Person, Peer, Patron: Scholarly Interactions Among Local Communities, Archivists & Librarians

Rhonda Jones, Ph.D.University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

April 27, 2015

COMBINING RESEARCH & PEDAGOGY

STUDENT PRACTICUMS

COMMUNITY SERVICE & OUTREACH

COMMUNITY ARCHIVES

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

2ND yr. master’s student at UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Library & Information Science with a concentration in archives and records management

Assistant Professor/Director of Public History• Introduction to Public History • Oral History• Museum Studies• Introduction to Archives• Arrangement and Description• Collections Management

WHAT IS PUBLIC HISTORY?Commonly referred to as “people’s history” or “applied history” the theory and methodology of public history is firmly rooted in the discipline of history and shared authority. At its core, the fundamentals of research and interpretation rests on sound scholarship and is useful in public practice. 

Offering a multi-disciplinary approach it emphasizes collaborative work with academic institutions, community members, stakeholders, and professional organizations

As with all public scholarship, digital technologies play an increasingly important role in the work of public historians, creating new spaces where they can share their work and broaden access to varied audiences.

BEHIND THE VEIL ORAL HISTORY PROJECTCENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES

DUKE UNIVERSITYMaintained electronic, subject-index database for 1,250 narratives on African Americans’ experiences in the Jim Crow South. • Coordinated accessioned

interviews• Liaison for researchers’

requests• Facilitated library transfers • Provided content knowledge

to have a small percentage of the collection digitized

Chowan Discovery GroupAhoskie, North Carolina

“Kin and Community”

Historic Stagville Planation and UNC’S Wilson Library

Hands-on-experiences in archival fundamentals, museum curatorship, and collections management

Five week summer internship in archival theory and methodology Museum of Confederacy’s Eleanor S. Brockenbrough Library, 2009-2014• Arrangement, description, cataloging,

preservation, and records management according to Society of American Archivists standards

• Research & cultural interpretation

Project RIGHT Now Carolinas (Research, Interpretation, Gather, Historic, Treasures), a coalition of librarians, archivists, and historians who engage in collaborative research projects with churches, schools, institutions, and local organizations

ST. PAUL’S A.M.E CHURCH

PATICIPATORY ARCHIVES, PROGAMMING & PUBLIC OUTREACH

JACKSON CENTER FOR SAVING AND MAKING HISTORY

Working with UNC’s Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History recognizes the legacy of the multiplicity of voices within the Northside and Pine Knoll neighborhoods in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The Center has preserved hundreds of recorded oral history interviews from local residents with a social justice orientation, and implemented communication technology to transform them into a physical and digital archive.

Published and unpublished materials: manuscripts, letters, photographs, moving images and sound materials, artwork, books, artifacts, and the digital equivalents of all of these things. Broadly speaking community archives are defined as a collection of “living archive” materials that serve to document and preserve the communities’ triumphs and struggles, while educating, inspiring, and empowering the users they serve. The process of creating the collection has to involve the community. Typically, this means that volunteers have played a key role, sometimes alongside scholars and professional archivists.

What are community archives?

• Youth radio audio recordings

• Photographs and other files

• Oral history recordings & transcripts

• Manuscripts

Working with Omeka

Implications of archival custody and the future for wider use

Digitization vs. digital preservationIs it an archive?• Accessible & searchable… but are

unprocessed• Finding aid

FINAL THOUGHTS…

ANY QUESTIONS?