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Here are a few helpful tips for the lucky ones visiting an archive. Give yourself enough time. Looking through archival collections is time-consuming, and you will need more time than you expect. Believe me. Check with the archival staff beforehand and ask them a lot of questions. Will they be open the days you want […]

It is a fun day in the Archives and Special Collections when we get a batch of Mahoney Music Collection books back from the catalogers. The library at the University of South Dakota is in the process of creating catalog records for all the books in the Mahoney Music Collection. Having catalog records in the […]

I felt that I could start this blog post with some cheer before I say my farewells. Since winter break is coming up and the holiday season is nigh, I thought I would dig through the Archives and Special Collections for some Christmas-related items. The object that caught my eye was Ellen S. Mills’ diaries, of the […]

Did your grandparents or great-grandparents attend the University of South Dakota? The Archives and Special Collections has the following sources to help you find out. Sources listing graduates and those who attended but did not graduate: University Catalogs, 1883-1884 school year to the current school year. Early catalogs often list enrollees. Coyote Yearbooks, 1903 through 1986. Student, […]

Archiving is not about history looking backward, but about storing and securing for the future. Archiving – all the activities from creation and management to the use of records and archives – has always been directed towards transmitting human activity and experience through time and, secondly, through space. It has the quality of the archive […]

On Thursday October 1, 2015, archivists around the country will join you on Twitter to answer all questions archival. Sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, you can learn more about how archivists are working every day to preserve historical materials like photographs, documents, audio and video and digital materials. If you have always wondered […]

Well, this is it. It’s my last day. Today I get to turn in my key, submit my last time sheet, and clean up all my files on the computer, and I have to take home my sweater, wrist warmers, blanket, and refillable Einstein Bros. coffee mug . . . plus say goodbye to probably the […]

For quick tips on how to save your audio tapes, books, film and home movies, data, textiles, documents, slides, photographs, and scrapbooks, go to http://www.ala.org/alcts/preservationweek/howto.

Last Friday, Doris and I were sent out into the world with an expensive camera as a part of a class that Sarah was teaching about using said expensive camera. It was daunting, mostly because I’m really clumsy so I was afraid of dropping and breaking the camera, but also exciting because I had never […]

Herbert S. Schell was appointed the first University Archivist in 1968. He was largely responsible for organizing The University of South Dakota’s historical records into the USD Archives. Between 1968 and 1971, his extensive letter-writing campaign added the professional and personal papers of many prominent South Dakotans to the Richardson Collection. Schell joined the USD History Department in 1925. From 1936-1964, he served as the director and dean of the Graduate School.

Are any of your favorite books set in an archive or a rare book library? Do they involve characters doing archival research? Here are a few of my favorite fiction books that feature archives or rare books.