Legislative Action Items
Michigan Genealogical Council

Here are some items of pending legislation of interest to the genealogy community.

The Governor signed the budget bills on June 21, 2011.

June 10, 2011

The Michigan Legislature has completed their work on a budget and sent to the Governor, where it awaits his signature.

Funding for operations at the Library of Michigan (LM) remains almost unchanged from 2010-11 levels.  This is good news, since recent budgets have cut LM operations severely.  The new budget calls for a total staff of 33 full time equated positions.

The budget retains two boilerplate items that were introduced with the 2010-11 budget.  One requires LM and the component programs currently within LM shall remain in state government.  The second requires Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and LM to maintain custody of the non-Michigan genealogy and all Michigan specific collections.  This section includes the stipulation these collections shall continue to be made available to the public.

Funding for our district, local, and neighborhood libraries otherwise known as State Aid to Libraries budgeted at $5.4 million in the MDE budget.  The School Aid budget calls for $1.3 million for State Aid to Libraries.  This is a total of $6.75 million for State Aid to Libraries, or about $500K less than 2010-11.  The legislature restored almost all of this funding; the Governor’s budget called for a reduction of $3.8 million for State Aid to Libraries.  Also in the MDE budget is a separate item for the Michigan eLibrary (MeL) at $950K.  This is in anticipation of a reduction of federal funding for MeL.  With the additional funding for MeL, state spending for our local libraries will slightly increase for 2011-12. 

Historical administration and services now has its own section of the Department of Natural Resources budget with $3.96 million, and 36 full time equated employees.  The Archives of Michigan is funded with an additional $800K and eight full time equated employees.

MeL (http://mel.org) is the statewide portal for a wealth of content Michigan residents are able to access from home on our personal computers.  Heritage Quest Online is one of the most popular MeL databases used by genealogists and historians.  MeL is available for home use to all Michigan residents.  Even if you are visiting Florida, Arizona, or elsewhere, all you need is to enter your library card or Michigan Driver’s license number for access.

SeekingMichigan.org continues to be a fantastic resource for the lovers of history.  This continues to be a joint project between the Archvies of Michigan and the Library of Michigan.  There is also a subset of SeekingMichigan.org for Civil War documents, photos, and materials; even an event calendar at http://micivilwar.org.

We urge you to continue to use these valuable resources in your research.  The Archives of Michigan remains fully committed to serving the historical and genealogical community.  The Archives is open Mon. – Fri. 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.  http://michigan.gov/archivesofmi.  The Abrams Genealogy Collection and Michigan Collection at the LM continue to be one of the finest historical and genealogical collections in the Midwest.  LM remains open and their collections are available for researchers.  The hours are Mon. – Fri. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. http://michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan or http://michigan.gov/familyhistory.  LM is committed to growing and collecting materials about Michigan for the Michigan Collection.  Both the Archives and Library are closed on government holidays.  If you are planning a trip to Lansing to use these collections, please check their websites for the most recent hours and holiday closings.

One of the largest threats to these valuable resources is lack of use.  Please continue to utilize and encourage others to use the Library and Archives of Michigan, both located at the Michigan Library and Historical Center in Lansing.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Genealogical Council
http://mimgc.org