University Archives and Community Organizations: Ensuring Access through Collaboration

Authors

Jessica R. Holden, University of Massachusetts BostonFollow
Andrew Elder, University of Massachusetts BostonFollow
Joanne Riley, University of Massachusetts BostonFollow

Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

8-14-2014

Abstract

How can a university archives establish a successful ongoing relationship with a community organization? What are the benefits and challenges of such a collaboration? University of Massachusetts Boston’s Archives and Special Collections (UASC) explored these questions while working with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) to preserve and provide access to 79,000 mortuary records from the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. Elements of the collaboration included shifting stewardship of the records from the Foresters to TIARA to UMass Boston, integrating TIARA’s efforts in processing and indexing the records into the Archives’ workflow, providing in-person and electronic access to the records, and hosting public events that celebrate the partnership and educate the public about the records. This poster illustrates the lessons learned during the records’ journey from an active business to a community organization to a university’s Archives and Special Collections.

Comments

Poster presentation at ARCHIVES★RECORDS: Ensuring Access, the joint annual meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and the Society of American Archivists (Washington D.C., August 10-16, 2014).

Community Engaged/Serving

Part of the UMass Boston Community-Engaged Teaching, Research, and Service Series. http://scholarworks.umb.edu/engage

Recommended Citation

Holden, Jessica R.; Elder, Andrew; and Riley, Joanne, "University Archives and Community Organizations: Ensuring Access through Collaboration" (2014). Joseph P. Healey Library Publications. 19.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/hlpubs/19

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.