Archivist preserves college treasure
Katherine Poythress
Issue date: 9/13/07 Section: News
In a musty, obscure storage room off the Heritage Room, some old blue and white beanie hats and a model of Central Hall nestle among a collection of filing cabinets and dusty boxes. These house a rich archive of Hillsdale College history.
Public Services Librarian Linda Moore said she has been sorting and organizing photographs, documents and other historic college-related materials for approximately the last five years, taking over the job of archivist for retired faculty members.
Since then, Moore's quarter-time job as archivist has been a one-woman-show until last week, when she hired senior Phil Brenneise to assist her.
The archives room is small and crowded with glass negatives, scrapbooks and boxes of both sorted and unsorted photographs dating back to the late 1800s. Moore said she has the luxury of storing frequently used materials like yearbooks and bound Collegian issues in Michael Alex Mossey Library for easy access.
"It's kind of like doing reference," Moore said about her job. "But it's just searching the college history instead of some of the other reference materials."
Moore's job entails finding things for people, she said. People enlist her help to locate everything from information on grandparents who attended school here in 1901 to locating pictures for the Mary Randall Preschool anniversary open house, or for science-related activities in the college's past to put in the halls of the new science building.
Just last week, Moore received an inquiry into the college fight song.
Moore also arranges and displays some of the most interesting historical pieces, like the collection of silver souvenir spoons from various time periods, displayed to the left of the fireplace in the Heritage Room.
Moore said people seem most interested in the photographs. One of the biggest projects she has undertaken as archivist is to digitize all the negatives, photographs and documents in the archives room, making them available and searchable from the archives Web site.
Public Services Librarian Linda Moore said she has been sorting and organizing photographs, documents and other historic college-related materials for approximately the last five years, taking over the job of archivist for retired faculty members.
Since then, Moore's quarter-time job as archivist has been a one-woman-show until last week, when she hired senior Phil Brenneise to assist her.
The archives room is small and crowded with glass negatives, scrapbooks and boxes of both sorted and unsorted photographs dating back to the late 1800s. Moore said she has the luxury of storing frequently used materials like yearbooks and bound Collegian issues in Michael Alex Mossey Library for easy access.
"It's kind of like doing reference," Moore said about her job. "But it's just searching the college history instead of some of the other reference materials."
Moore's job entails finding things for people, she said. People enlist her help to locate everything from information on grandparents who attended school here in 1901 to locating pictures for the Mary Randall Preschool anniversary open house, or for science-related activities in the college's past to put in the halls of the new science building.
Just last week, Moore received an inquiry into the college fight song.
Moore also arranges and displays some of the most interesting historical pieces, like the collection of silver souvenir spoons from various time periods, displayed to the left of the fireplace in the Heritage Room.
Moore said people seem most interested in the photographs. One of the biggest projects she has undertaken as archivist is to digitize all the negatives, photographs and documents in the archives room, making them available and searchable from the archives Web site.
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