---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 08:39:29 -0500 From: Lynna Kay Shuffield <[email protected]> Subject: Houston Chronicle - Clayton facility faces cut May 17, 2002 - Front Page - Metro/State Section "Clayton facility faces cut to one night a week Family researchers put out by library's move" By JANETTE RODRIGUES Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle The Houston Public Library is trying to put the genealogy back in the bottle. To meet its fiscal 2003 budget target, the library proposes to reduce hours at all facilities, including the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research. Houston Library Director Barbara Gubbin came under fire from genealogy enthusiasts across the country for her decision to reduce Clayton's evening hours from three days a week to one. This at a time when family research has become one of the most popular hobbies in the nation. "When we cut the hours back at Clayton Library, we are horribly penalizing people like myself who have to work for a living and can only get over there on nights and weekends," David Singleton, president of Clayton Library Friends, said Thursday. Gubbin referred all questions to the library department's communications office. "Our library system is refocusing our hours to use our available resources to serve the customers when they most use the library," said Blanca Quezada, a library spokeswoman. The library maintains that reducing hours at Clayton will save money, but it did not give a dollar figure. City Councilwoman Annise Parker called the Clayton library a "gem" but said she will not argue against cutting its hours. "If you ask me, do I shorten the hours at the Clayton Library or at neighborhood libraries where schoolkids are doing their homework and where we have our after-school programs, I have to say I'd rather keep those branch libraries open longer," she said. But family researchers and others are outraged that the city may cut the operating hours at one of the nation's premier genealogy libraries. "It's the only library of its kind in the South," said Lynna Kay Shuffield, a Houston-based amateur genealogist who writes a syndicated column on the subject. Among only five U.S. libraries with a complete collection of census records, Clayton has been recognized as one of the top 10 genealogy libraries in the country. According to Archives News magazine, it has the largest genealogical collection outside of the Mormon facility in Salt Lake City. Shuffield noted that Clayton patrons cannot check out the materials. As a noncirculating collection, books, microfilm and other records have to stay in the building. Clayton is visited by at least 72,000 people a year, including those from the West and East coasts and all points between, Shuffield said. Tourists who visit a community for genealogy or historic purposes spend $29 per day over and above what they normally spend visiting for personal or business reasons, said Shuffield. "And they tend to stay longer than (other) travelers," she added. Genealogy enthusiasts from as far away as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have e-mailed City Council members, pleading with them not to reduce the hours. Clayton's collection includes military records, passenger lists, family histories, lineage material, maps, periodicals and county, state and federal records from across the nation. Clayton supporters say it's not unusual for Texas genealogical societies to bring busloads of researchers to the facility at 5300 Caroline between Calumet and Southmore. The genealogical center is used by a cross section of people, from senior citizens looking for Mayflower ties to the Texas Slavery Project, a University of Houston professor's effort to document the 250,000 slaves who lived in Texas. Houstonian Robert de Berardinis, who has had more than 70 articles published in scholarly journals such as the National Genealogical Society quarterly, doesn't believe the reduction in operating hours has anything to do with budgetary constraints. "When Barbara Gubbin took over as head of the Houston Public Library (in 1995), there was one assistant director," he said. "Now there are five assistant directors, one of which was created last November during the hiring freeze." Singleton lays the blame at Mayor Lee Brown's door. "The current administration has handed the library director a dollar figure of how much the department will get," he said. Singleton said library officials told him fewer people are using the facility at night. "Well, that's because they are already there," he said. "They come in the morning and stay until closing." Chronicle reporter Rachel Graves contributed to this story ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Lynna Kay Shuffield P. O. Box 16604 Houston, Texas 77222 telephone: 713/692-4511 e-mail: [email protected] ---My webpages--- 'Our Loose Ends' Genealogy Column by Lynna Kay Shuffield http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/COLUMN-001.htm 'My Loose Ends' Family Tree Database by Lynna Kay Shuffield http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi- bin/igm.cgi?db=friday Note above URL wraps around onto the next line, cut & paste it onto the end of the first line in the 'location box' on your browser. 'Milam County War Dead Project' http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/ County Coordinator for the Milam County TXGenWeb http://www.geocities.com/milamco/ County Coordinator for the San Jacinto County TXGenWeb http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/SANJAC-01.htm TX-CEMETERY-PRESERVATION http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/CEMETERY-001.htm

The article was very ON TOPIC for those of us who frequent Clayton. I'm happy to see it was published in the Chronicle. Cindy Harvey Texas City, TX Wichita & Caddo Nations http://www.rootsweb.com/~itwichit/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "David W. Morgan" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 2:27 PM Subject: [OK-Coordinators] off-topic post > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 08:39:29 -0500 > From: Lynna Kay Shuffield <[email protected]> > Subject: Houston Chronicle - Clayton facility faces cut > > May 17, 2002 - Front Page - Metro/State Section > > "Clayton facility faces cut to one night a week > Family researchers put out by library's move"

Hears a suggestion for them: Open later in the day. Solves both problems at one time. (o:]>*HUGGLES*<[:o) Billie and Tracie Walsh The three best words in the English Language: "I LOVE YOU" Pass them on!