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I have recently been working with other state archivists and their staff on the issue of providing online access to primary resources. Many states have been approached by vendors (Ancestry.com, iArchives and Genealogical Society of Utah to name a few) interested in developing a business relationship to provide online access to original documents. The Council of State Archivists created a task force, the Online Content Providers Task Force, to deal with the issues surrounding such relationships. The result is a statement of intent, guidelines and issues to consider while working on any digitization project. You may access the online statement at: www.statearchivists.org

If you have any questions about the statement please contact me directly at the Archives of Michigan.

Archives on the Radio

I've noted before that our staff has written some local history articles for

Lansing's City Pulse newspaper. These have prompted a couple local
radio interviews.

This Friday, April 13th, archivist Robert Garrett will be on the Jack Ebling Show from about
6:20 - 6:30. The show can be heard on Lansing A.M. Radio Station 1320
(Call letters WILS). The subject is Lansing's African-American
neighborhoods. The interview was prompted by this City Pulse article.

(I don't know if you can pick it up outside of Lansing.)

Last October, Bob did a radio interview on the history of trolleys in
Lansing. Since then, Lansing has adopted a modern "trolley" line between Lansing and East Lansing.

The interview was for the City Pulse's radio show (broadcast on the MSU
student station.). You can now access that interview online. If you
fast-forward about-third of the way in (after the interview with Lansing
Mayor Virg Bernero), then you can hear Bob. You'll need Quicktime or
something equivalent to access it. With that in mind, here's the link.

Patents Search.

I realize it is hard to keep up with Google's new beta products, but I thought I would share this in case you haven't seen it. Google Patents is a simplified patent search either by keyword or by patent number. I give a workshop on researching the history of residential homes and businesses and I try to mention the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site (uspto.gov). However, the Google site is easier to use.

I have found the patent search useful when I have stumbled across gadgets in our attic, garage and basement. At our latest house, there is a music box screwed to base of our entry door. It was quite a mystery until I took it apart, found the patent number and ran it at uspto.gov. It turned out to be a children's furniture music box that could be screwed to a crib or rocking chair. The original owners were members of the U.S. Music Box Society, it was screwed to the front door because it played the tune "Bless this House." Mystery solved. Have a great day.

The LANSING CITY PULSE magazine published one of our staff's article on Lansing's
African-American neighborhoods this week. You can read that at the CITY PULSE website.

This is one in a series of Lansing history articles. You can link to others via
the Archives of Michigan homepage

"For, lo winter is past
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land"
-Song of Solomon.

Each year, the announcer Ernie Harwell started the Tiger baseball season with this verse. It was a right of Spring--as is baseball itself. There probably isn't a better sport for archivists than baseball. Statistics, records, history. It's all right there. Here are a few updates provided by the Archives of Michigan staff:

First, there's our April Image of the Month. We spotlight the Detroit Tigers' 1945 season. Click here for this feature

If you enjoy our baseball images, then you might consider sending one as an E-Postcard. The E-Postcard page also provides links to current and past baseball Image of the Month pages. You can find all this here

I also have a note that's not baseball-related, but still very good news to some. We've updated our Naturalization Records Index page by adding indexes for Barry and Genesee Counties. Naturalization indexes are now available online for a total of thirty-one Michigan counties (An additional number are available in the Archives reading room.). You can access the online naturalization indexes here

All these features can also be accessed through the Archives of Michigan home page: www.michigan.gov/archivesofmi

Getting back into the swing of things...

Greetings from the Archives of Michigan. Yes, I am still here plugging away. We finished an extremely busy fall which included over 20 Family History Month programs in October and a flurry of grant writing. We capped the Fall season with a music concert titled "Shout Sister Shout" a tribute to 30's and 40's Jazz standards. The highly acclaimed band Steppin' In It performed the show with singer-songwriter Rachael Davis; local artist Jen Sygit opened the show. Thank you to the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs for sponsoring the show with a generous grant.

Why music? A colleague once chided me for trying to mix the terms "archives" and "fun." Music ties in so perfectly with the burgeoning concept of cultural heritage or cultural tourism--which like it or not--is our new mantra. Music has the potential to stir emotions about people, places, and days past. These are the same terms we use when describing history.

And it is fun.

The concert brought about 85 people to the Michigan Historical Center, about 50 had never been to the Center before. We ran a power point of historic images above the stage that garnered many questions and comments. Not huge numbers but mission accomplished nonetheless.

For the past year I have been working on the finer points of a "Michigan Heritage Collection." The focus is Michigan Artists from original manuscripts to music scores to comic art. While some may argue that these types of materials have little research value, I would counter that it is an issue of relevance. The more we can show the importance of documentation in various parts of our life the more relevance our institutions and collections will have.

Let's face it, many people see historic documents as nothing more than an aesthetic novelty or money making venture on Antiques Roadshow or Ebay (ever been to Bennigan's?). Or historians see the arts (music and movies!) as inaccurate or too sentimental.

I am not suggesting we substitute academic rigors for movie night or a sing along. But, if I host a concert or film that has 50 new visitors and can talk to them about our facilities and expose them to our collections, I would want to do a concert every week (ok, maybe every month--lots of work).

If Woody Guthrie's song about the 1913 Italian Hall disaster in Calumet, MI makes someone curious about the details of that fateful Christmas Eve or John Sayles' "Matewan" makes someone curious about labor history, I say "great!" and don't worry about what others might think. The arts spark our imagination. The materials in our collections fuel our curiosity. So give yourself a break, sometimes it is ok to watch the movie before you read the book.

Check out the band Steppin' In It's website at: www.steppininit.com or www.jensygit.com They have free audio streams. Another great Michigan artist is Sufjan Stevens.

Jen warms up the crowd













Steppin' In It knocks out the standards.











One last request. If you read this, post a comment. Writing a blog is a two way street. It helps build community when we talk about issues whether we agree or not.