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Re: history of C & U archives



Beth--

Radford opened for classes in 1913 and I have found a few occasions in the
papers of our first president where he sent items to the university's
"archives".  However, the first effort to establish a true archive was back
in the early 1970s under the direction of an emeritus history professor.
Then the library had someone working on the archives part-time while they
did interlibrary loan.

Finally, our latest president, Douglas Covington, came on in 1995 and
pushed in several ways for the university to remember its history.  A suite
of rooms was set aside on the library's entrance level in which artifacts
and pictures were displayed.  I was able to benefit from this push when I
was hired as archivist on a 20 hours per week basis in November 1998.  My
hours and pay were recently increased to 30 hours per week.

To my delight, Peter Kurilecz found an article about Radford's efforts to
preserve our history and included it in his "Archives in the News" feature
back in September.  I am currently preparing an Archives web site but it is
not yet ready for "public" viewing.  When it is, it will  include the
Roanoke Times article that Peter "ran" in September.

Stay tuned.

At 09:43 AM 1/14/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Colleagues:
>
>I have been doing some research on how our own archives came into being and
>this has made me curious about other institutions.  I've done some checking
>via online sources but haven't found much (i.e. Library Literature  only
>goes back to December 1984).   Ernst Posner's article in College &
>University Archives: Selected Readings (SAA, 1979) was helpful but
>primarily mentioned Harvard and Catholic University.
>
>I heard someone say (somewhere, some place) that a lot of archives came
>into being during the mid-century because many schools were celebrating
>their centennials and wanted to write their histories.  Hence the need for
>an archives.  However, I don't know what the source is for this comment.
>Does this sound right to others?
>
>Are there some good articles out there that address this topic?  If you
>know of any, I appreciate you sharing the info with me.
>
>Thank you!
>
>
>
>****************************************************************************
>Beth S. Harris          Special Collections Management Librarian
>Wyndham Robertson Library       POB 9000, 7950 E. Campus Drive
>Hollins University                      Roanoke, VA  24020
>Fax: (540) 362-6756             Ph.: (540) 362-6237
>Website:  http://www.hollins.edu
>
>A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
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>Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>
>




Jim Gilson



University Archivist                    jgilson@runet.edu
Box 6881
McConnell Library                       540-831-5826
Radford University                      Office hours M-F
Radford, VA 24141                       9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
                                        1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>