SCRC workshop helps African American church staff develop archival skills

Workshop participants included, from left to right, Eva Brown
(Mt. Gilead Baptist Church), Yvonne Giles, and Phaon Patton
(First African Baptist Church), with Stacie Williams from SCRC.
Not pictured is Delphine Ridgeway (Main Street Baptist Church).

Special Collections Research Center archivists and librarians hosted four participants for an archival workshop for clerks and secretaries of African American churches in Lexington. 

The workshop idea began with historian Yvonne Giles of the First African Foundation. Giles contacted Ruth Bryan, SCRC director of Technical Services and University Archivist. Bryan organized the workshop in conjunction with Giles and Special Collections staff including: Jaime Marie Burton, director of Research Services and Education; Nancy DeMarcus, University Records manager; Sarah Dorpinghaus, digital archivist; Reinette Jones, Oral History Librarian and African American Studies Academic Liaison; Matthew Strandmark, education archivist; and Stacie Williams, Learning Lab manager. 

Topics included the basics of inventorying and storing physical records; digitization methods and standards; preservation and description of born-digital and digitized files; providing research access to and on-line sharing of records; and the historical value of African American church records.  The workshop concluded with a tour of working areas in Special Collections. 

"We were thrilled to meet and work with our records colleagues," said Bryan. "We plan to continue building this relationship."