I received this today. It's great to see this resource available online. Gary --------- Forwarded message ---------- It is with great pleasure and no small amount of trepidation that I announce to you all the posting, earlier this morning, of the State Archives’ online browsable catalog! Yes, we have successfully created a monster… website that is. With over 200 brand new webpages, this expansion of the site represents a milestone in terms of public access to the 27,000 cubic feet and 25,000 reels of historical and genealogical treasure held by the Archives. It is a milestone, in fact, comparable to the major collection management efforts associated with the relocation of the State Archives to its new facility in 2000. The browsable catalog is accessible from the State Archives’ main page at DARM’s site, www.njarchives.org. You can link directly to the catalog page at: <http://www.njarchives.org/links/catalog.html> >From the catalog main page, select any number of pathways to find series-level listings relating to numerous topics, holdings for specific state agencies and counties, and so on. The listings also provide contact information and links for more recent records still held by the agency or by local government. These 200+ pages provide the researching public with powerful new tools to enhance remote use of the State Archives collections and allow for considerable research planning in advance of a visit to Trenton. Moreover, the series-level catalog provides us with a framework onto which the Archives can, and will, soon link finding aids and guides, box- and reel-contents data, imaged collections, searchable databases (including key-word searching of the catalog), and so on. Lastly, if you will indulge me, I would like to specially acknowledge a few State Archives, DARM and departmental staff whose support and contributions to developing the browsable catalog have been key in making this vision a reality… First, thanks go to Archives Collection Manager Ellen Callahan, my partner in arrangement and description for many years up to and through the move of the Archives. Ellen’s dedication to making the Archives’ holdings as accessible to the public as possible has been vital to our progress, including the development of the catalog. Next, thanks go to the Archives staff for the numerous ways they have helped to develop, review content, and contribute to design decisions relative to the new pages. Specifically, thank you to Veronica Meyer for making the catalog intro pages a reality, to Sean Curry and Beth Colosimo for reviewing content and resolving cataloging questions, and to Joanne Nestor for selection of images for the intro pages. Finally, thanks go DARM webmaster Dan Noonan, departmental MIS Director Richard Allen, and DARM Director Karl Niederer. Dan’s and Rich’s technical and moral support are deeply appreciated by the Archives, as are Karl’s confidence in the Archives staff and the creative license given to us. Enjoy and happy browsing... We look forward to your constructive criticism and any suggestions you might have for additional topics and pages. Sincerely, Joseph R. Klett Chief of Archives ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!