Good morning,
Here are two of the many, many e-mails received by the Michigan Genealogical
Council over the past week in support of the Library of Michigan.
The first one is a letter to the Governor from our Vice-President, Sue
Irvine. The second is a report of Lt. John Cherry’s Town Hall meeting in
Detroit, on Thursday, July 15. The disturbing thing about these Town Hall
meetings is they have very little advance notice of where and when they are
being held.
Please share the news with your Society membership. The Library of Michigan
needs our help NOW. There was a shocking article in the Lansing State
Journal on Sunday, July 19 outlining the Governor’s plans for the Michigan
Historical Center, the building that houses the Library and Archives of
Michigan. Please add your comments to the bottom of this article. The
Lansing State Journal article is located at:
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090719/NEWS06/907190625/1102...
.
In addition, please write to your State senator and State representative
urging support for Senate Bills 503-527. SB 518 is the one, which
specifically addresses the Library. These bills would place the parts of
History, Arts, and Libraries under the Secretary of State. From the
comments, we have been hearing and reading, MSU is not interested in all of
the assets of the Library of Michigan, in fact the Executive Order instructs
them to break up parts of the collection.
As Sue mentions in her letter, our website is being updated daily. The
newer items are on our home page,
http://mimgc.org. Older items can be
found by visiting the Legislative Items page, which can be found on the left
hand menu or directly at
http://mimgc.org/legislation.html.
The Michigan Genealogical Council is planning an event where we can show our
support for the Library; details will be available as soon as everything is
finalized.
Tom Koselka, Corresponding Secretary
Michigan Genealogical Council
LIBRARY OF MICHIGAN – is in
an ominous position!!!
“The Value of the State Library” (June 28, 2009) article by Candy Spiegel ,
Livingston Daily news, says it very well! Read her article and others at
http://MIMGC.org <
http://mimgc.org/>
Here are some more thoughts!
If you don’t know where you come from, how will you know where you’re
going!? Genealogy is the 2nd biggest hobby in the United States! People
travel across the country finding records and photos. Knowing a relative
served in the Civil War makes the study of history more interesting! WWI,
WWII, Were my relatives in the service? Which battles? Were they community
leaders? Why do I enjoy art? What about my health? My DNA?
When Michigan’s governor came out with her executive order on July 13th the
family history research community was in shock! “Surely there’s a mistake!”
She’s not going to split up the 10th largest collection in the United
States?” Michigan State University doesn’t want it. MSU needs classrooms
and teachers. Where would be park?? Roger Moffat calculated that
Granholm’s idea would save only $2 million. A drop in the bucket! “If
everyone in Michigan paid $0.30 we could cover that!”
Then we heard more! She’s planning to “rent out” our building? For a high
school? 500 students? It’s supposed to save $9 million? That’s the
combine History, Arts, and Libraries budget. (Is she including the archives
in her plan?) The Library of Michigan has a special heating/cooling system
designed for open shelving of books. Sound travels from floor to floor in
the large open center. Her idea would require extensive heating/cooling
changes along with the need for increased bathroom facilities – costing much
more than “rent” money. I’m wondering if the Lansing area Schools have
funds to “rent” such a building in the first place. Who’d be their
students? Does our governor think this idea would “pass” so the
legislators’ kids had a cool new building?? Is that a “good” use of the 10
th largest Genealogical collection?
Capital Area District Libraries? The Lansing Library system keeps their
historical and biographical materials in the basement of the Forest Parke
Library. Thousands of photographs, dozens of family and personal
manuscripts, original artwork, pre civil war diaries. Boxes and boxes!
Lansing Libraries open this collection for 4 hours twice per month! They
cannot afford hire staff for the collection they have. They certainly can’t
cram much more in that basement!
We, the genealogical community know that times are tough! But “Tough times
make Tough people!” to borrow a book title! 180 + years of collecting
Michigan’s story. Have you touched a copy of your family’s history that’s
150 years old …a book actually written by your great-great-relative. Have
you seen his “mark”? What about his log mark? Have you said “Thank God,
someone saved this book!” “I knew great grandparents came to Michigan –
but didn’t know in which county to look!” “Whow! Grandpa came to Michigan
from New York! Look – here’s a book with his name written 100 years ago”
“Thank you! Thank you!” We hear those comments all the time at the Library
of Michigan! Donations mostly! Part of our collection is from generous
contributions from The Abrams Foundation. Millions of dollars throughout the
years! Donations, gifts, and great leadership built our collection! The
Library of Michigan has a vision!
Michigan residents can be VERY proud of the State’s Collection. In Fort
Wayne, the Allen County Public Library draws hundreds of people to their
facility year after year – just to do genealogical research. Ft.Wayne has
facilities for visitors! They’ve had national conventions! They sponsor
multiple yearly events focusing on the use their collection. The Library
of Michigan could do the same. Michigan residents would do better to
publicize our State Resource. Granholm wants JOBS? Build a few
motels/hotels/inns to accommodate visitors in the area just like they do in
Indiana! (no – don’t use our library for a hotel either!!!). Advertisers,
trip coordinators, clerks, wait staff!! Promulgate Lansing area events.
Our library is free! How about coupons for food or motels? Advertize tours
of the library and museum. Add the Library of Michigan to the tourism
brochures!
Sue Irvine,
Vice-president, Michigan Genealogical Council.
4215 Northgate St NE
Grand Rapids, Mi 49525
616-364-9629
sjirv(a)yahoo.com
Where to look:
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(twnw5o4520diom45tdocax45))/mileg.aspx?pa...
Senate districts:
http://senate.michigan.gov/2003/senatedistricts.pdf
Representative districts:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/House_state_16750_7.pdf
* *
*From:* Mary Lou Duncan
*Sent:* Sunday, July 19, 2009 10:56 PM
*To:*
*Subject:* "Town Hall Meeting" last Thursday night
Hi all,
This is fairly urgent. There is to be another "*Town Hall Meeting*" chaired
by Lieut. Governor Cherry this week in *Royal Oak*. I believe it is to be
held at Royal Oak High School, but I don't know the day. It will again be
scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. - still light out. I think it would help our
cause to have at least five or six people from genealogical societies attend
the meeting and speak out for retaining the Library of Michigan and the
Archives. Perhaps some from the Oakland Co. Gen. Society could make it.
These meetings are NOT well publicized. There was a brief article in the
Detroit Free Press Thursday, *the morning of the meeting. *It said that it
would be at Wayne State but no mention of whether tickets would be needed or
what building it would be in. It took me *four *phone calls to various
departments at Wayne before I could get the information - and then it was 4
p.m. and I was told I should be there by
5:15 p.m. [For Joanne - I was safe enough. It was right across the street
from the parking structure and a police car was there afterwards.] It is
billed to be a Town Meeting on "Streamlining State Government" but has
nothing to do with it. If you search on Google for "Seven Core Functions of
Government" it will take you to the office of Governor page that contains
them. They are full of the type of "mission statements" that will bring
"yes" votes on the little clickers. The people in the audience are given
clickers to vote "yes" or "no" after each of the seven statements are
read.
The tally is then shown on a screen. At the end one man said, "You are going
to go back to Lansing and tell everyone that the public overwhelmingly is in
favor of what is written, when, in reality it is about means, not ends, and
is so general that you get "yes" votes. [Think of motherhood and apple pie.]
*However*, at the end of reading each statement, the audience is encouraged
to comment and a mike is given to the person raising his hand. The last
sentence under *2. Education* is "*The state should provide a statewide
public library system to support the continuum of education for both our
children and adult citizens."* I stood and asked how they could say that and
then close the LIbrary of Michigan and give some of the collection to
Michigan State University for their library where parking for elderly adults
and the infirm would be extremely difficult and end participation in MelCat
that enabled citizens around Michigan to find the location of books and
check them out, having them sent to their local library - and how could they
break up a collection that was started 180 years ago? After they finished
all seven "statements", they asked for additional comments. I immediately
held up my hand and asked why they would want to break up a collection and
library that was one of the ten most outstanding libraries in the U.S. for
local history and genealogy. I said, "Mothball it, shorten hours, charge if
you must, but DON'T break up the the collection - once gone, it is
permanently GONE." I also read the most important points of the Executive
Order for those who didn't know about it. State Representative Fred Durhal,
Jr., District 6 (that includes Wayne area), took exception to my remarks. He
introduced himself to the group and said he was on the Appropriations
Committee and deep cuts MUST be made even if we don't like them. He said U
of M in the Gutenberg Project is providing thousands of scanned books and he
seemed to think that those in the Library of Michigan were covered (they are
not all covered.) Anyway, I had several other people give me the "thumbs up"
sign when I was done with my passionate plea to retain the library You can
reach Fred Durhal, Jr. at P.O. Box 30014, Lansing, MI 48909-7514; or
freddurhal(a)house.mi.gov or toll-free (877) 877-9007
If others went to the Town Hall Meeting this week in Royal Oak, they could
also comment after the section on Education and at the close. I would
suggest some sitting in one row and some in another and more than one person
asking to speak in the roving mike. That way, there would be multiple people
being vocal about their support. They could each mention a different aspect
of the order. Isn't "*Eliminating* or transferring to other suitable
institutions the Federal Documents Depository and *the non-Michigan
Genealogy collection*" somewhat akin to "book burning"? Are not books
relating to the first thirteen colonies essential to history research on the
formation of the United States? Isn't the role of New York in sending people
to Michigan important to our state history? Many points could be made. I
think a call to the Royal Oak newspaper or police department or high school
might elicit the date of the Town Hall Meeting but I know it is scheduled
for this week. Obviously, they don't want many people to show up. Call or
email Lt Gov. John Cherry's office to find out. The more the merrier!
FYI: There were only 12 people in the auditorium at 5:52 p.m., 26 people at
6:06 p.m. They didn't start until 6:22 and at a max there were 35 people
including about 7 Wayne Univ. administrators. All Wayne staff were urged by
email to attend. Obviously, it didn't work.
Mary Lou