Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Ad Hoc Committee on the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center
Meeting of November 1, 2013

Minutes

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission Ad Hoc Committee on the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center met on Friday, November 1, 2013, in the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building, 1201 Brazos Street, Austin, Texas.

1. Approve minutes of July 12, 2013 meeting. Commissioner Freeman moved approval of the minutes of the July 12, 2013 committee meeting. Commissioner Pickett seconded. Motion passed.
    
2. Review of events and progress since meeting of July 12, 2013.

Jelain Chubb provided an update of projects approved by the committee at the July 12, 2013, meeting noting completion of some storage projects but others involving fire detection/suppression and security have been delayed due to the difficulty receiving bids and information from the vendors. Edward Seidenberg noted several factors affecting the difficulty of getting quotes most notably that the construction market had picked up. Commissioner Holt informed the committee that due to the projects’ urgency, a meeting will be held as soon as information is received from staff. Alana Inman reported that she attended a meeting of the Atascosito Historical Society and shared with them the Center’s pending projects for their financial planning purposes. The committee discussed concerns of one Society member over cataloging books at the Center and the issue of staff selling items on behalf of the Society.

Commissioner Freeman moved that the committee stand by to await more complete information about bids, all aspects of the project, and that staff notify the committee as soon as they have that information and that the chair will call a meeting so the committee may respond in a timely fashion. Commissioner Pickett seconded. Motion passed.

3. Review of the Follow-up to the Internal Audit of the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center.

Jelain Chubb asked the committee for direction and decisions regarding Internal Audit Management Responses items 2.2, 4.1 and 4.2. Commissioner Holt asked Joe Thrash to review these items for the committee. Ms. Chubb told the committee that a number of projects will be ongoing for a significant amount of time, perhaps three to five years. These include several inventories and cataloging at the Center. Ms. Chubb also noted that many of the deficiencies found in the audit have been corrected particularly in the area of support, resources and communication between TSLAC headquarters and the Center staff in Liberty.

Chairman Waters said that he and Mark Smith will be visiting the Center later in the month.

In discussing the Center’s accession policy, Commissioners Freeman expressed concerns regarding not accepting local government records that are microfilmed because of the poor quality of many local government microfiliming. She asked if staff can verify the quality of the microfilmed records before turning down the documents. She also objected to the policy that does not allow artifacts for research, only for display and asked staff to keep an open mind about not accepting family histories as in her experience as a historian, they can be very useful to researchers.

Commissioner Pickett objected to the policy of stating that the Center does not accept historical buildings and advocated that such potential donations be accepted or rejected by the Commission as has been the case in the past. Furthermore, she said, the policy as stated puts a negative image on the historic buildings currently located at the Center. Jelain Chubb agreed to change the policy to include that buildings cannot be accepted without commission approval.

4. Discussion of future plans.

Commissioner Holt noted that future plans had been noted throughout the committee meetings.

There being no further business before the committee, Commissioner Holt adjourned the meeting at 10:25 a.m.