Part 2 Administration of the Grant

A. Organization and staffing of the project

The staff for this project has changed significantly during the past 5 years.  Initially, the project staff consisted of a project manager, cataloging specialist, cataloging librarian, cataloging assistants, and digital imaging technicians. In addition, curatorial and clerical staff from the Western History/Genealogy Department assisted with selection, preparation and decision making.  The Development Office devoted a large portion of its to grant administration.  This staff organization was a carry-over from the initial NEH and Boettcher grants, which involved research, planning, developing techniques and standards, developing job descriptions and training tools, and designing software.

In order to meet the staffing needs of an established digitization and cataloging program, the staff was redesigned with more emphasis on processing staff and less on administrative staff.  For example, it became apparent that the skills of the Project Manager, Raymond Clark, were being underutilized.  His administration and supervisory duties were reassigned to the Photo Curator.  Roel Muņoz, a Digital Imaging Technician, resolved day-to-day technical and equipment issues.   Mr. Clark continued as a project consultant and began work on the design and construction of a digital camera.

Jennifer Thom, who had previously worked in the Development Office and coordinated the completion of grant reports, brought these duties with her in her new position as Photo Curator.  Linda Bentley, the Cataloging Specialist, began work on other department projects and provided advice to project staff.   Her supervisory responsibilities were transferred to the photo curator and Catalog Librarian, Myron Vallier, made training and day-to-day cataloging decisions.

As project needs changed, new staff positions were created.  For example, after the January 1999 release of the web site, we added the services of web designer Randel Metz to update information and add gallery pages. In 2000, a clerical position was added to help respond to customer print orders generated through the web site.

A second significant change during the project period was obtaining regular benefits for project staff.  Up until 2000, project staff were hired as contractual or on-call staff.  These positions did not include medical coverage, sick or vacation days. Although this may have been appropriate for a short term grant project, as the program continued, the on-call status was resulting in high staff turnover and low staff morale.  Provision of benefits resulted in a major change to the program budget.  Funds to pay for benefits were provided by the Denver Public Library.