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Robertson County Historical Commission
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N E W S P A P E R S P R O J E C T |
S p e c i a l N e e d F o r I n d i v i d u a l C o n t r i b u t i o n s
The Robertson County Historical Commission seeks financial contributions from Robertson County residents and others with an interest in the county to help preserve local historic newspapers and make their information more widely available. Individual contributions of any size ($5, $10, $25, or $50+) will be greatly appreciated. Newspaper articles & obituaries represent significant sources of information for historical & genealogical researchers in locating & identifying family members & others. Having this information readily available at local libraries on searchable CD-ROM and online will greatly assist all Robertson County researchers.
M a i l I n Y o u r C o n t r i b u t i o n T o d a y !
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Summary
The newspapers project seeks to preserve Robertson County's historic newspapers and make their information more widely available through placement in local libraries on searchable CD-ROMs & online at this website. Activities will include the following: #1 Have 90 years (63 reels) of microfilmed original negative copies of the Hearne Democrat newspaper dating back to 1911 transferred from microfilm to searchable CD-ROM & placed online + provide complete sets of the Hearne Democrat Collection on CD to 11 local libraries; #2 Have 31 years (issues dating back to 12.3.1970) of the Franklin News Weekly, a major newspaper in Franklin, Robertson County seat of government, microfilmed, transferred from microfilm to searchable CD-ROM, & placed online + provide complete sets of the Franklin News Weekly Collection on CD to 11 local libraries; #3 Research Texas library & archive holdings to locate, microfilm (if needed), copy to searchable CD-ROM, & place online all other available historic Robertson County newspapers in these collections; & #4 Place archival microfilms of the Hearne Democrat & Franklin News Weekly Collections in an appropriate local public library.
Grant Proposal
Organization Name & Contact Information
Cathy Lazarus
Chair, Robertson County Historical Commission
118 West 4th Street
Hearne, Texas 77859
979.279.2173 (voice), 979.279.2983 (fax)
clazhome@msn.com
(e-mail)
Tax Status Of Organizations
Robertson County Historical Commission - tax-exempt, part of county government
Total Project Cost & Amount Requested
Total project cost is ~$65,000. Amount requested is ~$65,000. See line item budget below.
Background
Robertson County is a diverse rural & agricultural county located half-way between Houston & Dallas. The county's 16,000 residents are 51% White, 24% Black, 15% Hispanic, 0.2% Asian, & 7.8% Other. Robertson County was settled by diverse groups as well. Communities founded by Irish, German, Polish, & Italian immigrants still exist today. Robertson County also benefited from early migrations of settlers from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, & other states. Hearne, the county's largest town, is located at the crossroads of the Missouri Pacific & Southern Pacific Railroads.
Not wanting to let the Information Age pass the county by, the Robertson County Historical Commission (RCHC) & its volunteers have been working hard to create a vibrant and dynamic Internet presence that shares Robertson County's story with the rest of the world. The Robertson County TXGenWeb site at www.robertsoncounty.info is the official website for the RCHC. This popular website gets 600+ hits every month from Internet visitors throughout TX and the US (25,000+ visitor hits in the past three years). This site consistently pulls in rave reviews (31 favorable entries in the past six months alone) on its guestbook at www.rootsweb.com/~txrober2/GUESTBOOK.htm. It utilizes a cadre of volunteers (both local and from around the country) who provide information about historic places, adopt & walk cemeteries to create burial lists, type & scan reference materials, locate courthouse & other materials, share their own genealogical research (www.rootsweb.com/~txrober2/VolunteerOpportunities.htm). RCHC even hosts a Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) worksite where older Americans assist in bringing online important historical and genealogical information.
Goal
The goal of the Robertson County Newspapers Project is to preserve Robertson County's historic newspapers and to make their information more widely available through placement in local libraries on searchable CD-ROMs & online at the Robertson County TXGenWeb site (www.robertsoncounty.info). In addition to recording the county's history, newspaper articles & obituaries represent significant sources of information for historical & genealogical researchers in locating & identifying family members & others.
Organizational Involvement
The RCHC has been working hard to preserve Robertson County's historic newspapers. Local newspapers have been contacted to determine the extent & conditions of their archival holdings. Local, regional, & state library & archive collections have been scoured to locate historic Robertson County newspapers.
Activities
Activities will include the following: #1 Have 90 years (63 reels) of microfilmed original negative copies of the Hearne Democrat newspaper dating back to 1911 transferred from microfilm to searchable CD-ROM & placed online + provide complete sets of the Hearne Democrat Collection on CD to 11 local libraries; #2 Have 31 years (issues dating back to 12.3.1970) of the Franklin News Weekly, a major newspaper in Franklin, Robertson County seat of government, microfilmed, transferred from microfilm to searchable CD-ROM, & placed online + provide complete sets of the Franklin News Weekly Collection on CD to 11 local libraries; #3 Research Texas library & archive holdings to locate, microfilm (if needed), copy to searchable CD-ROM, & place online all other available historic Robertson County newspapers in these collections; & #4 Place archival microfilms of the Hearne Democrat & Franklin News Weekly Collections in an appropriate local public library.
#1 The Hearne Democrat, the county's major weekly newspaper located in Hearne, TX (Robertson County's largest town), has chronicled the county's history over most of the past century. Some of the 63 microfilm reels that comprise the entire Hearne Democrat Collection of issues since 1911 are available for the public to view at the Democrat's Hearne office. Several microfilm reels are missing; many more are in tattered & crumbling states. The only microfilm reader in Robertson County, located at an employee's desk at the Democrat's Hearne office, has a broken handle & is hard to manipulate since reels have to be manually advanced forward or backward using fingertips. Some of the work to accomplish this project has already been done. Southwest Micropublishing, Inc. (www.swmicropublishing.com) has a 90-year complete set of 63 microfilm reels of original scanned negatives of the Hearne Democrat dating back to 1911. New technologies have recently been developed which allow for microfilmed newspaper records to be placed onto a CD-ROM disk in a searchable format. After conversion to searchable CD-ROM, these records will be placed online.
#2 The Franklin News Weekly, a major newspaper in Franklin, Robertson County seat of government, has recorded a great deal of information about activities in & around Franklin. This newspaper has 31 years of issues (dating back to 12.3.1970) piled up in its Franklin office for public review. Many of the oldest papers are yellow & crumbling; public access can only be obtained to these records during the limited office hours of the News Weekly staff. These past issues chronicling important parts of the county's history need to be microfilmed, transferred to searchable CD-ROM, & placed online.
#3 Texas library and archives collections contain very few Robertson County newspapers in their collections. Texas State Archives & Library, Austin, TX has no Robertson County newspapers in its collection; Texas Newspapers Collection, Center For American History, University of Texas, Austin, TX has only a handful of isolated actual newspapers & extremely limited microfilm records on Robertson County. Other Texas library & archive collections need to be researched further to locate, copy to searchable CD-ROM, & place online all available historic Robertson County newspapers in these collections.
#4 Since microfilm has proven itself to be the most effective mechanism to date for preserving archival materials, one complete microfilm set of the Hearne Democrat & Franklin News Weekly Collections will be placed in the archival collection of an appropriate local public library.
Expected Results
After #1, #2, #3, & #4 above have been accomplished, one complete set of searchable CD-ROM copies of the above newspapers will be given to each of the following eleven libraries & archive collections:
Information on the CD-ROMs will also be placed online at the Robertson County TXGenWeb site (www.robertsoncounty.info).
Representative Samples
Vic Rivera at Southwest Micropublishing, Inc. (sales@swmicropublishing.com) has prepared five representative sample editions of the Hearne Democrat. These are available online at the links below. These samples provide glimpses of the information that will be brought online and placed on CDs in local libraries by the Newspapers Project. Due to its quality, the 1911 edition is not searchable; the four 2000 editions are searchable. To access these pages, key in "kent" in the user name blank and "brunette" in the password section. (Note: These demos are designed for broadband access only and should only be used in relation to possible funding of the Newspapers Project.)
| Hearne Democrat 05/12/1911 | Hearne Democrat 01/06/2000 | Hearne Democrat 01/13/2000 |
| Hearne Democrat 01/20/2000 | Hearne Democrat 01/27/2000 |
Timetable
#1 - Purchase immediately - available on searchable CD-ROM & online six months later;
#2 - Purchase immediately - available on searchable CD-ROM & online nine months later; &
#3 - Research three months then purchase - available on searchable CD-ROM & online six - nine months later; &
#4 - Purchase immediately - available on microfilm three months later.
Clients
Clients include: libraries identified above; local school children learning about local history; local genealogy & history researchers; local historical organizations; local Chambers of Commerce; Robertson County governmental offices; local towns & communities; media representatives & scholars researching Robertson County; Internet users (free access provided at www.robertsoncounty.info).
Other Funding Sources & Amounts, Pending & Committed
No funding sources have been obtained to accomplish this ambitious project. Over the years, expenses to have the Hearne Democrat placed on microfilm have been paid by the Hearne Democrat. The libraries mentioned above all have computers with CD-ROM drives that are available for use by patrons free-of-charge. The Robertson County TXGenWeb site at www.robertsoncounty.info is provided free-of-charge as a public service by RootsWeb.
Plans To Sustain Project Beyond The Term Of This Request
The CD-ROMs, which will be given to the eleven indicated libraries, will become part of their permanent collections. These CDs will be made available for reference use in a library & will remain in library collections indefinitely. The information on these CD-ROMs will be placed online at the Robertson County TXGenWeb site at (www.robertsoncounty.info). Available to Internet users free-of-charge, these records will remain online indefinitely. These records will also be placed online at the TXGenWeb Archives where they will remain online indefinitely.
Mission Of Organization
The Robertson County Historical Commission is the officially designated body in Robertson County to preserve & protect the county's rich cultural & historical heritage (website at www.rootsweb.com/~txrchc/RCHC.htm). As a part of county government, RCHC is tax-exempt.
Project Evaluation & Publicity Plan
The following will be used to evaluate the newspapers project:
The following activities will be used to publicize the newspapers project:
Line Item Budget
#1 - Hearne Democrat (already microfilmed + PDF searchable digitization) - $750 per roll* x 63 rolls = $47,250 - $7,087.50 (15% discount) = $40,162.50 + 11 complete CD sets (7 CDs per set) for libraries at $70 per set = $770 + 1 complete CD set for Hearne Democrat at $0 per set = $0; Total #1 = $40,932.50;
#2 - Franklin News Weekly - (initial microfilming + PDF searchable digitization) 10 pages per issue x 52 weeks per year x 30 years @ $.20 per page = $3,120 (microfilming) + $750 per roll* x 9 rolls = $6,750.00 - $1,012.50 (15% discount) (CD-ROM) = $5,737.50 + 11 complete CD sets (1 CD per set) for libraries at $10 per set = $110 + 1 complete CD set for Franklin News Weekly at $0 per set = $0; Total #2 = $8,967.50;
#3 - Libraries & Archives search & capture of additional newspapers (initial microfilming + PDF searchable digitization) = ~$11,000 (estimate); Total #3 = ~$11,000; &
#4 - For archival purposes, one complete set of Hearne Democrat & Franklin News Weekly Collections will be copied on microfilm & placed in an appropriate public library collection; Hearne Democrat - $68.30 per roll x 63 rolls = $4,302.90 - $645.44 (15% discount) = $3,657.46 + Franklin News Weekly - $68.30 per roll x 9 rolls = $614.70 - $92.21 (15% discount) = $522.49; Total #4 = $4,179.95.
Total project budget = ~$65,000
* The digitization price will drop to $600.00 for rolls not searchable due to technical limitations.
Members Of The Robertson County Historical Commission (all Robertson County, TX residents)
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Wesley Anderson |
Darrell Burnitt |
Pauline Burnitt |
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Barbara
Collier-Foyt |
Burt Dunken |
Peggy Florida |
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Sebie Harris |
John C. Hicks |
Norman Koch |
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Cathy Lazarus |
Jimmy Reeder |
Ferman Richard |
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Bryant Spence |
Howard Vann |
Maureen Wynn |