Department Name: Special Collections & Archives
College Name: Library & Learning Services
Department Head: Kathleen Broeder
Department Mission Statement (required for NWCCU):
In accordance with the vision statement of Dixie State University and the mission of the Dixie State University Library, Special Collections serves the university, local community, and the state of Utah by collecting, preserving, providing access to, and interpreting primary source material on the culture and history of the university and local region, the geographically contiguous areas of Washington County, the Arizona Strip, and the Big Muddy region of Nevada. This includes oral histories, collections of local families and organizations, and books related to the regional culture, including polygamy. As Regional Repository for Washington County, Special Collections also acquires, preserves, and provides access to the records of local governmental entities in accordance with GRAMA and the Utah State Historical Records Advisory Board.
Strategy: Build digital collections infrastructure
Strategy: Re-evaluate and revise internal policies, procedures, and guidelines.
Strategy: Provide leadership for OER on campus
Kathleen Broeder:
Has been active on campus by serving on the Women’s Resource Committee, IRB Committee, DHU5 Conference planning group, Atwood Retention Grant OER team, and both committees of the Juanita Brooks Lecture Series. She conducts outreach to local cultural heritage institutions by serving as vice-president of the Washington County Historical Society (WCHS), as a board member of DASIA, and as an advisory board member to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers McQuarrie Museum Board. She has also given a formal presentation on Maps and Mapmakers at the McQuarrie Museum, and hosted a WCHS field trip to Special Collections & Archives to discuss the life of Juanita Brooks through Primary Sources. This past year she has attended several professional development trainings including: LGBTQ+ Safe Zone Training, several CTL Lunch and Learn workshops, Utah Women in Higher Education Network (UWHEN) conference, Digital Humanities Utah 4 (DHU4) conference, the annual Teaching & Learning Conference, and a NEH funded European trip to learn about the romantic era. She is engaging in research by starting a Fundamental Mormon Oral History Project, has received IRB approval for archival training research, and submitted a book proposal for a historical photo book of Utah’s Dixie. She has volunteered with Utah History Day as a judge and with the Special Olympics.
Tammy Gentry:
Joined Special Collections & Archives in August 2018 and has been featured in the Library and Learning Services newsletter under the Employee Spotlight. She has received several thank you notes from researchers who she has assisted. She has participated in the LGBTQ+ Safe Zone Training, UWHEN conference sessions, and Dixie Development Day. She attends local history events sponsored by local cultural heritage institutions for professional growth.
Tracey O’Kelly:
Completed a 6 week course on the Fundamentals in Cataloging through the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. She has been active on campus as a presenter at a CTL Lunch & Learn on Helping Adults Adult in the Classroom, served on 2 hiring committees, attended LGBTQ+ Safe Zone Training, and been chair of the sustainability committee. She volunteers in the community with the Lego League. She has joined the Utah Historical Society and the Silver Reef Foundation, and attends local history events sponsored by local cultural heritage institutions for professional growth.
| Name and Degree | Tenure Status T = Tenured TT = Tenure Track NTT = Non Tenure Track |
Rank | Faculty FTE | Released Time in Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kathleen Broeder, MA & MSIS | TT | Assistant Librarian | 1 | na |
Staff Information:
This year has marked a change in how cataloging of the rare book collection is processed. Special Collections staff now complete all stages of book processing, with quality control checked by the Head of Technical Services. As a result, in the rare book collection a significant amount of copy cataloging processing has occured this year. The book catalog had 122 new items and 86 duplicate copies added. Many of these items come from the Bruce Furr Collection on Mormon studies which was given in 2015. Several rare dissent authors were included in the collection. In addition, 438 individual periodicals have been added to the collection, representing 5 periodical titles. All additions were copy cataloging, and there has been no original cataloging this year.
A significant change has also occurred in archival processing this year which has led to a significant increase. In total, 23 archival collections have been completed, and 2 almost completed, representing 100 linear feet (a 150% growth of linear feet from last years 40). This growth was possible because of two changes in the staffing model. We hired a replacement part-time paraprofessional who has learned quickly and has processed 14 collections, and added new materials to 3 existing collections. More students (10) than ever before worked in Special Collections & Archives to supervise the Reading Room desk and worked on archival projects. We also hosted a paid internship in the Spring for a student interested in a library career. Students have completed 7 collections, with many more in various stages of processing. A volunteer of several years completed 2 large collections, but will be leaving this summer. Processed collections receive much more use than unprocessed collections. The WASH 055 J. L. Crawford Collection, WASH 052 All That Was Promised Collection, and WASH 062 LeVan Martineau Collections were used within weeks of being processed.
In addition, we have added 20 accessions this year including wood block printing negatives of local images, 110 volumes of historic newspapers from 6 different titles (1896–1960s with duplicate and new titles), a 75th DSU Anniversary commemorative coin, and the St. George Motor Court / Motel Association Minutes from mid-century.
One of the biggest achievement in Archives has been assigning every item on the shelves an accession number and adding it to our archival management system. Some of these items have been on the shelves for decades with no better description than “miscellaneous newspapers”. Each container was clearly labeled, and accession made with fairly detailed descriptions of what might be found in the container. This is part of a larger process to make the archival management system contain the location information instead of relying on a cumbersome spreadsheet.
A new Special Collections server through DSU IT was purchased ($6,500 as one-time fee for the server, and annual fees of $1,310 for backups, and $305 for Archives Space). The new server has allowed the digitization of collections to proceed. This year, 5 collections in their entirety have been added to the internal digital collections. The WASH 062 LaVan Martineau Collection (326 files / 31.2GB) was scanned by a volunteer and DSU was given permission to retain the digital files as a research collection while the originals were returned the owner. Two collections, WASH 047 William Fawcett Journal and WASH 048 Aaron Nelson, were small bound volumes that were donated by the owners with a digital reproduction version. Three collections, UA 009 DSU Yearbooks (~22,000 files / 1.39TB), WASH 018 Juanita Brooks Collection (~2,600 files / 201GB), and WASH 037 Postcard Collection (92 files / 1.74GB), have been scanned in their entirety by 2 students. However, the Yearbook Collection will need additional quality assurance review for the last 30 years of yearbooks. The front covers and table of contents of the UA 016 Southern Quill (143 files / 25GB) were scanned at a request of the Southern Quill coordinator to aid in access of historic issues. This is a step towards possibly scanning complete issues in the future.
Work with oral histories has continued, both existing and newly conducted oral histories. A total of 45 oral histories have been completed and cataloged, and 4 more have been completed, but not yet cataloged. This year we have collaborated with local community members on two grant projects. The LaVan Martineau oral history collection of 3 oral histories was funded by the Washington County Historical Society. The Utah’s Dixie Veteran Stories: From WWII to Gulf War project funded 16 oral histories and includes an additional 16 interviews that are not funded. A panel discussion, moderated by the Head of Special Collections & Archives, will be held mid-summer as a culmination of the project. Special Collections & Archives has collaborated with the English Department, and Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Department, the Mayor of Hildale, Utah, and an independent oral history interviewer to do the behind the scenes work to start a project on Fundamentalist Mormons that live in the local area. Interviews for this project will occur next fiscal year.
The largest threat to the oral history collection’s growth is the absence of transcription funding for oral histories. Some of the these include oral histories on micro-cassettes that do not digitize well. Many of the individuals who had conducted the interviewers are no longer capable of reviewing the oral histories due to health concerns. As a result, Special Collections & Archives staff have taken on workflows that were previously done by the interviewers or volunteers.
Accurate statistics for the public services offered in the Reading Room are difficult to fully obtain this year due to two changes. The first change, was a redesign of the statistics to bring us in to compliance with the Society of American Archivists new Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries. The second change was an update to the statistics software, which makes comparing data from before and after the update difficult. While both of these have interrupted the ability to pull perfectly reliable statistics, they were good and necessary changes.
This year we had 261 total visits, a drop from previous years (see Annual Research Visits chart). However, this is not an alarming number. The number of first time or unique visitors increase by 41 from the previous year. The returning visitors dropped because of a change in reporting. Before each time a handful of frequent visitors came they were counted if any help was rendered regardless of the assistance (most often it was computer / email assistance). This year data was only collected on the number of returning users who used collection materials. In many ways this is a more accurate view of the use of our collections.
Use of the collections is significantly higher during the semester when student’s need access for assignments. However, there is still use through summer and during breaks. Fridays had the most visitors, with Mondays and Wednesdays being close seconds. There was substantial use on each day of the week (except weekends when Special Collections & Archives is closed).
A lot of collections use was driven by classes that integrated primary sources from Special Collections & Archives into coursework. Three general education history classes (HIST 2700 and 2710) used the oral history collection as primary sources for student research papers. For the first time, HIST 3000 - Historical Research Methodologies used the primary sources in special collection to get a hands on experience analyzing primary sources. The high use of oral histories for class use can be seen during peak points in the semester (see 2018–2019 In-House Use of Cataloged Materials chart) and that class assignments mostly used the oral history collection, with HIST 3000 students using WASH and Unprocessed collections (see Collections Used by Purpose of Research chart).
The Collections Used by Purpose of Research chart shows class assignments and family or local history purposes were the most common reason for using collection materials. The purpose was class assignments 86, family / local history 85, research for a publication 2, research for a thesis / dissertation 1, photographs 9, and other 33 times. Other use tended to be for internal use across campus.
The service offered in the reading room has been noted, and praised by our volunteers. Here is an example from Spring 2019,
“I just wanted to comment on how incredibly helpful Tammy Gentry was on Tuesday earlier this week. I called about a certain project I was working on and she got right on it and had done more than I could have wanted in an extremely timely manner. Her help was highly appreciated and I will definitely not hesitate to call for any future projects I undergo!”
Strategy: Build digital collections infrastructure
Strategy: Re-evaluate and revise internal policies, procedures, and guidelines.
Strategy: Provide leadership for OER on campus