Posts Tagged ‘Kentucky Library & Museum’

Archives Month

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Holy Cross archivist Sarah Campbell stated that “archives aren’t lending libraries.”  Special collections serve a different mission than lending libraries.  They hold unique, one of a kind items that need special care and handling in order to preserve them for as long as possible. 

Think about the different conditions that you subject a library book to while you have it checked out.  How many other items are in your back pack with it jostling around?  Is it raining outside as you cross campus without an umbrella?  Do you read at the dining table while eating?  Do you take notes with a sheet of paper laid over the pages?

These are things that would destroy most archival materials in a relatively short time.  Special collection books and documents don’t circulate and we have rules about how they can be handled in order to ensure that you can use them as well as the person who comes in after you.

Check out the Kentucky Library & Museum collections on KenCat.

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October is Archives Month

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Kentucky Archives Month Poster

Barbara Niss, archivist at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York responded:  “Archives are not where information comes all neatly wrapped in a package; they are a place for searching and thinking and piecing together bits and pieces of fact, near-fact and outright lies.  Which leads to:  Archives are NOT boring!”
While we archivists do work to make the collections we care for more accessible through arrangement, research, digitization and the creation of finding aids, we cannot do the work for our users.  The materials are here, cared for and ready to be read or looked at and they are certainly NOT boring!
WKU is fortunate to have an excellent Special Collections Department in WKU Libraries.  There are manuscript collections representing individuals, families, religions, corporate entities, towns and counties across the state.  There are photographs documenting life in Kentucky from the beginning of the medium.  There are rare books, maps, oral histories, film and video.  There are university records for WKU and its founding institutions.  There is a museum full of exhibits highlighting the artifacts, costumes and artwork collected through the years.
In honor of Archives Month, try to visit an archives near you.  (Hint:  We’re located in the Kentucky Building). Check out the Kentucky Archives Month website to learn about other archives and activities throughout the state.  Take a look at KenCat to see some of what is available here in the Department of Special Collections. 

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