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Records/Archives in the News Part 03 01/18/00



Records/Archives in the News r991217a
There are 4 stories in this posting

Orlando Sentinel 12/17/99
Paperwork grounds Discovery

The Oregonian 12/12/99
Life stories of loggers preserved for future

ABC News Online (Australia) 12/17/99
Census documents may be kept longer than usual

PRNewswire 12/13/99
Universal Systems Inc takes Wake County government records online


________________________________________________________________
Orlando Sentinel 12/17/99
Paperwork grounds Discovery

by Michael Cabbage
<SNIP>
CAPE CANAVERAL?A search for 20-year-old paperwork on shuttle Discovery?s fuel 
lines grounded the ship?s repair flight to the Hubble Space Telescope on 
Thursday. Another launch attempt is scheduled tonight.
Shuttle contractors United Space Alliance and Boeing asked for the 24-hour 
delay to give mission managers more time to investigate welds on the fuel 
lines, which carry propellant to Discovery?s three main engines.
Engineers are concerned the wrong welding materials might have been used by 
subcontractor Arrowhead Products when the lines were built decades ago, 
making the lines more susceptible to wear.
As part of Discovery?s original construction, the fuel lines already have 
flown on 26 missions. Program officials are attempting to find and review 
manufacturing records to make sure the lines were fabricated according to 
NASA specifications.
<SNIP>
?I don?t believe there is a hardware problem. I think what we have to do here 
is search our paperwork and convince ourselves this is a paperwork issue 
only,? said Ron Dittemore, shuttle program manager at NASA?s Johnson Space 
Center in Houston. ?Unfortunately, we just did not have the time to get the 
work done.?
The fuel lines became an issue after the discovery of defective welds Tuesday 
on an external fuel tank built for another shuttle mission. Flawed 
pressurization lines on the suspect fuel tank turned out to be an isolated 
problem, and Discovery?s tank was cleared for launch. However, further 
investigation found the same subcontractor that built the tanks? defective 
lines also manufactured Discovery?s fuel lines.
<SNIP>


________________________________________________________________
The Oregonian 12/12/99
Life stories of loggers preserved for future

by Bill Kettler
Associated Press
<SNIP>
MEDFORD?A generation of old loggers soon will be as scarce as the giant old 
trees they cut. 
Thousands of men spent their youth in the woods in the 1920s, ?30s and ?40s, 
cutting Southern Oregon?s big old-growth timber. One of them, retired 
woodsman Pat Clason, is preserving their stories before they all fade away. 
Clason, 65, walked the woods for more than 30 years for the Bureau of Land 
Management. Now he?s recording the reminiscences of many of the men who 
worked the land for Medford Corp. and other timber outfits. 
He?s talked with men such as Anzel Conley, 81, who cut massive sugar pines 
with crosscut saws. And Bill Oden, 73, who worked the trains that hauled logs 
to Medco?s mill. 
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
?I?ve known most of these people,? said Clason, who retired in 1992 as 
assistant district manager of BLM?s Medford district. ?The fun thing is 
remembering something about what they did. When I ask them about it, their 
eyes light up and away they go.? 
Oral history is nothing new for Clason. He has recorded interviews with the 
founders of the Rogue Valley Art Association and the Britt Festivals. When 
the Southern Oregon Historical Society asked him to interview retired 
loggers, he eagerly agreed. 
?It?s exciting for me,? he said, ?to talk to someone who started falling 
timber 60 or 70 years ago with a crosscut saw.? 
The interviews are one of the newest projects in the historical society?s 
effort to preserve the ordinary voices of Southern Oregon?s past. 
The society has collected interviews from more than 800 people during the 
past four decades. Volunteers are interviewing people about their life during 
the Vietnam War years and women?s changing roles in the 1960s and ?70s. 
The idea for an oral history of the region?s timber industry emerged when the 
Medford Corp. donated its business records and photographs to the historical 
society. 
Marjorie Edens, who oversees the society?s oral history programs, thought the 
stories of former Medco loggers would add a workaday dimension to some future 
exhibit that might display the company?s archives and photos. 
Clason?s previous experience collecting oral histories and his long career in 
the woods made him the obvious choice to do the interviews, Edens said. ?He?s 
interested. He?s very curious. And he?s knowledgeable from the inside.? 
?I know the language,? Clason said. ?That helps. They relax a little more.? 
Clason set out at first just to interview Medco workers and managers. The 
project expanded when he and Edens realized that Medco?s story of growth and 
decline mirrored the general trend of Southern Oregon?s timber industry 
during the past 70 years. 
<SNIP> 
<SNIP> 
By late November he had recorded 29 interviews. He said many of the men were 
eager to share their stories about a time when fathers proudly looked forward 
to the day their sons would join them in the woods. 
<SNIP>
<SNIP> 
?One central theme that keeps occurring is that in Southern Oregon we should 
be partial-cutting, not clear-cutting,? he said. ?Trees are renewable. As 
long as you partial-cut and go easy on the land, you can be here (cutting 
trees) forever.? 
He?s discovered that many of the loggers were surprisingly sensitive and 
articulate. 
?Some of these loggers can be pretty gentle individuals and pretty 
thoughtful,? he said. ?You have this image of them as all brute force and 
giant machines. When you sit down with them in their living room, it?s a 
totally different picture.? 
Clason said people seem eager to remember the best things about their work 
and pass over hard times and controversy. ?Nobody wants to go out and rant 
and rave. They say, ?That?s part of history and we shouldn?t harp on that.? ? 
Other volunteers work on Clason?s interviews to make them accessible to the 
public. Janie Stewart of Talent transcribes them, and Marian Place of Medford 
indexes each interview to connect it to others in the collection. 
When Clason finishes the interviews, he would like to see them bound and 
published as a volume. 
<SNIP>


________________________________________________________________
ABC News Online (Australia) 12/17/99
Census documents may be kept longer than usual
<SNIP>
The Federal Government is proposing using the 2001 census to provide future 
generations of Australians a glimpse into the past.
Federal cabinet has decided the next census will be held on the August 7 2001.
The forms are normally destroyed within 12 months but Joe Hockey, the 
Financial Services Minister, says on this occasion the government is seeking 
permission from Australians to keep the information for exactly 100 years.
?We?d like to provide the future generations of Australia with a snapshot of 
Australia at the turn of the millennium and at the beginning of the new 
century,? he said.
A special ?opt-in? clause will be contained in the census.
?[The] census would give the very best information to historians and 
genealogists, who would like to have some feel of how their grandparents and 
great-grandparents lived at the turn of the century,? Mr Hockey said. 
<SNIP>

________________________________________________________________
PRNewswire 12/13/99
Universal Systems Inc takes Wake County government records online
<SNIP>
CHANTILLY, Va., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Systems Inc. (USI), a 
leader in the development and deployment of electronic business solutions, 
and the Wake County, NC Register of Deeds (ROD) today formally unveiled the 
e.POWER Land Records Application (LRA) solution. Since July, Wake County 
citizens and businesses have been able to search property records, check 
deeds and view maps through the county?s Web site athttp://www.co.wake.nc.us 
The LRA solution has allowed Wake County to absorb growth in document volume 
and improve public access to information and customer service. 
Attorneys, real estate brokers, surveyors and lending institutions can access 
public land records within an hour after records are submitted. Prior to 
electronic records, the manual access process took three days. On an average 
weekday, Wake County processes 650 to 800 land record documents and more than 
800 document types are recorded. Since July, approximately 400 users per 
weekday are accessing land records data online and an average of 100 users 
are accessing records via the Internet on weekends, when the office is 
closed. 
By using USI?s document management, imaging and workflow software to allow 
Internet access to documents, Wake County eliminates reams of documents 
stored in files, microfilm, and aperature cards in the ROD?s office. In 
addition, the new digital imaging system streamlines government workflow by 
allowing other units and branches of the Wake County government to 
electronically share information with the ROD. Wake County government 
employees save time and taxpayer money as they no longer have to travel to 
the ROD office to review documents. 
?This project is all about access and efficiency,? said Laura Riddick, Wake 
County Register of Deeds. ?Public records are now easier for citizens to 
search and access 24 hours a day, from home or office; and less expensive to 
maintain. With more than four hundred users per day accessing records via the 
Web, this is certainly a win-win situation.? 
Behind the glitzy graphical user interface, USI?s e.POWER suite of products 
is scanning, indexing, verifying, correcting and routing documents and 
information. All business processes including recording, cashiering and 
archiving are enhanced by the LRA. 
?Both creating and viewing microfilm documents is a tedious and expensive 
process,? said Bud Henry, Operations Director of USI?s E-Commerce. ?Wake 
County?s $1.0 million initial investment will reduce maintenance costs and 
increase customer service?the cornerstones for any successful investment.?
<SNIP>







PETER A. KURILECZ CRM, CA
PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM

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