Archives & History: Louisiana Conference: United Methodist Church

Archives & History . . . . . . . . Louisiana Conference
Centenary College Archives
Status Report 2003-2004

1. 2003-04
   My time in the Archives started with Kyle Labor (the previous Archivist) and me organizing our materials stored in the attic. When we began, our collections had been roughly inventoried and were stored in record boxes, but the boxes were in no apparent order. We first grouped the boxes into their respective categories and then placed the boxes within each category in alphabetical order. Adopting a logical organizational system has proved to be extremely valuable when handling patron requests.
   Having separated our collections in the attic, we completed a preliminary inventory of our Centenary and Methodist materials. This involved labeling each box indicating its contents. At the same time, these records were saved in Microsoft Word format. These Word files can be easily searched to examine our holdings. However, the next step is to log all archival materials in the PastPerfect software program, which is discussed in more detail under #2. Having completed these steps for the Centenary and Methodist collections, we have moved on to inventorying and labeling our other collections (e.g. Corrington, Wilkinson, Furman, Chandler, CEA, LVA).
   In addition to organizing our attic materials, we have worked on organizing Centenary and Methodist material stored in our vertical file kept in the Archives basement. This project involved the transfer of materials into acid-free folders, consolidation of material, and inventorying the material. This project is still underway.
   We have also handled the usual patron requests – most of which are Centenary and Methodist related. One unique example of this involves Centenary’s old campus in Jackson, Louisiana. We met and hosted two employees from Centenary’s Jackson campus earlier this year. They were particularly interested in our material pertaining to Centenary’s days in Jackson and examined our photo files, Board Minutes, and the Centenary history book Dr. Morgan is composing. These Jackson employees expressed interest in creating more communication between “old” and “new” Centenary, and I expect to aid them in any future projects that our archives can lend assistance.
   Since the last Archives Status Report from summer 2002, two intracampus projects have been completed. The first consisted of Dr. Odom creating a sesquicentennial history of music at Centenary. The second involved Dr. Barrett supervising an academic paper chronicling Mexican Oil operations in the early 1900s, which drew heavily from information in our Wilkinson Papers collection.
   There are two intracampus projects that have continued since the last Archives Status Report. The first is Dr. Morgan’s research and writing the history of Centenary College. Dr. Morgan continues to make heavy use of archival materials generated by and pertaining to the College. The second is Dr Shepard’s ongoing U.S. History Senior Seminar research papers. For each semester the class is offered, inevitably, some of its students conduct research using materials located in the Archives.
   Also of note, since the last Archives Status Report, we received the National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant. As part of the grant, a professional consultant visited the Archives, assessed our preservation needs, and submitted a written evaluation. We have taken multiple steps suggested by the consultant’s evaluation and continue to attend to issues it addresses.

2. Important projects
Aside from the aforementioned projects, which Kyle and I did discuss, we spoke of using the then newly acquired PastPerfect software to catalog all of the archive’s collections. This software was suggested to us by Meadows Museum, who use the program to catalog their materials. Since I have no experience using PastPerfect, I have contacted the museum and set up a meeting for them to teach me how to use the program. I intend for the archives’ main summer project to be cataloging our collections using PastPerfect.

3. Plans for 2004-2005
   In addition to continuing our work on the previously mentioned projects, I have a handful of issues I would like to address in the upcoming academic year.
   The first issue involves the purchase of a digital camera. A digital camera would be especially helpful when patrons request copies of documents that are too old and fragile for photocopying or scanning. I anticipate that taking a digital photograph and sending it as an email attachment would be an easy and efficient way of transmitting data from old documents to our patrons. A digital camera would also be a useful tool that ties in with the PastPerfect software. PastPerfect allows for digital pictures to be stored within an item’s record.
   The second issue, the construction of additional metal shelves in the attic, would benefit our attic materials in terms of preservation and accessibility. Currently, our Centenary, Methodist, Corrington, and London material stored in the attic is kept on metal shelving. However, our manuscript collections that fall outside of these categories are simply kept on wooden pallets. While using pallets is certainly better than storing the boxes directly on the floor, it would be best to get them off the pallets and onto metal shelves.   There are piles of metal frames in a corner of the attic that could possibly be used to build shelves. I will need to examine this further and see if facilities services can take on this construction task, or if we need to look into buying new metal shelves.
   Another attic issue concerns cleanliness. Currently, the archives’ section of the attic is not cleaned with any regularity. As a result, a great deal of dust has accumulated on the floor, on the boxes containing archival material, and, in some instances, on exposed archival artifacts. If a regular system of cleaning by janitors could be established, the archives holdings would benefit greatly. In addition to dust being a preservation hazard, so too are pests – especially insects. Along with systematic cleanings, we should explore how best to control bugs (e.g. spraying pesticide, which we must make sure will not affect any of the archives’ materials).
   As a final issue to address in the upcoming year, we should look into acquiring a cabinet to store microfilm. At present, they are simply kept in cardboard box tops. Keeping them in a cabinet intended for microfilm storage would especially help with the microfilm collection’s accessibility and organization.

4. Microfilmed Conference Journals
We have the years 1847-1967 of the Louisiana Methodist Conference Journals on microfilm.

5. Scanning Conference Journals Project
This project is in the beginning stages. Since the Archives has not done any extensive digital scanning of its materials, we are in the learning stages. At present, a scanning technique is being developed for the best scanning results, best software to use, best equipment, plus best posting technique, to last over time. Finding a student who is qualified to handle archival materials can prove to be a difficult task. Currently, student training is also taking place. At present, posting of the digitized journals is being done on the Centenary Web server.

Chris Brown, Archivist