Archives & Digital Storytelling: A Panel Discussion

So, I had the opportunity to talk at a pound discussion about how to engage the community into preserving their materials long-term and if they should give them materials to institution or keep it within the community?

I never really thought too much about community archives as I am just a processing archivist, but after this experience, I realize that I have an opportunity to expand, including community members into learning more about cultural preservation. The fact that there are faculty members wanting to do amazing projects with students and yet still thinking about how should this information be saved, how should it be archived is amazing. I am fortunate to be in a institution that cares about cultural preservation as we are a historically black college with the most diverse set of students I’ve ever met in my entire life. Like PVAMU, has a very large international student population and even more international faculty members, and they do such amazing word for not only themselves, but to continue to carry the legacy of the institution into the future. As a Staff member of the library, it is my duty to present resources to faculty staff, and students about how their projects in their research can be preserved in the library, especially the archives.

And then, we live in a digital world. Thankfully, my institution offers digital library resources for people to submit their work and create a profile to showcase their research, their peer review articles, and future projects for all audience to see around the world. Yeah, does the community members know about these resources? This was an eye-opener as I assumed our audience was strictly within the Prairie View community. But after being in this panel discussion, I assume begin to realize that our audience should not be within the community but also within the geographical Location of Waller county.

This community exists within the outer walls of the institution and yet we are the closest in the only library within a 50 mile radius. So, being in a rule area, I have to be mindful as both an archivist and a librarian that my duty is not only within one community, but in multiple communities and nearby towns as we have so many resources to offer to everyone and that as we are revising our policies and procedures that we need to include these other audiences within our library. I can only imagine the amount of digital storytelling we can do within the digital preservation department that we have at the John B. Coleman library.

So, how do we move forward? Build trust, protect your company, and do not betray your new friends. All stories matter and deserve to be preserved.