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Archivists are guardians of UD history and treasures
Ian Janssen is the assistant archivist, James Hageman is campus IT associate (CITA), Barbara Cole is the administrative assistant and Mark Ressler is the records coordinator/analyst. "Faculty, staff, students, administrators, alumni and anyone else interested in the University’s past come to us for help on different projects," Brown said. "We’ve had requests on innumerable topics and from as far away as Japan, India and Poland, thanks to e-mail." Brown said that when John Munroe, H. Rodney Sharp Professor Emeritus of History, wrote his book, The University of Delaware: A History, he established an office in the Archives to carry out his research, where he had a desk. Cole, who has worked in archives since 1982, remembers typing large portions of the manuscript. Janssen, a UD graduate with an anthropology, history and library background, fields many of the archival research requests. Some of the most asked about topics, he said, are UD’s study-abroad program, documents related to desegregation during the 1950s and the University’s architecture. Archives has many of the original blueprints of buildings on The Green, which were designed by the firm of Day and Klauder, as well as Marian Cruger Coffin’s original landscaping plans.
Bound copies of UpDate, the Messenger, press releases and The Review are available and are frequently in use, Janssen said. Some of the Archives’ holdings can be a trip down memory lane—dance cards, yearbooks, spades used for ground breakings, old Marching Band uniforms complete with hats, ceremonial academic gowns no longer used, publications and materials from literary societies, forerunners of Greek organizations on campus, and more. Archives is also the custodian of Women’s College scrapbooks, which were assembled by Emalea Pusey Warner, who worked hard to establish the college and for whom Warner Hall is named. UD’s Permanent Collection of works of art located throughout the campus is another responsibility. Archives photographs, catalogs, inspects, inventories and cares for the 1,677 items in the Permanent Collection, which has a value of more than $6.5 million, Brown said. In addition, the University’s mace and chain, which are used solely for ceremonial occasions, are in its keeping. Hageman is the computer expert for archives, as well as a photographer. He has developed all of the databases used in Archives for managing university records and collections, as well as the Archives web page at [www.udel.edu/Archives/Archives/index.html]. He also photographs the artworks and other important holdings for archival records as well as for security and insurance purposes. Another focus of Archives is its university-wide records management program, which includes records retention schedules that have been developed for all University departments, a vital records program, records destruction and annual records management auditing. The program also includes an inactive records center, which houses records that have not yet satisfied their business value to the University, but are no longer needed on a day-to-day basis by University departments.
Ressler coordinates records center operations for the records stored on and off campus. It is an ongoing process with decisions made daily on what records to keep, what records to store off campus and what records to shred. Some 12,605 boxes of records are stored off campus, and, last year, 1,894 boxes full of documents were shredded. Cole, who often meets and greets guests at the front desk, audits University departments for compliance with the records management program and also assists with record keeping in the archives and management of the inactive records center. "Computers have changed how we do things, but not what we do," she said.Current vital records on personnel and early student records are kept in a large vault, which was formerly a bomb shelter in Pearson Hall. The vault is equipped with a halon system for protection against fire. Brown, who has been director since 1988, started working at the University on different projects for the Office of the University Secretary in the late 1970s. She later moved into Archives when John Clayton headed the office. Through hands-on experience and courses, she became a records manager and later archivist when Clayton transferred to the Office of University Development. "I was in the right place at the right time," she said.
"Archives was established in 1969 and located in the lower level of the library and later in a building on East Delaware Avenue before moving to its present home," Brown said. "When Archives was first established, it was like going through an old family home—collecting records and items from attics, closets and basements." Now, thanks to a team effort, Archives has become modernized, computerized and the guardian of the University’s treasures and its past. Article by Sue Moncure To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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