Collections : [New York State Modern Political Archive]

The records of the New York State Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors trace the development of mental healthcare throughout the state from the early 1950s through the beginning of the twenty-first century. Established in the mid-1970s, the Conference's records include correspondence, memos, meeting minutes, reports, and manuals that chronicle the efforts of mental health professionals as they encourage local, county, and state agencies to provide quality, affordable services for persons living with mental illness, chemical dependency, and/or developmental disability.

The New York State Executive Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice Records is composed of materials retained by Vincent O'Leary, a past president of the State University of New York at Albany and member of the commission. The collection provides insight into the inner workings and public exchanges of the commission members as they discussed and dealt with problems associated with the criminal justice system.

The Public Employees Federation (PEF) was founded in 1979 to represent members of the Professional, Scientific, and Technical (PS&T) bargaining unit of New York State. PS&T employees had formerly been represented by CSEA, the state's largest public employee union. PEF founders believed that the concerns of the PS&T unit were not adequately represented by CSEA, the majority of whose members were non-professional state employees. PEF's stated mission is to "provide the leadership necessary for PEF members to achieve employment security, higher wages, better working conditions, and improved retirement benefits." Materials in this collection document PEF activities at both the state and division level. There is extensive coverage of executive board activities from 1978 through mid-2000, annual conventions, committee meetings, and contract negotiations. Also included are files for PEF Division 169, PEF's Environmental Conservation Division. These include correspondence, agendas and minutes for labor/management meetings, material on committees, and administrative files. This collection also documents the activities of reform groups and political parties within PEF (most notably, the Statewide Coalition for a Democratic Union) and PEF's relationships with its national affiliates, the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers. Particularly strong is the collection of bulletin board postings, which includes almost everything posted on Division 169 PEF bulletin boards from 1979 through 2000. There are also official PEF publications, including a near-complete run of PEF's official monthly newsletter to members, The Communicator.

Established in 1968 to assist clinical social workers in performing their duties, the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work (NYSSCSW) offers professional support to its members in the practice of clinical psychotherapy. The collection documents the founding, administration, and activities of the NYSSCSW and its various local chapters.

The New York State Wetlands Forum was begun in 1993 and incorporated in 1994. The Forum organizes an annual conference to bring people interested in wetlands together in a non-confrontational setting. Issues discussed include sustainable development, land use, environmental mediation, and wetland conservation. Records include: correspondence, meeting minutes, meeting topics, mailing lists, and newsletters.

The New York StateWide Senior Action Council records document the issues faced by senior citizens in New York State over the course of almost three decades. The bulk of the records consist of subject files in the areas of health care, Medicare, and social security issues. In addition to topical material, these records document the fundraising activities of the organization and its various sub-groups. Notably included are publications issued by the organization, including the Sentinel newsletter (1992-1996) and the Senior Action newspaper (1977-1991). The bulk of the material, found in the subject files, is useful for documenting issues about which NYSSAC was active. NYSSAC's work with New York state legislators, as well as government and private agencies in advocating for seniors and social justice issues, and their outreach efforts in education and advocacy, are well documented throughout the collection. Records of the activities of Executive Directors Michael Burgess and Bonnie Ray are the most prominent in the collection.

Norman Frederick Lent was a U.S. Representative from New York. He was an associate police justice in East Rockaway, NY from 1960-1962, as well as a confidential law secretary to New York Supreme Court Justice. Lent was a member of the New York State Senate from 1962-1970; executive committeeman in East Rockaway, NY, 1962-1984; a delegate to the New York State Republican convention, 1968; and a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1972. Lent was elected as a Republican-Conservative to the Ninety-second and ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1971-January 3, 1993) and was not a candidate for re-nomination to the One Hundred Third Congress in 1992. Lent died on June 11, 2012. His papers contain materials related to his political career.

The Norman Studer Papers document his career as both an educator and ardent Catskill folklorist. The collection includes significant material relating to his work as director of the Downtown Community School in New York City and Camp Woodland in the Catskills.

The North American Fiddler's Hall of Fame was created in 1973 in the Central New York area. Now called, the New York State Old Tyme Fiddlers' Association and North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame and Museum, the Association's mission is to preserve, promote, and perpetuate, the art of old time fiddling and the dances pertaining to this art. This collection contains tapes of interviews with significant fiddlers. The tapes located at the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives are the preservation copies that were created in 1999, while the originals reside at the North American Fiddler's Hall of Fame.

The North Country James Bay Group records document efforts of this upstate New York environmental organization to stop Hydro-Québec's Great Whale (Grande Baleine) River/James Bay II development efforts in the early 1990s.