Look who I found at MARAC

On April 12-15, I attended the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  It's always a pleasure to see my former supervisors, classmates, and colleagues.  This time there was a pleasant surprise. Jasmine Smith, our IMLS intern, is all grown-up and has a job of her own. I took the opportunity to get to know more about her new career at the Library Company of Philadelphia. 

Q: What is your new job? 

A: My job is divided into two roles: reference librarian and specialist of African American history.  My role as a reference librarian is to staff the reading room and answer general questions either via email, in person, or over the phone, whereas my role as the specialist is to answer complex questions relating to African American history.  It is also my responsibility to page and shelve materials used by readers; familiarize new readers and fellows on how to use WolfPAC, fill out call slips, explain reading room procedures, and suggest research materials. I also manage the Facebook page for the program in African American history and assist with blog posts. 

Q: What is your favorite part of working for the Library Company?

A: I am constantly surrounded by highly education scholars who are working towards future publications. I enjoy this aspect about my job because it allows me to increase my knowledge on subjects that I am unfamiliar with or have a different perspective on. 

Q: Are there any interesting collections that you've worked with so far? 

A: The Amy Matilda Cassey album is my favorite collection at the moment. Amy Matilda Cassey was a very prominent African American, middle-class woman who was involved with the anti-slavery movement in Philadelphia. Her friendship album dates from 1833 until 1856 and has signatures from activists and abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Robert Purvis and more.  This is an important document because it describes how life was for middle class African American men and women during a time of segregation. 

Best of luck to you, Jasmine! 

Some links of interest: 

http://librarycompany.org/2017/10/18/welcoming-jasmine-r-smith-to-the-library-company/ 

Annual Christmas Letter 2017

Dear Friends,

Can you believe another year is coming to an end?! I'm not sure I even remember celebrating July 4th ...or any part of August.  Where did it all go?   For the large part of the year, time passed quickly but quietly in the archives - which is good because my personal life was often messy.  Unlike previous years there were no major construction or grant projects and so 90% of my time was engaged in archival processing (Yeah! Board of Trustee records!) and reference requests (Hooray for the documentary project completed by 302 Stories Inc!).

My biggest excitement in 2017 was a seat at the table for the library director search committee. I count myself  privileged to have played a part in shaping the future of the William C. Jason Library.  It means a lot to me to know that the university administrators value my opinion and allowed me this platform. It's too early for any big announcements yet, but after hearing from several talented candidates, I am confident that the library department has a bright future.  I can't wait to see what improvements and innovations are in store for us under new leadership in a new year.

On a personal note, I'm now the proud sister of a DSU graduate! My brother Paul graduated from DSU's aviation program last May and I am so proud of his accomplishments.  The university seems a little lonelier without him occasionally stopping by my office, but he has important grown-up work to do for the airlines.

Lastly, I wish to thank individuals who have helped to make this a wonderful year for the archives department.  At the very top of the list are the ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. who have been a tremendous help and encouragement to me! Of course I appreciate the exhibit they put together for the gallery, but beyond that I can't express how much their sage advice and kind words mean to me as a young professional. Similarly, thanks to Mike and Jeanne of 302 Stories Inc. for their friendship and business. It has been a true pleasure to work with you and see the archives materials used in new, creative ways. Thank you to all my library colleagues for standing by the archives and assisting me in growing the department! 

All in all, I hope that you, my patrons, have also had a wonderful year and wish you nothing but the best in 2018. Thank you for continuing to walk this journey with me. Much is still ahead and I can't wait to share it with you!

Merry Christmas,
Joy

Dan's Fellowship in Review

Written by Dan DelViscio

I’ve spent a wonderful nine months here at Delaware State University, but my fellowship is unfortunately winding down now. So I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone here at the William C. Jason Library for being such great working colleagues. It was truly a pleasure to meet and work in the same environment as all of you.

I’m happy to say I will be walking away from this job with a better understanding of archives and archival work. I’ve learned that it takes much more than just knowledge of processing collections and organizing them into nice neat document boxes. It’s having the ability to juggle multiple projects. It’s corresponding with colleagues and doing the proper research to ensure all the right information is available to researchers using the collections. And it’s working in an intelligent manner that ensures accountability and integrity.

I didn’t know much about Delaware State University before I came here from Philadelphia, but having immersed myself in the collections and reading about the history of the university I can definitely say I’m better for the experience. My main responsibilities were to process two major collections transferred to the archives by the Office of Public Relations and the Office of Alumni Relations. Both collections are photographic in content and contain depictions of some of DSU’s earliest students, faculty, and presidents. The collections will definitely be integral resources in the DSU archive’s holdings and I’m truly proud to have worked on them.   

I will definitely be using the things I’ve learned here in my next job, but I hope to come back some time and see how everyone is doing, and hopefully to see the new archives space complete with an archival exhibit. I wish Rejoice the best going forward, and hope the archives at DSU continues to grow in its new location on the first floor of the library. Thanks everyone!

Farewell

As my time at the DSU's Archives comes to end, it is time for me to say farewell. The past few months have been a struggle but also a blessing. Being a full time graduate student and having a part time job plus this internship is a lot to manage, but I have learned so much! Processing collections, creating finding aids and uploading photographs onto CONTENTdm are skills that I know will take me far in this field.

Despite being a Delaware native, I did not know much about Delaware State University. At the end of my internship, I must say, I am quite impressed. After processing the Middle States Association collection, the Hornet Student Newspaper collection and some personal collections donated to the archives by alumni, I have had an inside look at the university's history.  To see the obstacles the university has overcome along with its growth is something special.

This opportunity was not only a huge learning experience but a great way for me to network and meet some amazing new people.  Everyone I encountered was extremely knowledgeable and had a willingness to help me become more successful in this field.

As much as I am excited to finally get some days off, it saddens me that my time is over.  From the bottom of my heart I would like to give a huge THANKS to Joy and Dan!!!! You guys are great and wish you the best!

See you later DSU!
Yours Truly,
Jasmine Smith

What is a Finding Aid?

Co-written by Jasmine Smith and Joy Scherry

A finding aid is a descriptive document used by archivists to help researchers gain understanding and access to the contents of a collection.  From finding aids, researchers learn basic details about a collection including:

•          the collection’s title,
•         the creator or author of the records found within (not the archivist who wrote the finding aid),
•          the collection’s location in the archives,
•          dates of the materials found within,
•          the extent or size of the collection measured in linear or cubic feet,
•          what languages a researcher might encounter,
•          how the collection is arranged – chronological, alphabetical, by subject etc.  

Other narrative fields or sections found in a finding aid include the scope and content note which summarizes the most important features a researcher will encounter within the collection.  This typically includes a summary of the most significant dates, people and moments found within the collection and the format the collection’s records will take – journals, scrapbooks, photographs, correspondence, newspapers, etc.  Finding aids additionally include a biographical history section to provide researchers with background information about the collection’s subjects and creator in order to construct a context that allows the researcher to see a bigger picture that might not be immediately clear from the records within a collection.

The second half of a finding aid is composed of the collection inventory.  Below is a chart describing the traditional, organizational hierarchy of collections and the terminology a researcher is likely to find. Click the image to enlarge it. 

Meet Daniel DelViscio

Hello,

My name is Daniel DelViscio and I will be working as an Archival Fellow in the Delaware State University Archives and Special Collections. I am from Philadelphia and have lived there all my life.

For my undergraduate degree I went to Penn State where I earned a very useless English degree. As a result of my inability to find a job along with my lack of desire to teach ankle biting kids I decided to further my education and crippling financial debt by completing a master’s degree. I quickly selected library science as my choice and completed my master’s degree in library science at Clarion University, which is located in northwestern Pennsylvania. Originally, I wanted to earn my degree to become a librarian, but as a result of one of my class assignments I quickly changed that idea. The assignment was to visit two archives - a small repository and a large archive. After a visit to the University of Penn Museum Archives I was inspired and decided that archival work was something I wanted to do.

The largest factor in changing my focus from library to archival studies was the opportunity to work with original, historic materials. Unlike in a library, just about all the records and collections within archives are original and can only be found in that archive. For example, at the University of Penn Museum Archives much of the collections pertained to the artifacts of the museum, various archeological dig sites the museum has been involved in, and the people historically associated with the museum. In essence, the University of Penn Museum Archives is the institutional memory of the museum and without it there wouldn’t be vital information about the people and artifacts that have passed through the museum over the years.  I’m guessing the same is true of the archives at Delaware State University. 

I really look forward to working in the archives for DSU. From what I’ve already learned it has a rich history and I can’t wait to delve into more. I look forward to the exhibits we at the archives will be bringing to you in the near future.

Written by Daniel DelViscio

Meet Jasmine Smith

Greetings!

My name is Jasmine Smith and I am very excited to be working as an intern for the Delaware State University Archives and Special Collection. In December of 2013, I graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina with a bachelor’s of arts in history. I am currently working on my masters in library and information science with a concentration in museum studies through an online program at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

As an undergrad, I realized I did not want to follow the traditional route and teach history, but instead work at a museum. What exactly I want to do in the museum field I do not know. What I do know is that I want to be in a profession where I am able to provide the public with a better understanding of not only United States history but world history as well. I want to be able to teach the public about what went wrong in the past so that history will not repeat itself for future generations. I want to be able to help others learn more about where they came from through text and visuals.

I live in Magnolia, DE where there are not many large history museums within traveling distance. So I had to think outside the box to come up with a way to get my foot inside the door of a historical research environment. I initially decided to volunteer at the Delaware Public Archives which, since then, has opened up other doors.  I am now employed at the Delaware Public Archives, and I’m happy to be the newest intern at the DSU archives. I have realized that an archive can be very similar to a history museum.

If you are like me, and did not know what an archive is, you should definitely come check us out! We house a lot of interesting documents about the history of Delaware State University. Who knows, you might learning something new.  

Written by Jasmine Smith

Meet the New Archivist

Dear DSU Community and Friends,

My name is Rejoice Scherry, but you can call me Joy.  I am the newest University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Delaware State University.  I am so excited to be joining the library team at the William C. Jason Library!

I hail from the tiny town of Olivebridge, New York in the rural Catskill Mountains (about 2 hours north of New York City).  I am a graduate of Hartwick College where I majored in history and minored in museum studies.  I also attended the University of Pittsburgh for my Masters in Library and Information Science.  I have a deep interest in the history of the American Revolutionary War, but more specifically the spies who helped ensure victory against the superior British forces.  Want to know more? Drop me a line!  

Diversity. Integrity. Scholarship. Community. Outreach.  DISCO! These are the qualities encouraged among all of the DSU students, faculty, and staff.  I intend to incorporate each of these qualities in my work here in the archives. 

•  Diversity: I will seek out opportunities for collaboration.  My job requires me to make decisions about whether record groups will be of lasting informational value to the University.  As a one-woman operation here in the archives department, it can be easy to pursue my own interests and forget the audience I serve.  I will look for opportunities to learn the viewpoints, lifestyles, and perspectives of others in order to assure the archives is inclusionary of all outlooks here at DSU.

•  Integrity: I will take the time to do my job correctly.  I will not cut corners.  Constructing an archive can be a slow-going process that requires attention to detail and careful examination.  I promise to give 100% to my work.

•  Scholarship: Do you have a question about the history of Delaware State University? Do you need access to primary sources? I am here to help you pursue any DSU-related research question you may have.

• Community: The DSU archive preserves papers, photographs, and objects. But I’d like the university archives to be a place where community is preserved too! My office in the library should not be a closed off space where “The Past” lives.  An archive also needs to live in the now in order to support the future.  Please come visit me and help me preserve the current culture of DSU for the continued advancement of the community.

• Outreach: The DSU archive is open to all! I will construct descriptive finding aids to assist patrons in locating the information they are searching for.  The archive is still getting started but I will do my best to provide access to the records you seek. Stop by my office (227 in the library), call my phone (extension 6130), or shoot me an email (rscherry@desu.edu).

I want to be of service to you! Please let me know how I can help you learn about our community’s history and realize your academic heritage.  I look forward to getting to know all of you!

Yours,

Joy

Farewell from Leigh-Anne

Written by: Leigh-Anne Yacovelli

My time here at DSU is done, and I am very sad to see it end. The work I was able to do was meaningful and exciting. I had access to items of historical significance that many people do not know existed, such as the course catalogs from 1899-1911 when the University was still called the State College for Colored Students. A lot of the material I processed showed the development of the University, as well as the changes in the departments and course offerings. I have to say one of my favorites was when I helped a researcher find material about student activities and influence that led to the addition of the Black Studies Program.

My confidence increased with the practice provided in the archives, which was the purpose of this post-graduate internship for me. Much of what I learned in school was under the direction of a teacher. However, nothing beats working in the field to learn how an activity can be the same but bring up a different set of questions each day. I was able to clarify my career goals. I not only learned that I can process archival records as quickly as I can catalog books (I interned in a corporate library and spent time in a public library while a MSLS student), I also learned that I enjoy spending time interacting with researchers and people from other University departments who want to learn more about what we have and do at the University Archives.

I wish the University were closer to my home. The two hour drive so early in the morning was very hard, but I never had a day where I woke up and wished I did not have to come in to work. The traffic was always minimal (it was, after all, the summer), the weather was just right, there appears to be no bad parking on campus, and the people are all really nice.

Speaking of the people, the employees at DSU are fantastic! They always had a smile for me. It felt good to be asked how I was doing, and to know the person asking really wanted to know. It did not take long before I was being included in conversations in the staff lunchroom and elsewhere in the library. It is my strongest hope that the people here in the William C. Jason Library remember me like I will them.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work at DSU, and be a part of building the University Archives. I look forward to watching the digital collection grow, and reading future blog posts to learn who else has come on board and where I might be able to meet up with them to compare notes about the collection material.

Staff profile: Leigh-Anne Yacovelli

Written by: Leigh-Anne Yacovelli

Leigh-Anne processing materials from the Office of Public
Relations collection.

My name is Leigh-Anne Yacovelli, and I am very excited to begin my short time here at the Delaware State University Archives and Special Collections. As a recent graduate, my experience working in an archives has been limited. In addition to what you can read in my bio, I was also asked to answer a few more questions. Please feel free to leave any questions in the comments section below.

DSU Archives: How did you decide you wanted to work with archives and special collections?

Leigh-Anne: I learned the value of online access to collections while an undergrad at APU. The history teachers required the use of primary sources for every paper, which was extremely difficult since so little had been digitized and made available on the Internet. I came to realize that in every town there is a relatively unknown collection (or two or three!) tucked away in all sorts of places, from volunteer-run historical societies to universities such as DSU. I felt a library science degree could teach me how to improve visibility of, and access to, these collections, so that others can enjoy and learn from them.

DSU Archives: What excites you the most about working at Delaware State University?

Leigh-Anne: I get really excited when I think about the opportunity I have to dig through the history of the university and add material to the Delaware Heritage Collection. This is a chance to find and showcase items that feature DSU, both the institution and its people’s contributions to national, state, and local events.

DSU Archives: What are your favorite materials to work with, and why?

Leigh-Anne: I like working with photographs and documents equally. There are things that can be said about both that show how difficult it is to pick one over the other. You see, photographs provide visual clues to not just the people, but also their surroundings. They freeze images for future generations to see things ranging from clothing and hairstyles to room furnishings, all within the context they appeared. Since most photographs are not arranged like paintings, where clues to people’s personalities, hobbies, and lines of business are deliberately included in the image, historical documents can provide this missing information, as well as other bits of valuable information like facts and figures of events (and even the names of the people in the photos!), to help researchers learn more.

Promoting the Archives

Written by: Emily R. Cottle

In addition to promoting the Archives to our fine blog readers, during this past spring, I also attended two conferences to get the word out about our young repository. 

At the end of April, I presented as part of a panel at the Mid Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) spring meeting in Rochester, NY featuring individuals charged as the first professional archivists in their institution’s history. This session focused on the challenges of building an archive from scratch and the ongoing challenges that young repositories face.

Poster from the MLA/DLA conference.

In May, I presented a poster at the joint conference of the Maryland and Delaware Library Associations in Ocean City, MD. Here the focus was on the ways that the Archives has had to work to fit into the existing library structure and highlighting some of the similarities and differences between the Archives and the rest of the library. 

It’s always fun to get out and talk about our repository and spread the word about all the exciting work we’re doing here.

Staff Profile: Cale McCammon

Written by: Cale McCammon

Cale hard at work processing
items from the photographs collection.

My name is Cale McCammon, and I’ve just started as an archival fellow here at the University Archives and Special Collections. I’m fresh out of graduate school, new to Delaware, and I’m ready to get my hands dirty. You can learn a little about my bio on the Contributors page, or you can continue reading and get to know me a little better.

DSU Archives: How did you decide you wanted to be an archivist?

Cale: While a student at UVA, I studied abroad in England and Ireland. We toured different cultural institutions like the British Library, and I suppose I got caught up in the mystique of things. After doing some research, it seemed like the profession would be a logical marriage of the subjects I was studying in college (English and history), and so I decided to dive into graduate school at UNC.

DSU Archives: What excites you the most about working at Delaware State University?

Cale: Everything, really! But the fact that the DSU’s archives is so young and beginning to grow makes it even more exciting for me. In this context, you can really make a difference. You can build ties with the community, you can communicate why it’s important to have an archive, and you can make those first noteworthy collections available to researchers. By the end of my stay here, I expect I’ll be as attached to the project as I am to my cats!

DSU Archives: What are your favorite materials to work with, and why?

Cale: It’s difficult for me to pick a favorite, but I will say that I am excited to start processing our collection of photographs. Because photographs are visual, they can often immediately communicate historic value to audiences, both in-person and online, and identifying people in them sometimes becomes a puzzle of its own. I expect to highlight some interesting finds over the next several months, so be sure to visit our blog again!

About the Department

Written by: Emily Cottle

As was mentioned last week, I was hired in June 2012 as the first archivist in Delaware State’s (at that time) 121 year history. Up until that point, various members of the library’s staff had custody of the historical collection. However, the archives were just one secondarily assigned duty of the various librarians and not anybody’s sole responsibility. Therefore, with nobody dedicating 100% of their time to the archives, much necessary work in appraisal and processing was left largely undone.

After my hiring in June 2012, my first project was to conduct a box level inventory. This was an important step for determining what we had (and gaining some minimal intellectual control over it), but possibly more importantly, what we didn’t have in the collection. It was important to get a sense of where the big holes in our documentation were so that future collecting could be targeted to where our collections needed supplementation the most.

After completing this initial inventory, I just began processing little by little, chipping away at boxes here or there, focusing on some of the items I thought would be most useful or popular with researchers: school newspapers, campus newsletters, course catalogs, and photographs.

Things more or less continued on like that until August 2013 when I received notice that our IMLS grant proposal was successful. One of our first posts of the new year will delve more deeply into our grant project, including the motivations behind its writing and what the main goals of the project are.

We’re going to be taking a break for a few weeks while everyone is busy with the holiday season. Have a safe and happy holiday season, readers, and we’ll see you in January with some very exciting posts with more information about our IMLS grant project, introductions to our first archival fellow, and a brief history of Delaware State University.

Staff Profile: Emily R. Cottle, CA

Written by: Emily Cottle

In the coming months, this blog will feature articles from and about other grant funded personnel who will temporarily be a part of the department here. Until then (and probably even after!), you’ll be hearing from me a lot, so I wanted to take the time to introduce myself.

Emily Cottle processes a photograph collection.

As you’ve already gathered, my name is Emily Cottle and I’m the University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian here at Delaware State University. This is a position I’ve held since June 2012. I was hired as the first professional archivist in the history of Delaware State. (Come back next week to learn a little more about the department itself and the collections.)

If you’d like to get the standard "Emily went to school here and worked here" blurb, check out my bio on the Contributors page. Here, however, I wanted to make things a little more interesting and use a Q&A format. If you have any other questions, pop them in the comments section below.

DSU Archives: How did you decide you wanted to be an archivist?
Emily Cottle: I had decided to major in history during my undergrad at Penn State based largely on loving history and had no solid plan for what career this degree might lead me to. After meeting with an advisor, I took an internship working in the archives at a small local historical society (the Centre County Historical Society). It didn’t take long working on processing a photograph collection for me to get hooked. My internship adviser spoke highly of the archives program at Simmons College in Boston, so off I went!

DSU Archives: What’s the best part of your job?
Emily Cottle: Hmmm… that’s a tough one. I’d have to say it’s a toss-up between working with researchers and processing collections. I love working with researchers because each reference question I receive is like a new scavenger hunt to embark upon. You never know what kind of question you’re going to get and thinking of creative ways to find information in the collections is definitely a challenge, but I love it. I love processing collections because you’re constantly learning new things. Each box you open has a piece of information you’ve never encountered before. I find that constant learning process really exciting.

DSU Archives: This article is getting pretty long, so one last question – Why should readers follow this blog?
Emily Cottle: Easy, because this blog is exciting! But seriously, this blog is going to give a detailed behind the scenes look at the operations of the Delaware State University Archives and Special Collections as we journey through the next two years working on our IMLS grant funded project. We’re still a young department, so readers will get to see some of the challenges associated with building up a new repository. Readers will also get some detailed profiles of interesting figures from our institution’s history and glimpses at some of the treasures in our collection. And we really want this blog to be an interactive and engaging site, so please use the comments section to introduce yourself or to tell us what kinds of articles you like or don’t like or want to see more of. Or if you have questions that we aren’t answering, let us know that too and we’ll do our best to remedy the situation. 

Thanks for sticking with us through that long one today, folks! Come back next week for a brief history of the Delaware State University Archives and Special Collections Department.