G&FH January 2008 Alumni Association Meeting

January 12, 2008
Shoreline Library
Directions
345 NE 175th
Shoreline 98155
206-362-7550

Time: 10 - 1 (30 minutes to set the chairs up and take them down) Meeting to start at 10:30 and end at 12:30. Volunteers always welcome.

Parking: Handicap may park in the parking lot. Parking is limited; as always, we encourage you to park off-site and car pool to the library if possible.

Speaker:

Lisa Oberg
G&FH Class of 1996
Master of Librarianship, University of Washington, Seattle, 1991
B.S. Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 1987

Lisa has been an avid family historian since the age of twelve and being a librarian by day helps with her pursuits today! Lisa has a duel appointment with the University of Washington Libraries as the Head of Outreach Services at the Health Sciences Library and as the Staff Training &U Development Coordinator for the Libraries.

Lecture:

An Overview Of Genealogy-Related Resources In The University of Washington Libraries

Academic libraries, such as the University of Washington, have a variety of materials and resources of interest to family historians and genealogists such as newspapers, government documents, journals, photographs and city directories, just to name a few. This session will provide an overview to the UW Libraries collection and tips for locating things which may be of interest to you!

Join us Saturday, January 12, as Lisa Oberg's guide to genealogy resources in the University of Washington Academic Libraries makes an exciting start to our 2008 Alumni meetings.

Lunch: Everyone is invited to lunch at 1 p.m. at the Canyons Restaurant, 6003 244th SW, Mountlake Terrance, WA. The reservation is under the name of Janice Campbell-Stout.

Please bring any magazines books, etc. that you would like to contribute to our group for door prizes. Lisa Marker does a great job and can always use your donations.

We hope you will attend the meeting and help support your Alumni Association.

NARA Fee increases

From Family Tree Newsletter:

The financially beleaguered National Archives and Records Administration (http://archives.gov) wants to raise its microfilm copying service—by a whole lot. According to the proposed rule in the Feb. 26 Federal Register, complete Civil War pension files would jump from $37 to $125. Non-Civil War pension files older than 75 years would cost $60. Military service files older than 75 years would cost $25, as would passenger lists, census records and bounty land warrant applications files.

See the proposal submitted by Sarah below. NARA says the fee hike—the first since 2000—is necessary to recover costs such as staff time, paper and postage associated with providing copies of records to the public. In 2006, the agency’s states that their costs for fixed-fee copying services (such as military pension files) were more than double the revenue received for them.

NARA is accepting public comments on the change through April 27. To submit yours, go to http://www.regulations.gov, enter NARA-07-0001-0001 in the "Keyword or ID" field, and click Submit.

-------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: NARA is revising its fees for reproduction of records and other materials in the custody of the Archivist of the United States. This proposed rule covers reproduction of Federal records created by other agencies that are in the National Archives of the United States, donated historical materials, Presidential records, Nixon Presidential historical materials, and records filed with the Office of the Federal Register. The fees are being changed to reflect current costs of providing the reproductions. This proposed rule will affect the public and Federal agencies.

DATES: Comments are due by April 27, 2007.

ADDRESSES: NARA invites interested persons to submit comments on this proposed rule. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov . Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
Fax: Submit comments by facsimile transmission to 301-837-0319.
Mail: Send comments to Regulations Comments Desk (NPOL), Room 4100, Policy and Planning Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver comments to 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Davis Heaps at 301-837-1850 or fax at 301-837-0319. Requests for copies of the proposed information collection and supporting statement should be directed to Tamee Fechhelm at 301-837-1694 or fax at 301-837-3213.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

General Background

NARA does not receive appropriated funds to provide copies of our records to the public. The fees for reproduction of records in 36 CFR part 1258 are set under the Archivist's authority in 44 U.S.C. 2116(c). That statute requires that, to the extent possible, NARA recover the actual cost of making copies of records and other materials transferred to the custody of the Archivist of the United States. NARA conducts periodic reviews of the fees to ensure that the costs of providing this
service to the public are properly recovered. NARA's current fees were established in October 2000 based on a 1999 cost study. As a result of a cost study conducted in 2006, fees for copying records must increase to recover NARA's costs. This is the first proposed fee increase in almost seven years.

The cost components included in the NARA-made reproduction fees are staff salaries, equipment and materials (e.g., toner, paper) for making reproductions, shipping costs, and oversight and administration of the fee collection. Fixed-fee reproduction cost components include contractor costs for making and delivering the reproductions, staff salaries for supervision of the copying operation, equipment and materials, and oversight and administration of the fee collection. The cost components included in the self-service copies made by customers at NARA facilities are staff salaries for supervision of the copying operation, equipment and materials, and oversight and administration of the fee collection.

The costs for providing reproductions of the unique historical materials in NARA's custody reflect the special handling required to help preserve records for future research. Original archival materials cannot be copied using automatic document feeder equipment. Each page must be hand-placed on a copier, one at a time. Preservation requirements add time and cost to the price of copying NARA's
irreplaceable documents.

What Changes Is NARA Making in This Proposed Rule?

NARA is updating fixed-fee order fees in Sec. 1258.4, the minimum mail order fee in Sec. 1258.10, and fees for self-service and common NARA-made reproductions in Sec. 1258.12. Because the fee schedule applies to our nation-wide facilities, we have removed certain fees for services that are not available in the majority of our facilities. In the Rules section of today's Federal Register, NARA has published an
interim final rule removing from NARA's fee schedule reproductions of other Federal agencies' records stored in NARA's Federal records centers.

Fixed fee orders. Fixed fee reproductions consist of records from high-demand bodies of genealogical records that NARA reproduces for a fixed fee, rather than a fee per page copied to expedite handling. The fees for all of these orders must increase to reflect the higher costs of providing the copies. In Fiscal Year 2006, NARA's costs for the fixed-fee services were more than double the revenue received for them.

The most notable change in the fixed-fee services is the increase for full military pension files more than 75 years old (NATF Form 85). Our recent study showed that many of the full pension files for the Civil War period (1860-1869 for purposes of this proposed rule) have page counts up to 200 pages or more. When the current fee of $37.00 went into effect in 2000, NARA estimated a smaller average page count for each file (about 40 to 50 pages) and believed that the fee would cover the majority of the costs. However, we found that we underestimated the number of documents in the Civil War pension files being copied, which resulted in incorrect projections of actual
production costs Moreover, the Civil War pension files are the majority of the full pension file requests NARA receives. In FY 2006, NARA completed 7,700 orders for full Civil War pension files and 1,500 non-Civil War pension files.

To account for the average page-count differences between Civil War pension files and pension files of other wars, we propose to create a separate fee for full Civil War pension files. We also propose to retain the service for the pension documents packet (also on NATF Form 85), which many customers have found to meet their information needs. The pension documents packet consists of selected records containing military service and genealogical information most likely of interest to genealogical researchers. In FY 2006, NARA received 2,677 requests for the pension documents packet; almost all of those requests were for Civil War pension files.

Self-service and NARA-made reproductions. Proposed fees for self-service and NARA-made copies of most other records are in the following table:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Proposed
Service fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paper-to-paper copy made by the customer on a NARA self- $0.25
service copier in the Washington, DC, area.................
Paper-to-paper copy made by the customer on a NARA self- 0.20
service copier outside the Washington, DC, area (regional
archives and Presidential libraries).......................
Paper-to-paper copy made by NARA............................ 0.75
Microfilm-to-paper copy made by the customer on a NARA self- 0.50
service copier.............................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------

We also propose to increase the fee for certifications and the minimum mail order fee. NARA certifies copies of materials in our holdings on request by affixing a certificate with a ribbon and seal attesting that the copy is a true copy of a document in our custody. Our current fee for certifications is $6.00 and we propose to increase that fee to $15.00 per certification. The fee has not been based on a
price per page, but on a per record basis. Because the certification fee is based on tasks performed for a record regardless of the number of pages, we have maintained a fixed fee for that service per record.

We propose to raise our minimum fee for mail-order reproductions from $10.00 to $15.00 because the current fee is inadequate to cover NARA's costs. As with certifications, NARA performs the same functions to copy a few pages of records as to copy dozens of pages for a reproduction order. We maintain the minimum mail order fee to recover the costs of administering small copying requests. The dollar amount is
based upon the cost to NARA to provide minimum mail orders divided by the anticipated number of orders that will fall below the dollar threshold. The costs include making the copies, supplies, shipping, and administration. For the recent fee study, this calculation resulted in a price of $15.00 per minimum mail order. NARA will continue to evaluate this fee in future studies.

Reproduction services no longer listed in Sec. 1258.12. We have removed fees for selected reproduction services. However, these services will continue to be available as unlisted processes in accordance with the existing Sec. 1258.12(f). Some of the fees we formerly listed in our regulations have been for reproduction services
not available at all our locations, which confused customers. These include self-service video copying and self-service Polaroid prints. In addition, we have decided not to publish a fee for NARA-made paper-to-microfilm copies because demand for them is diminishing and NARA is unable to offer this service on a routine basis. We will compute the fee for this service in accordance with Sec. 1258.12(f) when a
customer requests the service or when, because of the condition of the records, NARA must recommend it as a copying option instead of electrostatic (paper) copying.

Paperwork Reduction Act

NATF Forms 81 through 86 in this proposed rule have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act and bear approval number 3095-0027 on the face of the forms. NATF Form 85, under this proposal, requires modification to separate Civil War pension file requests from those of other wars. Other forms are being modified only to update the stated fee.

Submission of requests on a form is necessary to handle in a timely fashion the volume of requests received for these records (approximately 18,000 per year for the NATF 85) and the need to obtain specific information from the researcher to search for the records sought. Researchers may use Order Online!

(http://www.archives.gov/research/order/orderonline.html
) to complete the forms and order the copies. For those who do not have Internet access, we also make the forms available on carbonless paper as a multi-part form. The paper form allows the researcher to retain a copy of his request and NARA to
respond to the researcher on the results of the search or to bill for copies if the researcher wishes to order the copies. As a convenience, the form allows researchers to provide credit card information to authorize billing and expedited mailing of the copies.

This proposed rule is not a significant regulatory action for the purposes of Executive Order 12866 and has not been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act, I certify that this rule will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities because it affects individual researchers. This regulation does not have any federalism
implications.

List of Subjects in 36 CFR Part 1258

Archives and records.

For the reasons set forth in the preamble, NARA proposes to amend part 1258 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, as follows:

PART 1258--FEES

1. The authority citation for part 1258 continues to read as
follows:


[[Page 8329]]


Authority: 44 U.S.C. 2116(c) and 2307.

2. Amend Sec. 1258.4 by revising paragraph (d) to read as follows:


Sec. 1258.4 What reproductions are not covered by the NARA fee
schedule?

* * * * *
(d) Reproduction of the following types of records using the
specified order form:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type of record Order form Fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Passenger arrival lists......... NATF Form 81........... $25.00
(2) Federal Census requests......... NATF Form 82........... 25.00
(3) Eastern Cherokee applications to NATF Form 83........... 25.00
the Court of Claims.
(4) Land entry records.............. NATF Form 84........... 40.00
(5) Full pension file more than 75 NATF Form 85........... 125.00
years old (Civil War period).
(6) Full pension file more than 75 NATF Form 85........... 60.00
years old (non-Civil War).
(7) Pension documents packet NATF Form 85........... 25.00
(selected records).
(8) Bounty land warrant application NATF Form 85........... 25.00
files.
(9) Military service files more than NATF Form 86........... 25.00
75 years old.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

* * * * *
3. Amend Sec. 1258.10 by revising paragraph (a) to read as
follows:


Sec. 1258.10 What is NARA's mail order policy?

(a) There is a minimum fee of $15.00 per order for reproductions
that are sent by mail to the customer.
* * * * *
4. Revise Sec. 1258.12 to read as follows:


Sec. 1258.12 NARA reproduction fee schedule.

(a) Certification: $15.00.
(b) Electrostatic copying (in order to preserve certain records that are in poor physical condition, NARA may restrict customers to photographic or other kinds of copies instead of electrostatic copies):

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Service Fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paper-to-paper copy made by the customer on a NARA self- $0.25
service copier in the Washington, DC, area...................
Paper-to-paper copy made by the customer on a NARA self- 0.20
service copier outside the Washington, DC, area (regional
archives and Presidential libraries).........................
Paper-to-paper copy made by NARA.............................. 0.75
Microfilm-to-paper copy made by the customer on a NARA self- 0.50
service copier...............................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(c) Unlisted processes: For reproductions not covered by this fee schedule, see also Sec. 1258.4. Fees for other reproduction processes are computed upon request.
5. Revise Sec. 1258.16 to read as follows:


Sec. 1258.16 Effective date.

The fees in this part are effective on [effective date of the final rule.] If your order was received by NARA before this effective date, we will charge the fees in effect at the time the order was received.

Dated: February 20, 2007.
Allen Weinstein,
Archivist of the United States.
[FR Doc. E7-3160 Filed 2-23-07; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7515-01-P

Sarah Little and Northwest Afternoon Update!

Sarah Little has been preempted by the Astronaut Love Triangle on Northwest Afternoon this afternoon.

Check this blog for details on when the segment featuring Sarah will be rescheduled or check the Northwest Afternoon website.

Sarah Little on Northwest Afternoon

Sarah Little, instructor of the Genealogy and Family History Certificate Course at the University of Washington, will be on "Northwest Afternoon" on KOMO TV Channel 4 on Monday, February 12th. The program airs from 3 to 4 p.m.

The subject is being your own detective, Internet research and locating information. Sarah and a private investigator will be appearing as guests on the program. This is a follow-up to an extensive article which appeared in the Seattle Times on January 30th. Sarah will be featured in the second half of the program.

Ancestral memories: UW staffer finds surprises when she digs through her family's history

Dena Petersen, Class of 1997, was the subject of a very interesting article written by Nancy Wick of UWeek.org, the UW Faculty and Staff Newspaper.

How far would you go to learn about your ancestors?

* Would you take a nine-month genealogy class?
* Would you learn a new language?
* Would you take trips to a far off country?
* Would you take classes in the history of that country?

Read the lengths to which Dena went to uncover her family history. Ten years after Dena completed the Genealogy and Family History Program she is still hooked and an inspiration to us all.

Links In This Article:

The Article
uwnews.org, University of Washington News and Information - UW Office of News and Information
Certificate Program in Genealogy and Family History

With personal histories, everyone can star in their memoir

Recently the Seattle Times published an article on the "explosion of interest in tracing one's roots." If you've ever wondered what all your work is worth in dollar signs, read this article. But we know the truth, no price can be attached to the time and love we have put into each of our unique family histories. They are our legacy.

The article quotes our own Lorraine McConaghy:

"It's absolutely wonderful for people to see themselves as actors in history," said Lorraine McConaghy, historian at Seattle's Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), which is building a collection of oral-history interviews with metropolitan Seattle residents.

And Lori Handschin Class of 2004:

Legal secretary Lori Handschin enrolled in a nine-month course at the University of Washington to write a scholarly work about her father's World War II service as a combat medic. She can't imagine hiring out this work — "It would be like hiring someone else to write a love letter for me."

Check out the professional companies for some very interesting examples and inspiration.

Links In The Article:
Read The Story!
Seattle Times
Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI)
Association of Personal Historians
12th Annual Conference, Association of Personal Historians Inc.
Inventive Productions
LifeChapters
University of Washington Certificate Program in Genealogy and Family History

Congratulations Heather McLeland-Wieser!

In May we had a terrific lecture by Heather McLeland-Wieser on "The Process of Becoming a Certified Genealogist." Well, Heather certainly knew her subject. She has just received notification from The Board for Certification of Genealogists that she is Washington State's newest CG^SM.

Since its beginning in 1964, the BCG has promoted standards in genealogical research. Its mission is to foster public confidence in genealogy as a respected branch of history by promoting an attainable, uniform standard of competence and ethics among genealogical practitioners; and by publicly recognizing persons who meet that standard.

Heather's category, the Certified Genealogist, extends to broadly based genealogical projects whose goal is finding the evidence, assembling the proof, and compiling a coherent historical account of the identities and relationships of all the descendants of a particular ancestor or ancestral couple.

Congratulations Heather we are very proud of you!

Links In This Article:

The Board for Certification of Genealogists
Washington State's Certified Genealogists

A Job With Travel but No Vacation

Thomas Kohnstamm, a 30-year-old Seattle native, and the son of Linda Kohnstamm (Class of 2005) is featured in a New York Times Sunday Style section article about travel writers.

Read the article here and find out how glamourous the life of a travel writer isn't.