Appeal to Pledges Letter for Texas Genealogists

24 March 2004

To All Texas Genealogists:

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission provides a rich collection of digital knowledge databases to Texans through more than 700 participating academic, public and clinical medicine libraries. The program is called TexShare. Each year, the State Library negotiates statewide subscriptions to these resources, saving individual libraries millions of dollars. As you may know, state agency budgets have been reduced significantly. The State Library is able to renew most TexShare database subscriptions for the July 2004 – June 2005 subscription period. However, the state budget will not stretch far enough to renew the HeritageQuest database.. We need your help to retain statewide access to HeritageQuest.

HeritageQuest provides electronic resources for genealogists, including complete census indexing. As with any TexShare database, you can access it from home once you sign up at your library.

TSLAC and TexShare stakeholders are initiating a pledge drive for HeritageQuest. Library consortia in other states have used this approach successfully. To retain HeritageQuest, we must raise $243,000.. Can your genealogy society in conjunction with your local public library make a pledge to help retain statewide access to HeritageQuest?

We can achieve the lowest possible price for a subscription through a statewide consortial buying agreement. By participating in the pledge drive libraries will pay a lower price for access than what they would have to pay if they subscribed to the database as an individual institution. They will be helping maintain access to electronic resources for all Texans, which is one of the fundamental principles of TexShare, Texas’ largest library consortium.

Because we must renew the databases in July, we don’t have very much time to secure pledges. Please fill out and return the attached pledge form and survey by May 1, 2004, so this comprehensive resource is not lost to Texans. You will not be invoiced for your pledge amount unless we have received sufficient pledges to cover the cost of the database subscription. We must collect funds by July 2004.

If we do not raise enough money to renew these databases on a statewide basis, we will convert them to TexSelect databases. As TexSelect databases, your library could subscribe to HeritageQuest at consortium negotiated reduced prices, but statewide access for all TexShare members would be lost.

Thank you for your support in providing this rich resource to your communities.

Sincerely,
Peggy D. Rudd
Director and Librarian

Enclosures

Texas State Library and Archives Commission
HeritageQuest and STAT!Ref
PLEDGE DRIVE FORM & SURVEY

Library Genealogy Society Name: _______________________________________________________

Name of public library genealogy society will work with:_______________________

Person Responding: __________________________________________________

Title:_______________________________________________________________

Telephone number: ( )______________________________________________

Email:______________________________________________________________

FAX: ______________________________________________________________

____ My library genealogy society pledges funds in support of HeritageQuest (please see attached table for recommended pledge information; the amount is a suggestion only, TSLAC will accept pledges of any amount) for your library)
Amount pledged:_________________________________________________

____ My library pledges funds in support of STAT!Ref (suggested contribution per library $5,000)
Amount pledged:__________________________________________________

____ If sufficient funds are not available for statewide access to HeritageQuest, my library is interested in subscribing to this as a TexSelect database http://www.texshare.edu/programs/academicdb/selectdbinfo.html

____ If sufficient funds are not available for statewide access to STAT!Ref, my library is interested in subscribing to this as a TexSelect database http://www.texshare.edu/programs/academicdb/selectdbinfo.html

____ We are not interested in either database

Authorized signature:

__________________________________

Please return this form by May 1, 2004 to:

Russlene Waukechon
Texas State Library
P.O.Box 12927
Austin, TX 78711-2927