Hopes to involve agencies/organizations outside government to take over programs

• Must focus on core services
• Concern from state GODORT
• Library's 10% budget cut could get worse

The Library of Michigan, transferred last year to the Michigan Department of Education, is facing the reality of severely tightened budget, focusing on its core mission of statewide library services and service to state government, but beginning the difficult task of finding new homes for two major programs: support for the Genealogy Collection and the Regional Federal Depository Program and Federal Documents Collection.

“We are committed to working with constituents that hold them dear and get those stakeholders to help identify what the needs are and who might be new stewards,” State Librarian Nancy Robertson told LJ. “We’re hoping to work with genealogy community and find a solution by October 1.”

However, she acknowledged that the documents collection poses an even greater challenge. “It’s trickier to find someone to take it— it’s vast, 1.7 million items,” she said. “It takes up a lot of footprint of our space, and space is very expensive for the state.”

Federal documents
Leaders of the Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) of Michigan are worried. According to President Doug Way, “it is not reasonable to expect another library to take on the regional federal depository collection, which is approximately 1.7 million pieces, and to then also take on the task of offering the services regional federal depository libraries provide.”

“We are concerned that this plan will limit access to government information by eliminating or dispersing one of the core depository collections in the state, and the only one with a mandate to maintain a comprehensive collection,” he said. (Here’s a blog post outlining further concerns.) 

“We acknowledge the importance and value of the Abrams Historical Foundation Collection of genealogy materials and the need for a Regional Federal Depository within the state of Michigan,” Robertson said in recent legislative testimony. “However, both of these important collections and functions could be maintained and supported outside of state government.”

Robertson noted Way’s suggestion that it’s unrealistic to expect any university or other entity to take the documents collection. “The reality is it’s unrealistic for us to continue,” she told LJ. “We’re cut 23% in budget and 30% in staffing.” 

She said that state library staff planned to discuss the responsibilities with the Superintendent of Documents. “Federal depository collections are the property of the federal government,” she said, “and we have an agreement to do x and y… but it just comes to a point where we can’t.”

Genealogy collection
While most state libraries have genealogy collections, non-state collections are more rare, and Robertson described Michigan’s as one of the top ten in the country, with more than 44,000 volumes of book materials and close to 100,000 volumes of microform.

The Abrams Foundation has given more than $2 million toward it and the Michigan genealogy colleciton, which will remain in state hands.

Cynthia Grostick, president of the Michigan Genealogical Council (MGC), wrote last month about her meeting with Robertson. The MGC will send a representative to the meetings of the Michigan Center for Innovation and Reinvention Board (MCIR)—the entity charged with developing a solution—to observe and comment.

“While we understand that the community is outraged, we ask that everyone remain calm and let our spokesperson, Dr. Frank Boles communicate with the MCIR Board that is involved in the potential uses of the Historical Center,” she wrote. “Many alternative scenarios have been mentioned; however, MGC’s goals are that the collections remain under one roof and under state control." 

A new home?
The Michigan Library and Historical Center is the state library building, containing collections and staff and administration, with one wing serving as the Michigan Historical Center.

Will the library move out, as Governor Jennifer Granholm suggested last year? “We’re waiting to hear what MCIR board recommends,” Robertson said, referencing a report due this June.

Tough times
Last year, Granholm issued an executive order that abolished the Department of History, Arts, and Libraries, transferring the Library of Michigan to the Department of Education, with a mandate to effect cost savings. (The position of State Librarian was abolished as a gubernatorial appointment but maintained as a civil service position.) 

“We’ve been looking at what our priorities are as a state library,” Robertson said, given a 10% budget cut for FY10 and a proposed 23% budget cut for the year that begins October 1.

While the size of that cut is not resolved, “we don’t feel like we need to wait for it,” Robertson said, noting the importance of maintaining the Michigan Electronic Library and service to the legislature.

While the state library’s collections remain open to the public for circulation, including via interlibrary loan, “we’re looking at a timeline for scaling that down or shutting it off,” Robertson said. “We want to make sure we focus on what we can do well, with the resources we have so we can continue to function.”

Last update: 04-03-2010 21:51

A computerised reconstruction of how the Ivory Bangle Lady could have looked. Image credit: Dr Hella Eckardt/University of Reading

The Ivory Bangle Lady remains were found in August 1901 in a stone coffin unearthed in Bootham, where a group of graves were found. The grave has been dated to the latter half of the fourth century. Items buried with the Lady included expensive luxury items such African elephant ivory bracelets, beads, pendants and other jewelry, a blue glass jug, a glass mirror, and Yorkshire jet. A rectangular bone mount, possibly for a wooden coffin, was also found in the grave. An inscription on the bone, “Hail sister, may you live in God,” suggests the woman held religious beliefs and may have been Christian. She is believed to have been one of the richest inhabitants of the city.

The researchers analyzed and measured the Lady’s skull and facial features, and looked at the chemical signatures of her diet. They also examined the burial site to build a picture of her social status and ancestry.

Dr Eckardt said the results showed the Ivory Bangle Lady was of mixed ancestry, and the isotope analysis suggested she may have migrated to Britain from a warmer climate. This evidence, along with the goods found in the ground, and the fact the burial rite was unusual, all point to the her having been of North African descent, arriving in Britain possibly via the Mediterranean, and she was of high social status.

Enlarge

The analysis of the Lady and other skeletons and artifacts contradicts the popular assumption about Britain in Roman times that African immigrants were usually males, of low status, and most were slaves, and shows that high status women from Africa were also present in the society.

Dr Eckardt said the research on the Lady and other skeletons suggest the society was as diverse, and possibly more diverse than it is today.

The Roman Empire extended into the Near and Middle East, North Africa, and included Europe, and there were great movements of people throughout the Empire, both voluntary and involuntary.

York (or Eboracum, as it was then known) was an important city of the period and eventually was named capital of “Britannia Inferior.”

Emperor Septimius Severus, who was born in North Africa, was one of two Roman Emperors who visited Eboracum, and died there.

The paper is published in this month’s edition of the journal Antiquity .

The skeleton and artifacts will be displayed in August as part of the Yorkshire Museum’s exhibition:

Roman York — Meet the People of the Empire

Article: Africans in Roman York?

Last update: 06-03-2010 03:43