2023 in Review

Now that 2023 has come to a close, we look back on all of the changes and accomplishments from the past year. Records Management and Archives went through huge changes in our small staff throughout 2023. 

Retirement: Hugh Johnson, Records Clerk

Hugh Johnson worked as a Records Clerk for Salt Lake County Records Management and Archives for 23 years, assisting county agencies with retention schedules, record requests, and many other tasks. Prior to working with us, Hugh worked for the Utah State Archives in their microfilm department. Having reached his 30 years service for government, he retired in May of 2023. We were devastated to hear that shortly after his retirement, Hugh passed away. We miss his generosity and steadfastness every day at the Archives. 

Moving On: Daniel Cureton, Digital and Reference Archivist

Daniel Cureton, Digital and Reference Archivist, left the Salt Lake County Archives for a new position in September of 2023. Daniel worked with us for a little over four years, and was invaluable in setting up our new digitization lab along with providing excellent reference services to the public and county agencies. Many of our patrons will miss his insight and dedication to the research process. Daniel’s skills and knowledge will now benefit the Los Alamos National Laboratory as their Scientific and Technical Information Librarian. 

New Employees 

As detailed in an earlier entry, we also welcomed two new employees in 2023. Trey Coleman, Records Management and Archives Specialist, started in August and Kelsie Flack, Digital and Reference Archivist, joined us in September. Both have already seamlessly fit in at Salt Lake County, and readers will hear much more from them in the future. 

More Records Online

We continued to digitize and upload county records to our online digital archives, including:

• Tax Appraisal Cards (1970s) and Land Title Certificates to their online, searchable applications. 
• Land Claim Record Books
• Water Records Collection
• Tax Assessment Rolls (1853-1881)
• Additional Planning and Development records, including Board of Adjustment and Conditional Use Applications.

Additional records series will be digitized and uploaded to the online digital archives throughout 2024! 

7 Years of “Temporary” Storage: The Early Years of the Archives

In September 1985, Salt Lake County held a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the construction of a new Government Center. The site, at 2001 State Street, was an important location in the County’s history.  From 1885 until 1965 it had served as the location of the County Hospital.  When the hospital closed in 1965, the buildings remained and were used to house some County offices.

Room in the Salt Lake County Hospital containing records to move to temporary storage. Photo taken in 1986.

Records stacked in the Salt Lake City and County building. Photo taken in 1986.

In preparation for the move from those former hospital offices and from the former home of county government, the City-County building, a program was created to evaluate, inventory, and relocate the records of county agencies.  That program began in May 1986 with a full-time contract project consultant. Two interns assisted from May – August, and  two part-time archive clerks worked from October – December.  Staff moved the records to what was supposed to be a temporary records storage center in a County motor pool service garage on 800 South.

County motor pool service garage, aka temporary records storage.

Last week, we wrote about the down-to-the-wire efforts of the staff to complete that work, and the report by the project manager that advocated a permanent records program.

As a result of those efforts, in January 1987 the permanent Salt Lake County Records Management and Archives program was established with one full time coordinator and two part-time archives clerks.

Records Management and Archives staff, circa 1987/1988. Front, seated: Dave Singer. Back, left to right: Tony ?, Robert Westby (first County Records Manager), Robert Zito.

For seven years, these early staff members personally delivered records from the service garage to county agencies, carefully working around the car lifts which still remained in the garage floor.  They also provided services to the public from an office in the new Government Center. A report in November 1988 indicated that they received an average of 50 information requests per month.

Paul Palmer, second Records Manager, at work in the 800 South records center. Photo 1993.

In 1992, Salt Lake County made history when it passed the first county records law ordinance in the state of Utah.  The law helped ensure that inactive records from county agencies, in accordance with state law, would be managed by the Records Management and Archives program.

Next week we’ll talk about another big move in the history of the program.

10.10.15

Survival Strategies for Personal Digital Records

Electronic files are much more fragile than paper records, and their long-term survival requires attention and planning. These tips can help you better preserve your personal digital collections.

Personal Files:

• Focus on your most important files. These files may include: resumes, school papers, financial spreadsheets, letters, maps, and family histories.
  • Decide which documents have long-term value and focus your efforts there.
• Print out your most critical files to protect them against loss.  Doing so increases the chances that your documents and images will remain accessible and allows you to focus upon backing up and copying/migrating files that cannot easily be printed out (e.g., databases, video files).
• Create multiple copies of the files and manage them in different places.  Doing so will keep your information safe even if your computer crashes.
  • Make at least two copies of your files – more copies are better.
• Organize your files by giving individual documents descriptive file names.  Creating a directory/folder structure on your computer will help you organize your files.  Write a brief description of the directory structure and the documents for future reference.
• Check your files at least once a year to make sure you can read them.  Every 3 – 5 years you will need to copy and migrate your files to a newer media.  Storage media have limited life spans, and hardware and software changes can keep you from accessing files stored on media that hasn’t deteriorated.
  • Use new, high-quality storage media. Avoid unknown brands.
• Convert important files to a universal output format such as plain text (.txt), Rich Text Format (.rtf), or PDF/A (a form of PDF designed to support long-term preservation).
  • Files created with obsolete software should be converted to newer formats to avoid losing access.

Digital Images:

• Back up and copy/migrate your images as outlined above
• Organize them as you create them.  It is much harder to identify thousands of images as time passes.
• In addition to facing the threats outlined above, image files are often compressed, which reduces file size but can permanently remove some visual information.  Save important images either uncompressed or with lossless compression. Good choices format choices include TIFF (.tif), and JPEG2000 (.jp2).
• The resulting files are often quite large, so treat them as “master copies” and create GIF (.gif) or JPEG (.jpg) “use copies” to share via e-mail or the Web.
• You can also print out your images.  To ensure that your images last for decades, order prints from a lab that will place them on an archival medium.

Additional Resources:

The Library of Congress is a great resource for information on personal digital archiving, found at: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/records.html

Key resources also include:

Why Digital Preservation is Important to Everyone:  http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/multimedia/videos/digipres.html

Preserving Your Digital Memories:  http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/documents/PA_All_brochure.pdf

The University of Michigan Library publication entitled Preserving Personal Digital Files is also a great resource. It contains a wealth of suggestions for further reading as well.  This publication can be found at: http://www.lib.umich.edu/files/services/preservation/PreservingPersonalDigitalFilesGuide.pdf

Thank you to CoSA for these recommendations.

10.10.15

October 10, 2015 is Electronic Records Day (get it? 1-0-1-0).  E-Records Day is designed to raise awareness among state government agencies, the general public, related professional organizations, and other stakeholders about the crucial role electronic records play in their world. This year, E-Records Day is highlighting the importance of appropriate management of electronic communications in government.

In recognition of Electronic Records Day 2015, here is a list of reasons why everyone should be thinking more about electronic records.

10 reasons why electronic records need special attention

1. Managing electronic records is like caring for a perpetual toddler: they need regular attention and care in order to remain accessible.

2. Electronic records can become unreadable very quickly. While records on paper have been read after thousands of years, digital files can be virtually inaccessible after just a few.

3. Scanning paper records is not the end of the preservation process: it is the beginning. Careful planning for ongoing management expenses must be involved as well.

4. There are no permanent storage media. Hard drives, CDs, Magnetic tape or any other storage formats will need to be tested and replaced on a regular schedule. Proactive management is required to avoid catastrophic loss of records.

5. The lack of a “physical” presence can make it very easy to lose track of electronic records. Special care must be taken to ensure they remain in controlled custody and do not get lost in masses of other data.

6. It can be easy to create copies of electronic records and share them with others, but this can raise concerns about the authenticity of those records. Extra security precautions are needed to ensure e-records are not altered inappropriately.

7. The best time to plan for electronic records preservation is when they are created. Don’t wait until software is being replaced or a project is ending to think about how records are going to be preserved.

8. No one system you buy will solve all your e-records problems. Despite what vendors say, there’s no magic bullet that will manage and preserve your e-records for you.

9. Electronic records can help ensure the rights of the public through greater accessibility than ever before, but only if creators, managers and users all recognize their importance and contribute resources to their preservation.

10. While they may seem commonplace now, electronic records will form the backbone of the historical record for researchers of the future.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow’s post for e-records day will be: Survival strategies for personal digital records.

Please Welcome:

Salt Lake County Records Management and Archives recently hired a new manager, Maren Slaugh.  Maren came to us from the Sandy Police Department, where she had been the Assistant Records Manager for 2 years.  Her career with Sandy Police spanned a total of 10 years, during which she served as the Privacy and Security Coordinator (TAC) in the Records Division for 7 years prior to becoming a supervisor.  She worked closely with the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) to maintain State standards regarding criminal records, and also with the FBI for crime reporting statistics.  As one of the Records supervisors, she helped the Sandy Police Department implement a new records management system called Versadex.

To introduce our readers to Maren, a short Q and A session was held:

How did you become interested in the field of Records Management?

Maren: I applied for the job in Sandy 10 years ago and fell in love with Records Management when I became the Privacy and Security Coordinator (TAC). In the course of my work, I met with people from different law enforcement and state agencies that also had the same desire to keep accurate and transparent records and information.

What are the issues in RM that you feel are most important to focus on?

Maren: Among many issues, being able to get a handle on maintaining the integrity of electronic records, and disaster recovery related to both analog and digital records.

How are you adapting to life at the County Records Center? Any likes or dislikes yet?

Maren: After 10 years of having to wear a uniform, I can now break out and wear what I want.  Except that now I don’t know what to wear….

What are some of your interests outside of work that you would like to share with us?

Maren: In my free time I enjoy volunteering for the Center for the Arts, and for the last 8 years I have been very involved with the Sundance Film Festival.  As a Food Network addict, I love to cook (although in deference to my waistline, I give most of the desserts that I create away to friends).

During my career with the police, I served on the Child Abduction Response Team, and I have been extremely fortunate to be able to continue to be a member of this team.

In the short time that I have been at the Archives, I have already caught the genealogy bug and now spends hours conducting research in to my ancestry.

Salt Lake County Records Manager Maren Slaugh

Maren started with Records Management and Archives on June 15.  Welcome, Maren!

Farewell to our Director

July 1, 2014 marked the retirement of Terry Blonquist Nelson, Director of Salt Lake County Records Management and Archives. Terry’s career in archives and records management spanned almost 38 years (37 years and 11 months, to be exact!).

Terry started her career at the Utah State Archives, working in the micrographics section. Over the years, she worked for the Utah State Archives in the records management, public reference, records center, and preservation sections. As the Reference and Record Services Manager, she coordinated the consolidation and move in 1990 of over 80,000 cubic feet of records, staff, and merging functions of two Records Center locations into one facility.  She also assisted with the 1984 move of the Archives from the basement of the Capitol to an offsite location.

Welcome to new hire Terry Ellis. Salt Lake County Commission Minutes, May 6, 1996.

In May of 1996, Terry became the head of Salt Lake County Records Management and Archives. Terry not only directed the Records Management and Archives programs, but was also records compliance officer for all of Salt Lake County government, ensuring compliance in federal, state, and local laws and ordinances governing records. This involved coordinating the activities of the Government Records Access Management Policy Administration (GRAMPA) and serving as the County’s HIPAA privacy officer. (GRAMA, GRAMPA, and HIPAA were her middle names for many years).

Throughout her career, Terry was very active in both records management and archives professional organizations, including serving as President and Vice-President of the National Association of Government Archivists and Records Administrators. She was also President and Vice-President of the Conference of Inter-Mountain Archivists, and held many positions in the Association of Records Managers and Administrators, Association for Information and Image Management, and the Utah Manuscripts Association. In 2010, she was asked to be a participant in the Global Archives Delegation to South Africa, extending her role as an archives ambassador on an international level.

Terry also influenced innumerable archivists and records managers through her national and local presentations, workshops, and committee work. She has the unique ability to easily communicate complicated ideas and make them understandable by any audience, translate “archive-speak” to the general population, and decipher complicated records laws and legislation. She can also make any project seem achievable, no matter how formidable it may first appear.

Thank you, Terry. You will be greatly missed.

Terry creating a Salt Lake County history exhibit for the Utah State Fair.

Sunshine Week, 2014

March 16-22, 2014 was Sunshine Week, a national initiative promoting the importance of open government.  It started in 2002 in Florida as Sunshine Sunday and was a response to legislative efforts to create exemptions in its public records law.  The American Society of News Editors has continued support of Sunshine Week since 2005.  Its mission is to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government.  Participants include news media, government officials at all levels, schools and universities, libraries and archives, individuals, non-profit and civic organizations, historians, and anyone with an interest in open government. 

Salt Lake County is committed to open government and providing access to information.  Here at the Salt Lake County Archives, which serves county government, residents, and others interested in the history and function of Salt Lake County government, we preserve historical records and provide access to them for research and education.  Open government and access are the foundations upon which archives exist.  Many historical records such as county agency publications and reports, commission minutes, and records from elected officials are just some of the governmental records available at the County Archives. In addition, information about GRAMA, the Government Records Access Management Act and Utah’s state records law can be found on our website here. 

~Entry contributed by Terry B. Nelson, Director of Salt Lake County Records Management & Archives

 

Ecology of the Archives: Preserving Your Past

Protecting Your Family’s Records

Most people know the basics of preserving their family treasures:  avoid touching the surface of photographs, protect fragile documents from damage, keep artwork out of direct light, and avoid huge temperature and humidity fluctuations where records are stored.  However, there are a few important points that are often overlooked:  

•  Acid-free, really?  Many vendors of scrapbooking and office supplies sell something called “acid-free” or “archival tape,” but the application of this kind of tape will damage your photographs and documents.   The tape might be acid-free, but the adhesive is not.  The adhesive will discolor and stain your records, and it is very difficult to remove (and sometimes even conservators cannot remove it).  According to the NEDCC pamphlet 7.3 “Repairing Paper Artifacts:”

“Pressure-sensitive (self-adhering) tapes should be avoided. The adhesives on these tapes may cause staining over time and require toxic solvents and technical expertise for removal.” 

• Digitization: There is a big push to scan your family treasures, and having a digital copy of your records definitely has advantages.  The biggest benefit of digitization is preventing repeated handling of the original record and therefore avoiding potential damage.   Scanning also provides quick access to the image and allows you to share your records easily with others.  Keep in mind that although scanning is easy and affordable, the digital image is not stable and does not take the place of the original.  Both born-digital and digitized records degrade (“bit rot”), storage media fail, and technology becomes obsolete and can no longer open programs used to view images.  Regularly migrate your digital images to new media, and if possible keep at least one copy at a separate location in case of disaster.  The original photograph or family record should still be maintained and steps taken for its preservation.  See an earlier blog entry for more information.   Also check out the Council of State Archivists list of “10 reasons why electronic records need special attention.” 
•  Remember the metadata:  The description that is applied to a digital image or physical object is vital to being able to locate your records.  Don’t just scan a document or photograph and think that you will remember what each file contains; describe it (persons, places, dates, other relevant data) with sufficient detail that will enable you to find it again. 

Preserving Your County’s Records

View of one aisle in the Salt Lake County Records Center.

The Salt Lake County Archives resides in a 19,000 square foot building (478,296 cubic feet), with two levels of records storage.  Although the building was not originally constructed for housing records, we are still able to maintain minimal fluctuation in our heating and cooling.  Our heating and cooling systems operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to stabilize the temperature and humidity levels.  Both are regularly monitored and logged by staff. 

View of the first floor in Records Center. Metal track at the top of the image  is the floor of the second story.

Because fires are always a concern to any archives, we have two separate fire detection systems.  A special system installed 6 years ago is so sensitive that smoke from last year’s wildfires in the region set it off.  The Vesda Air Sampling Detection System tests the air at regular intervals, allowing us to detect any smoke before our standard fire detection system would discover it.  The orange pipes seen in the image above is part of the Vesda system running underneath the metal floor of the mezzanine (second floor of records storage) above.  Of course, in the case of any fire, earthquake, or flood, a completed disaster recovery plan is the best friend of any archives or records center. 

Later this fall, we will be purchasing a dedicated upright freezer for all of the film and negatives that we maintain.  We will have an uninterrupted electrical supply powering this freezer (even during disasters). In addition to regular monitoring the temperature and humidity within the freezer, each records storage box will wrapped in a vapor-proof enclosure, creating  its own environment (which is also monitored) within each package to protect from any possible moisture accumulation.  Of course, all negatives will have either a hard copy or digital copies of the images created for researchers to use in the reading room, preventing the original negatives from having to be removed from the freezer and go through the freeze/thaw/freeze process.   

Page from Salt Lake County Chattel Mortgages.

Check out these online resources to help you protect your family’s history:

Photographs:

http://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/5.-photographs/5.3-care-of-photographs

Family records in various formats:

http://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/

http://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats.html

Works on paper (including drawings, newspaper, prints, posters, maps, and more):

http://www.loc.gov/preservation/about/faqs/paper.html

Another view of how an archives preserves the past:

Sunshine Week

It’s Sunshine Week!

March 10-16, 2013 is Sunshine Week, a national initiative to promote a dialogue about open government and freedom of information.

In Utah, open government and access to records is governed by GRAMA, the Government Records Access and Management Act.  GRAMA became law in 1992 and Salt Lake County was the first local government to pass an ordinance to comply.  County Ordinance 1190 was approved by the County Commission on June 17, 1992.

The Board of County Commission stated in the ordinance that it was “in the best interests of Salt Lake County and its citizens to maintain and preserve accurate government records” and as a result the County Archives and Records Services Section was created.  It was responsible to receive and preserve county records, as well as be the “formal, official repository” for county records and historical artifacts.

Excerpt from Salt Lake County Commission Minutes, June 17, 1992.

In an era of more awareness of the need for government transparency, it’s as relevant today as it was in 1992 to preserve accurate government records.  Salt Lake County Archives serves this need by preserving and providing access to public historical records.  Learn more about us by visiting our homepage.

Records Center

The Salt Lake County Records Center (which the Archives is a part of) receives records daily, transferred from various County agencies for access, management, and storage.

This image represents just a part of the records transfers that were received yesterday by the Records Management staff.  The boxes are delivered and arranged onto pallets.  Each box and box label will then be checked for accuracy, matched to detailed paperwork, assigned an accession number (a unique identifier), and provided a location on shelving.