Vol. 19, No. 19

Feb. 10, 2000

Delaware governor donates
congressional papers to UD

Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper has donated the congressional papers he compiled during his 10-year career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to the University of Delaware Library. The collection was officially opened on Tuesday, Feb. 7, and is now available to scholars both locally and nationally. The collection contains extensive correspondence files, memoranda, office files, reports, documents and memorabilia. “Access to the historical record of the work of government officials is important in a democratic society. It is my hope that these papers will provide a better understanding of the way government works,” Carper, who earned a master’s degree in business administration from UD in 1975, said. “As a student, I spent many hours at the Morris Library. I am honored that the history of my tenure as Delaware’s member-at-large in the U.S. House of Representatives will be available for historians and others in that same library,” he said. L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin, Special Collections Department, who was in charge of processing the papers, said, “It was an exciting opportunity to work on the transfer of the papers. As this is a contemporary collection, challenging decisions had to be made regarding information in electronic format.” According to Susan Brynteson, director of libraries, “The papers will serve as an important resource for faculty and students at the University of Delaware, as well as the wider research community, for the study of American history, politics and government.” Locally the papers are available on DELCAT, the library’s electronic database, and nationally through OCLC, an online computer network to which thousands of libraries throughout the country are connected. A finding aid also is available on the library’s web site at <http://www.lib.udel. edu/ud/spcc/findaids/carper/ index.htm>. In addition to the Carper papers, the UD library also is a repository for the papers of John J. Williams and J. Allen Frear Jr., both U.S. senators from Delaware. Other library staff who assisted in establishing the Carper Collection include Rebecca Altermatt, Tabitha Groh and Anita Wellner and Robert Costello, a graduate assistant.