Carolyn Shaffer, left, receives the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board’s Citizen Archivist Award from board member Virginia Dressler. Shaffer has been a volunteer at the Trumbull County Records Center since 2014. Records manager Lynn Wallace-Smith nominated Shaffer for the award. Staff photo / Emily Scott

WARREN — A volunteer at the Trumbull County Records Center and Archives was one of three in the state to receive the Citizens Archivist Award from the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board in 2022.

Carolyn Shaffer of Champion has been volunteering at the records center since 2014 and was recognized on Wednesday for her talent and dedication to Ohio archives. OHRAB board member Virginia Dressler presented Shaffer with the award.

Records manager Lynn Wallace-Smith nominated Shaffer for the award. She said she thought Shaffer deserved recognition for her work with the center because she is diligent and detail oriented, and said the center would not be nearly as productive without her hard work.

“I’m really, really happy to be recognized because it makes me feel like I’m part of the records center,” Shaffer said after she was presented the award. “The people here really provide a service for Trumbull County government.

“Besides being happy, I’m proud. I’m real proud to say I’m part of this because the service that they provide has the opportunity to enhance every single other office and every single other department in Trumbull County,” Shaffer continued. “And, not just for now — but going all the way back to when Trumbull County started, and all the way to when Trumbull County ends in the far future. To say I have made a little contribution to that makes me proud.”

Shaffer retired from Warren City Schools, where she taught science, at the end of the 2013-14 school year, then began volunteering with the records center in the fall. She said she was in an exercises class with Wallace-Smith and another employee of the center and during one of the YMCA classes, she told them she was planning to retire. It wasn’t long before Wallace-Smith had Shaffer roped into volunteering at the records center.

Volunteering at the records center is great, Shaffer said, because she knows she’s making an impact on preserving the history of Trumbull County for future generations. She also volunteers with the Trumbull County Historical Society. Shaffer encourages anyone looking for a place to volunteer to consider the records center. She pointed out that there is always work to be done.

“You come to work everyday knowing your job will never be done,” Shaffer said. “If you live 500 years, you will still have a job.”

When Shaffer started volunteering at the records center, it was located in the Wean Building, but since has moved to the old bank building across from the Robins Theatre in downtown Warren. Wallace-Smith said this was a great move because the building they are in now is much cleaner, so they do not have to worry about records getting destroyed or decaying because of poor storage.

Shaffer said the office continuously improves its practices and said no politics is involved — everything they do is for the mission of preserving county history.

She also pointed out that the office is helpful to everyday citizens. For example, the records center keeps copies of birth certificates and decrees of divorce, both of which could be needed to apply for Ohio’s Real ID.

Another common reason everyday people need to access the records center is to get Italian citizenship, which can be granted by proof of descent, and the records center hold records to prove that.

The oldest record the center has in its possession is a 1796 draft of the Connecticut Western Reserve. Smith-Wallace said the center has about 6,800 boxes of records in its possession right now and is constantly converting them to microfilm. Last year alone, the five-member staff scanned and converted to microfilm 2.5 million images of records. Wallace-Smith said without the microfilm, there wouldn’t be a building big enough to hold everything the center has in its possession.

The center is responsible for all archival records for all of Trumbull County government, and Wallace-Smith said she has been encouraging as many departments as she can to entrust the records center with their records, so they can be properly stored.

“Bring them to me, and I promise they’ll be safe,” Wallace-Smith said.