Library houses senator's papers

U .S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper, whose congressional papers are housed in the University Library, recently designated the library as the future home of his senatorial papers as well.

The Thomas Carper Archives currently contain legislation, correspondence, reports, documents and publications, memoranda, speeches, photographs, audiovisual materials, newsletters, news clippings and ephemera from Carper's 10-year career as Delaware's only member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The collection is available to scholars locally and nationally and has received heavy use since its official opening in February 2000, Susan Brynteson, May Morris Director of Libraries, said.

"The papers 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," Brynteson said.

The archive also includes Carper's non-gubernatorial papers from his years as Delaware's governor. By law, his official gubernatorial papers are in the Delaware Public Archives.

"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 said, adding that, as a student, he "spent many hours at the Morris Library."

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].

L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin, Special Collections Department, was in charge of processing the papers currently in the Thomas Carper Archive.

Other library staff who assisted in establishing the collection include Rebecca Altermatt, Tabitha Groh and Anita Wellner and Robert Costello, a graduate assistant.