Minutes for November 20, 2014 NJLA History & Preservation Section Meeting held at Chester Library, Chester, NJ

The meeting was called to order at 10:04 PM on November 20, 2014. In attendance were Section President Danny Klein, Vice President/President Elect Deb Schiff, Secretary Ken Kaufman, and Member at-Large Sarah Hull.

Also in attendance were Carolyn Dorsey, Jessica Myers, and Sara Weissman.

Introductions were made.

Minutes

Review of the minutes for October 8, 2014 was tabled until the next meeting.

Committee Reports

Sarah announced the submission deadline for “the Chronicle” of January 26th. She is targeting an early February release.

Deb listed the program proposals submitted to the Conference Subcommittee, titled Keys to Successful Grant Writing, Innovations in Attracting Students to Archives and Special Collections, Genealogy 101, and Electrified, Edible, and Emboldened: New Jersey History Authors discuss Thomas Edison, New Jersey Diners, and the Civil War’s “Brunswick Boys”. The grant writing program is co-sponsored by the Emerging Technologies Section.

Sara and Ken of the By-Laws Committee mentioned their agreement on Sara’s proposal to change the by-laws review to biennial from annual. This will be added to new business at the next meeting.

Jessica of the Awards Committee reported she had two nominations for our awards.

Sarah relayed a summary of the Social Media Committee e-mail discussion, centered on what platforms would work best. Facebook and Twitter were the top choices among the group, but Paul is creating a survey to gauge preferences of the entire membership. Sarah said the survey should be out in a week or two. Carolyn made the point that we should consider broadening our audience reach when designing a social media plan. Sara wondered what other NJLA Sections are doing, and if we could learn from them.

Danny updated the group on the local history census initiative. He has been compiling a list from the Official Directory of Libraries and Media Centers, and will reach out to the NJLA office for obtaining an e-mail list. He is looking to have an introductory survey out in the first quarter of 2015.

Old Business

Fred contacted the NJLA Executive Board to see if there are any plans for a 125th anniversary celebration. He is still waiting for a reply.

New Business

Jessica reported on attending the One Book New Jersey Meet and Greet event. She enjoyed the panel discussion on Ben Shahn, which was videotaped and should be posted on the NJLA website.

Announcements

Jersey City Public Library’s New Jersey Room is in the midst of having a new elevator installed. In the Summer/Fall of 2015, the New Jersey Room will be undergoing major renovations, and much of the collection will be in storage.

Chester Library has been conducting oral history sessions with a focus on WWII. The effort has yielded archival donations from the public.

Plainfield Public Library has accessioned the records of Runyon Funeral Home and the French School of Music. The funeral home records range in date from 1906 to 1996, and the school records include scrap books and photo albums.

Morris County Library held an event that brought together 15 local history groups. They have done recent work with 400 volumes from the Tri-State Railway Historical Society and 52 volumes of Dover newspapers.

Morristown and Morris Township Library completed a microfilm preservation project of “the Morristown Daily Record”. They received a donation from an author of the Golden Books series. Future plans include a Morris Township exhibit in the Spring and a new social media strategy.

Bloomfield Public Library is working with two collections of family letters from the early 20th Century.

Adjournment

Without objections, the meeting was adjourned.

The meeting was followed by training from Danny Klein on adding and editing content to the NJLA Members Website.