Learning
Students Help Expand Access to University Archives
Student interns are working to expand access to the Social and Historical Muskingum University Archives under the guidance of Dr. Nainsí Houston, Director of the Library.
“This is a wonderful educational opportunity for our students, which will also benefit the broader Muskingum community,” Dr. Houston said. “The interns are learning every aspect of archiving, including organization, recording, and preservation skills. The scope of the project ranges from re-housing items into new archival storage containers to updating our finding aid so that the entire archives will become more searchable and more accurate.”
History majors Spencer Jarrett ’23 and Bre Benda ’23 and history and political science major Lorene Kelley ’22 have served as interns. Internship opportunities will continue to be available in the 2022-2023 academic year.
During the summer of 2022, Bre will be a Muskie Fellow for the project, extending the ongoing effort to digitize Muskingum yearbooks and make them available online. The Muskie Fellows program provides support for student-faculty collaborative projects in the summer months.
The archives accessibility project began with a grant from the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board. Elita Jones ’19 co-authored the grant proposal with Dr. Houston, while completing her Master of Library Science degree from Kent State University.
The archives contain University history, local history, and Presbyterian Church history, as well as items gifted by alumni. “We have some wonderful items from Agnes Moorehead, Class of 1923, for example, including scripts, photos, letters, and her Emmy and Golden Globe awards,” Dr. Houston said.
The archive finding aid will be updated periodically as the project continues and can be viewed by visiting https://www.muskingum.edu/library. Access to archive materials is by appointment only; for further information contact nhouston@muskingum.edu.
