York State reduced 6% of the 2008-2009 Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund Grant awarded to the County (total funding was $13,041) and delayed sending the funding for two months.  The reduction in funding and time (8 weeks of grant activities) required the County Historian to adjust her 2009 project schedule to work with the grant’s Inventory Clerk on this project.  The Archival Records Cataloging project was 3/4 completed and the County Historian will continue working on completing the cataloging project during 2010.  This collection includes 742 cubic feet of historical records that document significant aspects of the history of the community and its citizens.  This grant is a new program component to the county’s Records Management program and will enhance the use and handling of the archival records collection.

3. Microfilm Lab (Robin)

Department	Cubic Feet	Film Created	Loaded Fiche
Treasurer [05 & 06]	7	11 rolls	-0-
Personnel	9	8 rolls	-0-
Mental Heath	28	26 rolls	26 rolls
Probation / 2005	32	21 rolls	21 rolls
Probation / 2006	12	15 rolls	15 rolls
Totals	88	81	62

As a result of filming the Records Center does not have to store 88 cubic feet of records.

New activities: (Sue)
Archives storage was improved through the purchase of additional shelving in the amount of $2,791. Funding was taken from the contractual expenses to cover the cost.  The long term efforts of this project will benefit the County for years to come as the Archives gained 210 cubic feet of storage space.

Storage within the Records Center at County Building #2 is becoming limited. This is a positive sign that the various County departments are using the Records Management program and therefore additional space is required to accommodate their needs. The anticipated next project to improve the Records Center through the purchase of additional shelving was unlikely to be supported through a New York State Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund grant program.  The County therefore is completing this project through a Capital Project and the shelving cost is $26,145.95.  The Records Management Officer is working with Facilities Management on that project.  Once the shelving has been installed an estimated 3,563 cubic feet of storage will be created which will provide the County with ample storage.  The additional storage area will open in 2010.

Training Activities
1. County Historian was sponsored by the County to attend Leadership Genesee 2009 – a twelve month program designed to create an experience promoting active leadership for Genesee County.
2. The History Department staff attended an eight week genealogy course conducted by Genesee Community College

In 2009 the County Historian served on the following committees:
1. Genesee County Municipal Historians Association and served as meeting coordinator
2. Genesee County Records Management Advisory Board and served as chair
3. Park, Recreation & Culture Focus Group from the County’s Comprehensive Plan
4. New York State Archives Region 8 Regional Advisory Committee - Member
5. Government Appointed Historians of Western New York (GAHWNY) and served as the first Executive Council Chair.

The History Department continued to receive generous donations of research material from the public. It is thanks to these donations that our collection has grown and developed.  I wish to thank the public for sharing with us and know that their donations are greatly appreciated. 

 I wish to express my sincere appreciation to:
1. All our volunteers, for without them the History Department would not be able to complete so many projects;
2. The County Departments and the Records Management Advisory Board for their support with Records Management;
3.  The Legislators for their assistance and support with both the History projects and Records Management; and especially
4. To the Genesee County Historians Association for their financial support for the History Department projects and their encouragement with preserving local history.

Respectfully Submitted,

Susan L. Conklin
County Historian & Records Management Officer
January 2010

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