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The Olive Tree |
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The Olive Tree |
Early Board of Trustees Records Discovered -- Twice
In the Fall of 2005, Karen Storrman, who works in the office of Vice-President
Janet Waldron, came across something unexpected in the inactive office files
that she was sorting—three bound volumes containing the earliest Board of
Trustee records for the University of Maine, and its predecessor, the State
College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. Stunned by discovery, Storrman
immediately called the Special Collections unit of Fogler Library to see if they
wanted them. Not realizing that these were original hand-written minutes, and
knowing that the Library already had a set of printed copies of minutes for the
Board of Trustees, Richard Hollinger, Head of Special Collections, decided to
postpone a decisions about accepting them until a comparison could be made
between the current Library holdings those records held by the Vice-President’s
office.
This opportunity came about two months later when the records survey of these
materials was conducted of this office. In the course of making a detailed
inventory of what was in the boxes of Board of Trustees minutes, Hollinger found
the early records. Buzzing with excitement about their discovery, Hollinger and
Brenda Steeves, the archivist hired to conduct the records survey, returned to
the Library with the early volumes of records. It was not until some time later,
however, that they learned that Storrman had discovered these very same records
months earlier.
Library Seeks to Establish University Archives
For a number of years, Fogler Library has sought funding to establish and
maintain a University Archives, staffed by a full-time archivist. In late 2005,
a significant step was taken towards this goal, when the Library received a
$5,000 grant from Maine State Records Advisory Board to begin planning for a
University Archives. With the grant and with matching funds provided by the
Vice-President for Administration and Finance, the Library has hired an
experienced archivist, Brenda Steeves, to conduct a survey of the records of
selected offices of the University.
“It is standard practice to begin the establishment of an archives with a survey
of the records in all the offices of an institution, “ explained Richard
Hollinger, Head of Special Collections, “so that you can identify and preserve
the more important records before they are lost or destroyed.” In this case, the
Library has the resources to survey only a 20% representative sample of the
records, but this will be enough to provide the data needed for long-range
planning of the archives.
Although, because of a lack of storage space, the Library has not been routinely
accepting the important historical records that have been identified during the
survey project, an exception was made for the earliest Board of Trustee minutes,
dating from 1865-1908, which were in the records of the Vice-President for
Administration and Finance.
The records survey will be completed in February 2006, and the data collected
will be used to prepare a report on the resources needed to establish and
maintain an archives. The Library plans to create a fund to provide support for
this program. Donations to this can be sent to: Archives Fund, Attn: Susan
Clement, 5729 Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469.
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