1. Background

Staff and Structure: This program began in 1990. It is supervised by the County Commissioners and managed by Mr. Joseph G. Guertin, Chairman. The commission is comprised of twelve volunteer representatives from local historical societies, libraries, the Berkshire Family History Association, and towns throughout the County. This program is also supported by the Commissioners' staff. They provide all of the administrative support, including answering phones, drafting letters, sending and receiving mail, acting as liaison between the program and its clients, the towns, cities, and other participating entities, recording minutes of meetings, and providing all bookkeeping services, such as maintaining daily ledgers. The County Treasurer's Office also provides indirect in-kind support through management of the accounts and budget and payment of expenses.

Service: This program's primary purpose is to preserve, organize, and facilitate access to the records of Berkshire County and its towns and cities. This is accomplished by doing the following: (a) verifying and inventorying the location, condition, and format of town records, (b) indexing these records in a computer database, (c) preserving endangered documents through various methods, like microfilming, (d) establishing a data base in order to publish or make available guides for the public, and (e) providing access to data regarding inventoried materials. At the end of this process each participating town is provided with complete hard and soft copies of indices and descriptions of the town's records. These indices and descriptions are also centrally maintained in the County Commissioners' office.

This program also performs the following services on behalf of the towns and cities of Berkshire County: (a) promote awareness of lesser known historical treasures in the County through education outreach, (b) provide access to historical information through a web page on the World Wide Web, and (c) sponsor events, such as Berkshire County Heritage Month (1999), to gain recognition and appreciation for the Berkshire region's history.

2. Actual Service Usage

To date, this program has assessed, organized, indexed, and preserved the public records of the following ten towns: Dalton, Hancock, Lanesborough, Lee, Lenox, New Ashford, Richmond, Stockbridge, W. Stockbridge, and Williamstown. The Historical Commission is currently performing these services for the County, Adams, and Becket. County records indicated in 1997 that twelve towns had participated in this program.

3. Service Costs and Funding

Aside from the administrative support provided by the County, this program is presently self-supporting - all people associated with this program work on a volunteer basis at absolutely no cost to the towns or the County. The cost of the County's contributions is very difficult to quantify. A reasonable estimate, however, of the time the Commissioners' staff spends per year performing the services described above equals 80 hours per year and for the County Treasurers' Office it equals 30 hours per year.

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