OPENING SMALL ARCHIVES IN THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY TO ILLINOIS AND THE WORLD

Working together with the Rock Island County Historical Society, the library has received a $53,000 grant from the State of Illinois. The goal of the grant is to create finding aids in both a standard print format and more, importantly, an online Encoded Archival Description (EAD) format. Using this format, researchers will produce a computer template that would allow students to build finding aids for the indexing of primary documents. Once developed, student employees and archive volunteers will be able to process archival collections at a much faster pace.

The grant will focus on creating online finding aids for two specific collections: the Historical Society's papers of Roy F. McNabney, who chronicled local history under the auspices of the federal Works Progress Administration. Additionally the college's John Hauberg collection which includes over 65,000 images, numerous oral histories, and his extensive journals, which he began in 1883 and maintained until just days before his death in 1955.

According to Jonathan Miller, who headed the Project Team, "The EAD format gives historians vastly improved searching capabilities. Previously, these finding aids were all on paper, and a historian would have to visit smaller local repositories like the County Historical Society or the Augustana Library. This project will create a digitized archive that can be accessed via computer from just about anywhere."