On Sep 8, 2005, at 1:47 PM, Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe wrote:

> Isn't there a project at the Library of Virginia to safeguard through
> microfilming all the country and city records in courthouses throughout
> Virginia?  I thought that this project was being pushed vigorously.
It was my understanding that the vigor went missing when budget cuts
forced the library to close on Mondays, and the digital project just
got chopped. I hope there's something happening there to get it moving
again. Is that not something we as a set of disparate but dedicated
users from august halls of academe might see if we can push via
lobbying the appropriate folks?

>   Not
> that I think that the originals should be discarded (I personally
> prefer
> paper to microfilm), but the key thing is that this valuable
> information be
> retained for research.
I was just in a Southside deed room where folks were allowed to smoke
in the deed room, in the annex  where the land tax records, the county
survey books and the older deed and will books were kept, and in fact
anywhere they wanted. No sprinklers were seen. The idea of
irreplaceable records never seems to penetrate. Anther pet peeve is
that the land tax records are given the shortest of shrifts. The
acid-rich pulp paper ones typically have the first 30 pages in linear
tatters and they are never in order. There are notable exceptions to
that, but the norm is distressingly common.

In my view what really needs to be done is that the digital project
should completely replace the microfilm. Certain of the microfilms are
just totally washed out and never seem to be re-shot, despite comments
and all that. Is there any movement towards getting it going again?

Lyle Browning

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