AHC Receives Grant to Make Collections Available on the Web

March 12, 2004 -- The University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center (AHC) is among 22 regional institutions awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to dramatically increase public and scholarly access to information about their historical collections.

The goal is increased access to archival collections to support scholarship and research, education and information, as part of the Rocky Mountain Online Archive (RMOA).

AHC Archivist Mark Shelstad will serve as project coordinator and editor for Wyoming, and serve on a lead working group. AHC personnel will also serve on an advisory board to review submissions, evaluate the Web site interface design, and make suggestions on how to reach scholars, faculty, and students of history.

"Archives collections -- correspondence, reports, photos, diaries, etc. -- are often so voluminous that a standard record in an on line catalog is insufficient to adequately describe the collections' contents," Shelstad says. "In addition to catalog records, therefore, archival collections are also described by 'finding aids' which run between five and 200 pages of text, and are essential to assisting researchers in narrowing their search for particular material."

The NEH grant will assist the participating repositories to create standards based online finding aids. The standard, created and maintained by the Society of American Archivists and the Library of Congress, is called EAD Encoded Archival Description.

"EAD ensures that finding aids from one institution to another have a similar look and feel, making it easier for researchers to use them," Shelstad says.

The grant will train 25 archivists in the use of the EAD standard for finding aids; encode and publish on line more than 550 finding aids (24,500 pages). The AHC will contribute 2000 pages.

The AHC is the University's repository of manuscript and special collections, rare books, and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West (including but not limited to politics, settlement, and western trails), environment and conservation, the mining and petroleum industries, air and rail transportation, the performing arts (particularly radio, television, film, and popular music), journalism, and U.S. military history.

Students and scholars from around the globe use these collections for research last year researchers traveled from 45 states and 12 nations. The AHC also sponsors a wide range of scholarly and popular programs including lectures, concerts, symposia, and exhibits. Access to the AHC is free and open to everyone. For more information call the AHC at (307) 766 4114 or visit its Web site at www.uwyo.edu/ahc/.

Posted on Friday, March 12, 2004