ALDALE-L Archives

Archiver > ALDALE > 2001-08 > 0997144248


From: "Jeff Armstrong" <>
Subject: [DALE COUNTY] Jeff's nickel tour of some Southern state archive facilities
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 20:33:12 -0400


ALABAMA ARCHIVES-MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA

Accessibility- pretty good, there is a small free lot across the street from
the Archives, although once this lot fills up, patrons have to feed parking
meters, most of which are 2 hour meters, and signs on all of them say that
they CANNOT BE RESTARTED.

Check in, Check out procedure- pretty good; one of those silly "Researcher"
badges is required to be gotten with a picture ID, but thankfully noone was
paying much attention to that while I was there.

Facility- terrible; old, drafty building with high ceilings, very noisy even
with only a few people present. Restrooms are not even on the same floor as
the Archives, but on the floor above; pay phones are not on the same floor
of the Archives, but on the floor below. There is no cafeteria in the
building or even anywhere close by.

Collection- Books, very good; microfilm, fair; they don't even have all the
county records. A nice feature unique to this archive, however, is an
alphabetized by surname clipping file on microfilm, which offers the
opportunity to find one of those unique, undiscovered genealogical gems.

Copying- ten cents per page, books, twenty five cents, microfilm.

Staff- Courteous but not terribly knowledgeable.

Intangibles- Patrons are encouraged reshelve their own books in the main
reading room, which is always a bad idea; while I was there several people
were searching in vain for books that had been misshelved.

FLORIDA ARCHIVES-TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA

Accessibility- terrible; patrons are encouraged to feed parking meters while
using the Archives, most of which are 2 hour meters. There are a "secret"
small number of free spaces on the north wall of the parking garage next to
the Archives accessible through the entrance on Madison Street.

Facility- good; the State Library is located in the same building. Cafeteria
is within the building; inexplicably the pay phones were recently removed.
Lighting is kept low to be able to better see microfilm, unfortunately this
can make reading the labels on the microfilm boxes difficult, so you may
want to take your own flashlight with you to read them.

Collection- good, both books and microfilm.

Copying- good; 10 cents per page books, 25 cents per page microfilm. You
only pay for the copies you like at the front desk. Microfilm copies are
self-service. But one of the nicest features about this archive is that
book copies are copied by the archives staff. This has the dual advantage of
both saving you the time spent copying, plus helps to protect the books.

Staff-good

Intangibles- Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris has at times in the
past closed the Archives without public notice in order to use the Archives
as a backdrop to shoot film clips celebrating her accomplishments.

GEORGIA ARCHIVES-ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Accessibility- Generally good; it can be difficult navigating some of those
interchanges downtown to get to the Archives. Parking is $3-4 to enter the
patron parking lot but that can be for the whole day.


Check in, Check out procedure- Terrible; a couple of forms have to be signed
and presented to two different counters; one of those silly "researcher"
badges is required. At check out, the security guard there insists on going
through EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF PAPER you are leaving with out of the
Archives, which, if you have made lot of copies, can take a very long time.

Facility-fair; no cafeteria on the premises. A black, windowless building
with an austere, morose bearing. There is a low income housing project just
to the east of the Archives; best not to venture through there on foot.

Copying- okay; self service for both books and microfilm, but you only pay
for the copies you like at the front desk. Of note- the Archives' stated
policy is to charge TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS PER DOCUMENT for anything ordered by
mail from the Archives; fortunately a lot of the staffers don't comply with
this ridiculous and unreasonable policy.

Collection- very good, both books and microfilm

Staff- good

Intangibles- Sadly, an archivist there told me she estimated that they have
a good "handle" on what is in about 75% of their holdings, they have no idea
about the remaining 25%. I earnestly hope that among state archives, this is
the exception and not the rule.

SOUTH CAROLINA ARCHIVES-COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

Accessibility- Very good; ample free parking.

Check in, Check out procedure- about par.

Facility- Very good; one of the very best of all the archive facilities;
bright, attractive brand new building with ample restrooms and cafeteria.

Copying- Terrible; self service copying on very poorly maintained copiers at
the absurd rate of 25 cents per page. If you can't get one of these sorry
copiers to produce a decent copy of a document, the staff refuses to refund
your money.

Collection-Only fair, both books and microfilm. One nice feature that the
other facilities don't have, however, is a Alphabetical Index of a lot of
South Carolina's county and colonial records which is on microfilm; a very
handy finding tool.

Staff- Knowledgeable, but not terribly courteous.


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