First Semester/Part I:
Assessing State Government Records Services
Components of the Program
Development Initiative
Surveys of state archives
and records programs (FY2004
and FY2006) to assess current
conditions, measure progress against the results of earlier studies,
identify solutions that can be implemented across state lines, highlight
areas of common concern that can and should be addressed collectively.
Based on the survey results, the project will then define benchmarks
and program measures to enable state archivists to evaluate and improve
their programs.
Survey each State Historical
Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) to understand its administrative
structures, programs, services, and constituents. The results will help
identify what services and tools could help improve the State Coordinators’
skills as board administrators, ensure that every SHRAB member understands
the purpose of the NHPRC Records Program and his or her role in implementing
it, and establish benchmarks and guidelines that define an effective
SHRAB.
With the guidance of a Blue
Ribbon Panel, develop an Action
Agenda to ensure preservation of and access to our nation’s historical
records. CoSA expects this agenda to emphasize a cooperative
approach involving all of those who create, care for, and use archival
records. As a foundation and starting point, it will harness the collective
strength of the federal-state partnership formed by the NHPRC, the state
archives, and the SHRABs to move the agenda forward.
Survey Management Team
The project calls for a rigorous assessment and evaluation
process that will examine the status and assess the effectiveness of
state archives and records programs and
State Historical Records Advisory Boards
in the United States and its territories. Assessing the current conditions
will be accomplished through a comprehensive survey of state archives
and records programs and SHRABs.
The Survey
Management Team will determine the scope and content of the data
collection instruments, oversee the execution of the surveys, and be
responsible for compilation and initial analysis of the results. The
Survey Management Team will comprise two state coordinators, two members
of the CoSA Board of Directors,
a consultant specializing in survey design and program evaluation, an
NHPRC staff member, and CoSA staff. The chair of the CoSA Communications
Committee will also participate as an ex-officio member of the Team.
Blue Ribbon Panel
A Blue Ribbon Panel of representatives from principal
user and constituent groups, allied professions, NHPRC,
CoSA, and the SHRABs
will provide oversight and direction. The Blue Ribbon Panel will, first,
help define the goals and objectives of the survey and review the draft
survey instrument for effectiveness, and, second, review the results
of the surveys and the analytical report prepared by the Survey Management
Team, and use them to evaluate organizational effectiveness in the state
archives and SHRAB. They will use the data and their assessments to
develop an Action Agenda for the next decade.
Concurrent Projects
Project leaders will take care to coordinate the
survey with concurrent projects. These include
CoSA's Emergency
Preparedness Initiative that includes an Assessment of preparedness
in all 50 states;
CoSA's Local
Government Archives Project which has collected data
on state services to local governments;
the A*CENSUS,
a comprehensive census of individual archivists being led the Society
of American Archivists (SAA) with funding from the Institute
for Museum and Library Services (IMLS); and
the Heritage
Health Index (HHI), developed by Heritage
Preservation in cooperation with IMLS.
Taken together, these projects should provide an in-depth
picture of the individuals charged with the care of historical records;
the conditions of the records themselves; the sigificant social and
technological challenges that place historical records at risk; and
the state-based organizations that encourage and implement these programs.
