On the tail of having had the opportunity to blog about the wonderful online resources, including digital death certificates, available from the Library of Michigan, my friend, Herb Mellinger, forwarded me the following note from Peggy, his co-moderator of the Davison/Richfield Genealogy Society.
Herb,
…I would like to add, for those who are unaware, we are in imminent danger of losing the Library and Archives of Michigan! While no determination has yet been made, the Governor stated in her State of the State address that the Library of Michigan should be turned over to the Department of Education. There is some discussion about sending the entire contents of the library to the MSU library. I have also heard from one of the state representatives that the Archives of Michigan will be turned over to the Office of Budget and Management. How this will affect access by the public is anyone’s guess, but it can’t be a good thing. The building currently housing the Library, Archives and State Historical Museum, a building designed and built specifically for these entities, would be vacated and used for another purpose.Everyone needs to write letters to their state senator and district representative to prevent this travesty from becoming real.
Peggy knows of what she writes…
The following is excerpted from the March 13, 2009 edition of Lansing City Pulse. Somehow, I missed it entirely when it came out 10 days ago. And this is big news… Sorry…
The office of Gov. Jennifer Granholm has confirmed that Michigan State University is one entity being looked at to take over the state library and museum, which is part of the state Department of History, Arts and Libraries that was proposed for elimination in the governor’s State of the State address.
Well-placed sources in state government say that negotiations between the university and the governor’s office are being conducted, and an executive order to abolish HAL that would include the transfer of the building and operations could come down in the next few weeks. The Legislature would have 60 days to accept, reject or modify the order.
“We are exploring options on how we can protect our history, and support the arts and libraries in more cost effective ways,” Granholm spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said Thursday. “As part of this process we are having discussions with MSU and others, but we’ve reached no conclusions on how to proceed.”
This kind of thing doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. As the recession deepens (yes – there are now entire counties with unemployment nearing 20%), the states will scramble to meet their budgets. I predict that we’re going to see a lot of libraries scaling back – and even closing. This is not good for genealogy.
This is terrible, I hope it doesn’t happen, one part of my husband’s family meet there every year to do genealogy and catch up on the families. Also, I use their website for information.
A shame that this can happen, I’m sure there are other courses to take like shortening the day, or having the library open only certain days. She is taking away jobs of people also. We really need to lose more jobs in Michigan.
I am sad to hear abt. the possibility of the Michigan State Library closing. We have our family genealogy books there. Also what will happen to all that wonderful material that is so helpful to so many? How about charging so much to enter and see if the added revenue would help to keep it open?