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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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