Who are we?

 

The Clay County Archives and Historical Library (not-for-profit corporation) is located at 210 E Franklin, Liberty, Missouri.  Our mission is to preserve and organize documents relating to the history and culture of Clay County and to make this information available to the public.  Our information includes official documents of the Clay County Government, local municipalities and records donated from private sources.

 

We feel that it is beneficial to the quality of life for people to have a sense of community about the place in which they live.  It is people who make this county what it is.  One of our main priorities of Footprints In Clay is to record biographical accounts of people who have left their mark on this county in hopes that those who view it later will have a better understanding of the history of the community in which they live.

 

 

What is ‘Footprints In Clay?’

 

Welcome to Footprints In Clay.  In this brochure you’ll read about the objectives of this exciting program sponsored by the Clay County Archives & Historical Library Inc.

 

Footprints In Clay is an audio/visual program designed to capture the history and culture of Clay County Missouri.  You might think of it as a Multi-Media Time Capsule.

 

For some time now, we have realized the need to video record stories of the older generation, and then to be able to present them in a professional form.  Footprints In Clay is being developed in response to this need.  It will use the latest commercial quality, digital, audio/visual recording cameras and editing equipment.  To put the ‘know how’ behind the equipment, we have assembled an extraordinary team of volunteer technicians and historians.

 

[Hughes Library Exterior]

We have set three goals for Footprints In Clay:

 

Goal 1: Build a PRIMARY FILM COLLECTION

      In this phase, we will be interviewing individuals and groups, recording their memories as they relate to Clay County.  We will focus on people, places and events.  We will also ask authorities in specific areas of history, such as the Civil War or Missouri River floods, to speak about their areas of expertise.  We will also record significant events happening today and collect vintage footage taken over the last sixty years.

 

Goal 2: Create a PROGRAM COLLECTION

      We will create subject-specific programs using clips from our Primary Film Collection and additional footage taken to support these programs.

 

Goal 3: DISTRIBUTE & CIRCULATE

      Both the Primary and Program collections will be available to be viewed or purchased at our Library.  Our programs will be made available to all area schools.  We also plan to show clips of our programs on our website, and we will approach local cable television providers about airing our programs on the community channels. 


Honorary Committee

Co-Chairs:

R. Kenneth Elliott

Robert T. Sevier

 

Honorary Committee Members:

Tom Brandom

Walter Plourd

Edna Shepherd

Jack B. Wymore

 

Project Director:

Kevin M. Fisher

 

Committee Members:

Jackie S. Augur

Ryan Calder

Scott Cole

Stuart E. Elliott

Sallie J. Hobbs

Susan Sevier Jones

Kent E. Kooi

Carol Olson

Steven L. Olson

Evelyn Petty

Donna E. Root

Bo Sires

 

 

About the Technology

 

One interesting aspect of planning a project like this one is selecting a medium of recording and preserving these invaluable stories.  It is important for a project like this to balance image and sound quality, durability, compatibility, ease-of-use and cost effectiveness. 

 

The later two qualities, ease-of use and cost effectiveness, make video technology an obvious choice over film.  Aside from the dramatic reduction in cost, the ease of acquisition and editing of video footage makes it a much better match, for both the project and the team, than film.

 

However, there are many different video technologies in the market today.  They are well-suited to various applications, and all differ in degrees of image quality and media durability.  To complicate matters, the nation is preparing for a wide-spread transition from the video format with which we’re all familiar to a new higher-resolution digital format.  It is important to select a medium that will be useful, not only today, but also in the future, as our video standards change.


For all of these reasons, we have selected the DVCAM format.  It is an industrial version of the familiar Mini-DV format now available in consumer equipment.

 

First of all, this is a digital format, which makes it a great candidate for easy editing on common computing equipment.  DVCAM equipment uses a connection called ‘Fire-Wire’ to communicate with computers and allows for generation-less digital editing.

 

Since DVCAM is an industrial format, equipment that uses it is designed for professionals and is constructed to provide many, many hours of reliable use.  This format uses a ‘metal’ tape technology that allows for a shelf life of over twenty years, unlike the VHS shelf life of closer to five years.

 

This equipment also uses professional-grade optics, which yield rich images with vivid colors.  It supports both the 4:3 ratio, common on today’s television equipment and programming, and also the 16:9 ratio, more commonly associated with feature film productions that will be supported by emerging video standards of tomorrow. 

 

Once this footage has been collected and edited, the compression technology used on DVCAM media makes it a great candidate for eventual conversion to DVD video for inexpensive distribution and/or archival storage.

Education

 

The Footprints In Clay Committee is eager to provide local history video programs to Clay County schools.  We envision a series of programs covering the general history of Clay County and at least one program detailing the history of each town in our county.  Given enough time and resources we would like to provide a program about the local community surrounding each of our schools.  These local programs could include the first pioneers, the growth of transportation and commerce and the importance of early day churches in community life.  We could also include recorded accounts of the conditions of the first schools.

 

We know from our own experience that by becoming aware of our community’s past we develop a sense of pride in ourselves as being a part of our community’s history.  We would like to foster this sense of pride in our county’s students by sharing our history with them.

 

We are anxious to work with each school district at the appropriate level to receive input on what each school would want in the way of a local history program.

 

The Footprints In Clay program, under the authority of the Clay County Archives & Historical Library, Inc., has received several grants to finance this project.  Therefore, we can offer this service to Clay County schools at no cost.

 

 

Footprints In Clay

History recorded for all time….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clay County Archives & Historical Library, Inc.

210 East Franklin Street

Liberty, Mo 64068

 

(816) 781-3611