Using Outreach Efforts to Acquire Documentation

Christina Perris
INFO 266
Fall 2015

Using Outreach Efforts to Acquire Documentation

Hughes-Watkins, Lae'l. (2014). Filling in the gaps: Using outreach efforts to acquire documentation on the black campus movement, 1965-1972. Archival Issues: Journal of the Midwest Archives Conference, 36(1), 27-42.

This journal article focuses on the Department of Special Collections and Archives at Kent State University’s efforts to develop their collection of documentation on the Black Campus Movement, 1965-1972.  The archivist opens by presenting a brief history of the black campus movement: first, on broad, national scale; then, in the context of how it was on the campus of Kent State.  The archivist discusses the efforts she undertook to assess the deficiency in the department’s collections through a survey of the holdings, and then how she creates a collection development plan to address these shortcomings.  The archivist goes on to explain how she reviewed the outreach strategy and brought it into alignment with the new collection development plan.  She then explains how she went on the acquiring the collection focused on the black campus movement and black student life.

This article is an probably one of the most ambitious, thorough and detailed accounts of what it truly takes to acquire a representative collection – whether it is specifically targeted to a special collection department, a special collections department with an archive or an archive alone – in your repository.  Whether you work in an academic library of a state-run university with a special collections department or a local historical society’s community-based archive, it might be advisable to be somewhat versed in the history of the United States educational system as it relates to state-run universities (at least, the “major events” in the system, such as the passage of Civil Rights legislation, students rights movements, etc.) or the basic history of the community.  Knowing the history – preferably from unbiased, academic sources – will allow to assess where “gaps” in the existing collection lie.  Once you identify these gaps, as the author did, you can then determine how to “remedy” them and present a more complete – and therefore, accurate – representation of the history of the institution or community.