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Catalogs to computers | part one of three – 1 2 3

Keepers of past look to future
By Ruthanne Johnson
rjohn180@mscd.edu

Photo by Heather A. Longway-Burke • longway@mscd.edu Auraria Library archivist Rosemary Evetts sits at her desk Jan. 29 at the Special Collections Department in the Auraria Library. The department is home to historical documents from Auraria and throughout Colorado. Obstacles have risen recently concerning how to adapt the archives to modern technology.

Tucked into the northeast corner of the Auraria Library’s second floor sits a quiet enclave filled with old books, manuscripts, photos and ephemera. Both organized and intriguing, especially to historical researchers and those curious about official school records, Auraria’s Archive and Special Collections Department is a tidy little world that may soon be facing an uncertain future.

Archivist Rosemary Evetts currently manages the department, which she believes is an invaluable resource for students, faculty and outside researchers alike.

“We function as a records management facility for all three schools, collecting permanent records, student newspapers, newsletters and such,” Evetts said, adding that in addition to records management, the archives actively seek items significant to Colorado and Auraria history.

The archive faces many challenges as it tries to maintain itself on a changing, tri-institutional campus in a 21st-century world dependent on instantly accessible electronic information. Because Auraria is a shared campus, the archives have been caught up in controversy over project funding.

“Although we fall under UCD, many of our collections, photos and other artifacts are actually the property of Metro, and sometimes it gets a little sticky when talking about whose material it is, where it is, and how it is being maintained,” Evetts said.

A recent example is the issue of whether or not to digitize certain materials, which would require a substantial initial investment, as well as the ongoing costs of maintaining the software.

She also mentioned a further problem with digitizing artifacts, as the process has not been proven to adequately preserve them.

“Right now there is nothing on the horizon … because no money is going toward the effort,” Evetts said.

Under the direction of now-retired archivist Frank Tapp, the department began managing institutional records from the offices of Auraria’s three schools more than thirty years ago. The department also began collecting historical photographs, manuscripts and personal papers.

Since then, the archive has acquired several valuable collections donated by benefactors such as Denver lawyer Minori Yasui, who fought an extensive legal battle for Japanese-American redress after persecution during World War II, as well as former Colorado State University professor Donald Sutherland and numerous employees of Colorado’s notorious Amachee War Relocation Center.

Other renowned collections stored in the archives include printed transcripts of the ’80s KOA radio series “Colorado Reflections,” in which writers, professors, historians and long-time residents of Colorado were interviewed about Colorado history, and the official papers of the National Civic League, an organization that sought to standardize and professionalize city governments throughout the nation.

The collections are kept in the larger of the archive’s two storage rooms, with old and rare books stored in the smaller room.

Evetts and student archive assistant Jennifer Goodland organize and care for the rare books, often assisting patrons as they browse through collections such as an original Nancy Drew series and a rare book of rhetoric from the 18th century. The book room also contains numerous rows of theses published by UCD graduate students that are available for research.

In addition to manuscripts and personal paper collections, the archives department maintains an extensive classical record collection donated by the radio station KVOD. Music professors often seek out the albums for the liner notes, which give a historical account of the composer, composition and live performance.

“The liner notes on these old album covers are a historical account and important to keep,” Evetts said.

Metro History Club president Charlie Smith was able to take advantage of the archives for the club’s haunted history tour of Auraria in late October 2006.

“I was having a hard time finding anything on the history of the old Tivoli brewery, but fortunately the archives had an out-of-print book about it,” he said, adding that the archives are an invaluable resource for history majors and a prestigious legacy of Metro academia.