Vo1 . 11 , No. 1 Spring 1980 Spring Meetings The SOA's meeting schedule for 1980 sessions. The planning committee for provides the membership with excellent the joint workshop hopes to provide opportunities to maKe new acquain- sessions and speakers that will make tances as well as to keep abreast of early arrival in Cincinnati worthwhile developments in the profession. not only to SOA, SIA, and KCA members, but to archivists throughout the The spring meeting, "The Archival country. -Alternative," is scheduled for April 25 and 26 at Wittenberg University in All in all, 1980 promises to be an Springfield, Ohio. The meeting will exciting and informative year for our run concurrently with the annual meet- membership. We hope to see you in ing of the Ohio Academy of History at Springfield and Cincinnati. the same location. SOA registrants will thereby have the opportunity to sit in at sessions of both organiza- Play Ball! tions. The Society of Ohio Archivists is forming a softball team to play in a The SOA sessions will explore a vari- challenqe match with a team from the ety of topics associated with the Midwest A~chives Conference prior to training of archivists including over- the SAA convention in Cincinnati this views of three training programs in fall. At stake is the possession of the state: a traveling trophy (currently held by -an imoortant discussion of stan- Motley's MACaroons, the MAC team) and dards · for archival education the prestige of the archivists of this -an examination of the viability state. All interested SOA members are of the archival job market strongly urged to sign up for the home -insights into the use of student team which (in honor of SOA stalwart and grant-funded help in Alice Vestal) has been named Vestal 's archival operation. Virgins. SOA team manager is Robert Smith of Dayton, Ohio. Direct all Several other sessions will explore inquiries and applications to Mr. the relationship between archivists Smith at the address listed below. and professional historians. Lunch- Weather permitting, a practice eons, a cocktail party with the OAH, session will be held following the and the SOA business meeting will spring meeting in Springfteld, Ohio. round out the program. In Cincinnati on September 29 and 30, the SOA will join with the Society of Indiana Archivists and the Kentucky Council on Archives in sponsoring a workshop on the cataloging and retrieval of still pictorial media. The workshop is scheduled for the period irrmedi- Robert Smith ately before the main proceedings 1500 Westona Drive of the SAA's national meeting in Dayton, Ohio 45410 the same city. Workshop sessions will be held in, or in close proximity to (513) 258-2061 the same facilities housing the SAA -1- Research Centers and opened a new Accessions Cornrnittee ten million dollar library building in which space was allocated for rare At its December 13th meeting, SOA books, archives, and manuscripts. The Council voted to create an Accessions need for an archival repository was Committee. The purpose of this body further reinforced by an unexpected, will be to compile and publish though unfortunate, event. On May 4, (through the SOA) a master listing of 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen killed all accessions reported to this news- four students and wounded nine others letter and The Ohio Archivist during during an anti-war rally on the cam- the past decade. Upon publication of pus. The responsibility for acquir- this guide, the committee will have the ing, perserving, and making available responsibility of compiling and pub- the source materials to help explain lishing annual supplements. Laura this nationally significant, but Goretta of the Case Western Reserve nevertheless tragic, event and its University Archives is chairing the aftermath naturally was assigned to committee. She is looking for com- the Archives. mittee members who would be willing to put in a good deal of work to~ard a The Archives has grown dramatically worthwhile goal. If you are inter- in the last decade, during which time ested in the committee, please contact it has remained constant in pursuing Laura at the CWRU Archives, Case its principal objective of supporting \fostern Reserve University, University Kent State's traditional emphases on Circle, Cleveland, Ohio 44106. teaching, research, and public ser- vice. The Archives currently houses and services approximately six thou- KSU -'L\rchives: A Synopsis sand linear feet of archival records and historical manuscripts. These of the First Decade holdings occupy the larger part of In the nine years since Dr. Paul one of the thirteen floors in a 1.3 DuBois' article on "The Northeast million volume library which is a Gateway" appeared in The Ohio member of the Association of Research Archivist, two of his three predic- Libraries and the Ohio College tions have come to fruition. As the Library Center. person originally invested with the responsibility for developing the archival program at Kent State Univer-· sity, he projected both "a rapid growth of collections" as well as the hiring of "a professional staff to service" the holdings. The Archives has not attained "a separate... building in conjunction with the University Library," but its f)hysical facility has nevertheless expanded to meet its acquisition and service responsibilities. Similarly to many institutions, Kent State University, founded in 1910, did little to preserve records that would help to document its early history until several years after its crea- tion. In 1970, however, two events occurred, which together provided the necessary impetus for establish- ing a formal archival program at KSU. Within a span of several months the Exterior view of the Kent State Univer- University oecame a charter member of sity Libraries. The Archives is located the Ohio Network of American History on the eleventh floor. -2- The Archives is administratively part, but physically separate from the Department of Special Collec- tions, one of the three main divi- sions in the library. Rare books and some manuscript collections occupy a large portion of another floor in the building. There are five full-time personnel assigned to the department, which is directed by Professor Dean H. Keller. He is also a current, elected member of the Executive Committee for the Rare Books and Manuscriots Section in the Association of College and Re- search Libraries. Professor Alex Gildsen serves as an acquisitions specialist and processor. He is widely known in literary circles, The reading room in the KSU Archives. which has contributed greatly to KSU's success in acquiring manuscripts from notable contemporary authors. Dr. Neal Edgar, who served on the American Library Association's Com- for which KSU is responsible. When mittee on AACR-2, concentrates aen- not in the field, he is involved in erally on bibliographic control~and processing accessioned record series access. Mrs. Sylvia Eldridge serves or in assisting researchers, espe- as a general assistant in the unit. cially genealogists, in the use of Dr. James W. Geary serves as Univer- records. sity Archivist and Director of the American History Research Center, The Archives' present physical facil- having succeeded Dr. Leslie Stegh ity consists of over seventy-five in this position in 1977. hundred square feet of floor space. Of this total, sixty-two hundred In addition to this cadre of person- square feet, or over eighty percent~ nel, the unit receives assistance from consist of stack area. The remaining other quarters. Work-study students space is reserved for offices, equip- perform many routine, but necessary, ment, processing areas, and a reading functions. Those at the graduate room. level, especially assistants from the Department of History and practicum The unit also has access to various students from the School of Library auxiliary services within the main Science, are assigned generally to building. Located in close proximity, special projects that require a more for example, is a Bibliographical and advanced educational background. Textual Center. On the second floor There are also interested and quali- of the library is the Self-Instruction fied volunteers who, once trained in Center which services some of the user archival methodology, have proven in- copies of tape recordings that belong valuable in bringing continuity to the to archival collections. The Archives processing of large collections under retains the master. Not only does professional direction. Any survey of this arrangement reduce the possibil- personnel would be incomplete without ity of erasure or damage to the archi- mention of Dr. Robert J. Dodge of the val copy, but the Listening Center has Ohio Historical Society. Since his the capability for readily copying a assignment to KSU as its Local Gov- tape if a user so desires. This prac- ernment Records Specialist in 1975, tice also reduces the time that the Dr. Dodge has almost finished the archival staff has to spend on serv- inventorying of all county and muni- icing most tape recordings in the cipal records in the eight-county area repository. -3- An archival program, of course, cannot attitudes of soldiers and sailors be concerned with the acquisition of during World War II. The papers of audio-visual materials alone, but Joseph W. Begala, who served KSU as rather with the accessioning and pro- an athletic coach in various sports cessing of many and diverse types of for over forty years, also transcend source material. To facilitate ex- local significance. Coach Begala planation, the archival collections at not only authored the Manual on Hand KSU can be viewed as constituting to Hand Combat that the United States three distinct sets of holdings~ the Marine Corps adopted in the 1940's~ University Archives, the May 4th Col- but, because of over 300 victories, lection, and the collections of the became known in intercollegiate cir- American History Research Center.