WPA Program brings Archivist of the United States to Campus

The Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, joined UK Libraries on September 5 to celebrate the conclusion of a major project on government records regarding the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  While at UK Ferriero lunched with graduate students from the School of Library and Information Science and from the Department of History and engaged the Archivist in a lively question and answer session following lunch.

 UK Libraries, in cooperation with the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries and with a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), is now a Center of Excellence among southeastern research libraries for WPA records.  The program, "Putting America Back to Work during the Great Depression: Preserving and Improving Access to the Works Progress Administration Records for the Future” featured the Archivist’s keynote and a panel discussion led by UK Government Documents Librarian Sandee McAninch.  Other program participants were Mary Beth Thomson, Deirdre Scaggs, John Burger (ASERL), Tracy Campbell, Heath Martin, and Bill Creech from the National Archives.

Thanks to Mary McLaren who chaired the planning committee and committee members Katie Henningsen, Tracy Campbell, Sherree Osborne, and Gail Kennedy.  Others throughout UK Libraries from Collections and Technical Services, Facilities, A-V Services, and Special Collections helped make the entire day a huge success.

Look for more news about the program in the next Speaking Volumes.