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January/April Page 1 2010 Connecticut Volume 12,State No. Library 1/2 In this Issue: ...Preserving the Past, Informing the Future www.cslib.org When Less is Really Less WHEN LESS IS REALLY LESS by Kendall F. Wiggin Kendall F. Wiggin, State Librarian Page 1 As our state and nation experience one of the Sincerely...President of the United States most difficult fiscal times in memory, libraries, by Mark Jones museums and archives have not been immune Page 2 from its impact. The State Library has been on what seems like an endless budget roller coaster The WPA Architectural ride. At various points throughout the summer Survey - Taking a Paper Collection Online by the proposed budget went from a modest reduc- Carol Ganz, History & tion to the elimination of all statewide library programs to, and in the Genealogy Unit end, the budget that the Library had at the end of the previous fiscal Page 3 year. But just as the library community and the staff of the State Library were celebrating the success of a level funded budget, news Connecticut At War came of budget holdbacks mounting to over two million dollars. No Conference by Bruce Stark, Vice President, sooner had the many hard decisions been made to deal with these dev- ASCH, and David Corrigan, astating reductions, when word came of a five percent budget reduction Museum Curator, on most of the State Library’s line items. In addition to dealing with Connecticut State Library these budget cuts and holdbacks Page 5 the State Library has also had to “It is not a question of how will When Disaster Strikes manage with far fewer employ- we do more with less – we by Lizette Pelletier ees as a result of the retirement Page 6 of fifteen long-time employees have long passed that quaint under the retirement incentive notion. Rather it is how we are Hands on History - program. For years programs going to identify that which are Connecticut History like iCONN have thrived, even Comes Alive in the core services and then Classroom by Patrick with level funding, but now, the determine how best to deliver Smith - Page 9 magnitude of the budget reduc- them effectively and efficiently tions has resulted in the cancel- – and yes with less.” Excellence in Public lation of databases and program Library Service Award cutbacks. The Library’s materi- Winners Announced by Mary Engels - Page 10 als budget, only recently funded at a level adequate to meet the statu- tory responsibility as the state’s principal public law library, has been Moving Forward with hit hard, making it impossible to maintain current subscriptions and Web 2.0 Tools add new titles. Keeping the collections current and viable has become a by Christine Pittsley challenge. Of course the Library is not alone. All of state government is Page 12 affected by the fiscal situation and is adjusting accordingly. But these Free Downloadable adjustments, at least for the State Library, are, I believe, long-term and Audiobooks Now will result in a fundamental change in how we do business. It is not a Available Statewide on question of how will we do more with less – we have long passed that iCONN by Tom Newman quaint notion. Rather it is how we are going to identify that which are Page 13 core services and then determine how best to deliver them effectively Pillar Placed on its and efficiently – and yes with less. On the less is less theme, our mis- Pedestal by Moonlight sion statement has been reduced from 104 words to just eighteen: to by Nancy Peluso - Page 14 preserve and make accessible Connecticut’s history and heritage and to advance the development of library services statewide. continued on page 4 Connecticut State Library 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106 www.cslib.org Page 2 Connecticut State Library SINCERELY. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES by Dr. Mark Jones, State Archivist The Connecticut State Archives has opened a year-long exhibit of presidential signatures in Memorial Hall at the State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford. On dis- play will be signatures of all of the presidents, and all but one are from documents in the State Archives signed during the presidents’ terms of office. Highlighted this month and on exhibit throughout the rest of this year are documents signed by George Wash- ington and Abraham Lincoln and related artifacts. Visi- tors will see a short note dated April 18, 1861 with presi- dent Abraham Lincoln’s signature, sent to Connecticut’s Gideon Welles, then serving as Secretary of the Navy, asking Welles to be at the Executive Mansion at 12 noon to discuss political appointments in Philadelphia. Also included is a check drawn on the bank account of John Wilkes Booth for fifty dollars dated December 24, 1864 and signed by Booth. Also exhibited is a ticket granting the bearer admittance to the Executive Mansion on Wednesday, April 19, 1865 for the funeral of Abraham Lincoln. Also on exhibit are documents signed by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Mon- William McKinley signed in the roe, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coo- “White House,” Washington D.C., lidge, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Dur- December 29, 1896 ing the rest of this year, the remaining presidential signatures will be exhib- ited on a rotating basis. Visitors will see the signatures on letters from presi- dents on stationery marked “White House” and on military commissions, appointments, certificates of appreciation, certificates of merit, letters patent for land, bounty land grants for military service, and presidential pardons. From president Franklin D. Roosevelt is a typed and signed letter of October 23, 1938, more than a month after the great hurricane that struck on Sep- tember 21, to Governor Wilbur L. Cross, who had sent a telegram requesting federal aid in clearing away “fallen timber” in Connecticut. FDR answers Cross that the Works Progress Administration and Forest Service are coordinating efforts to ensure safety against fires by such work. Autographed portrait of William Howard Taft continued on page 4 Connecticut State Library 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106 www.cslib.org Page 3 Connecticut State Library THE WPA ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY – TAKING A PAPER COLLECTION ONLINE by Carol Ganz, History & Genealogy Unit Circa 1800 house near the Housatonic River in Derby. The left photo [006] is lighter and brighter with more detail of railing, shutters, even a curtain in the window. The right photo [006_a] provides the setting as well as a glimpse at nearby houses. One project undertaken by the Works Progress ability have been adjusted and improved as we Administration – the WPA – in Connecticut in discovered the variables in the collection while the 1930s was the recording of old buildings proceeding through the towns. When you ac- through fill-in survey forms and photos, chroni- cess the Connecticut State Library’s growing cling houses – those which still stand and those collection of online WPA Architectural Survey now long gone. These are recollections in words (Census of Old Buildings) entries online, what and photographs of the appearance of historical are you seeing? Is it a collection of house pho- structures in the 1930s, the tos with some supple- origins of buildings from mental information, or is many earlier periods, and it a survey of old houses, the homes specifically of illustrated with photos one’s ancestors. As people and sketches? It may not clamor for more and more of matter much to most the historical information viewers, but it is a ques- preserved at the Connecticut tion that played a crucial State Library to be made part in designing the available online we are ex- online project and still amining, prioritizing, re- informs how the images searching, collaborating, and data are handled. brain-storming, and gener- ally puzzling out the best The Nathaniel Baker house in East Haddam, Assigning added subject way to present the most use- probably built in the mid-1700s, survived just headings in keeping with ful resources, while main- long enough to allow this photo. The survey the original intent was form notes, "in ruins," but provides consider- complicated. Proofread- taining our traditional li- able description. brary responsibilities. One ing included not only of the Agency’s earliest Digi- watching for typographi- tal Collections projects was the WPA Architec- cal errors and making the formatting adjust- tural Survey. From initial selection to online ments agreed upon for the presentation, but presence, the project has been a learning experi- also checking for images. ence. Decisions about presentation and search- continued on page 8 Connecticut State Library 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106 www.cslib.org Page 4 Connecticut State Library WHEN LESS IS REALLY LESS continued from page 1 2010 marks the hundredth anniversary of the State Library/Supreme Court Building. The bricks and mortar State Library and Supreme Court building represented a major advance in meeting the information needs of State Government and the people of Connecticut. It also rep- resented a major financial commitment by the State. I have previously written about the need for the State Library to create a virtual branch. Building it will take the creation of bits and bytes instead of bricks and mortar; skilled librarians and technical staff instead of laborers and craftsmen; and a technical infrastructure as state-of-the art as the State Library and Supreme Court building was when it first opened in 1910. I am pleased to say that we are making some progress. Planning is underway for a complete migration of our Web site to an open source con- tent management system.

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