Wednesday, September 22, 2010

tales from the archives

For those who don't know, I work for a historically black university, in the library. I recently was given the responsibility of taking care of the university archives in addition to my current job and this morning I got my first taste of what that will be like.

One of the university's previous presidents passed away yesterday and, as the go-to person, I was asked to search the archives for information, pictures, and any other materials we may have regarding this man and his time here at the university.

As it turns out, this man was president of the university during the majority of the 1970's. Imagine for a moment all of the events and issues facing a historically black university in the deep south during that particular time in history. Now consider how interesting it would be to be able to read through the student newspaper from that time period.

It was a very interesting and eye opening experience for me. It is such a unique perspective and I found myself completely engrossed in the various poems, articles and letter to the editor. The opinions weren't always things I agreed with, but just the opportunity to read them was thought provoking.

slightly unrelated - as I looked through the yearbooks I found that the candid section was actually called "bullshit". That's how it's listed in the index and the table of contents. I think my mom would have a heart attack if her yearbook students pulled something like that! lol

1 comment:

  1. you are right, I would!
    Imagine the resource this could be for your research and lit classes this semester!

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