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We provide access to our collections by effectively describing, processing and preserving materials; and by using new technologies to expose them to our community.

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We actively collect the history of St. Olaf College, representing the many diverse voices in our Community.

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We protect and preserve our unique collections, while making them accessible to our community and scholars worldwide.

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As stewards of St. Olaf’s institutional memory, we ensure the vitality of our cultural and intellectual history by adhering to national and international standards in our work.

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We create meaningful opportunities for teaching, learning, research, and training by collaborating with library and IT staff, academic departments, the DiSCO, and other partners.

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In 2021, student associates Erin Magoon ‘21 and Shelby Louk ‘23 created The 2020 Stories Project with the goal of building a robust and representative oral history collection that captures pandemic-era voices of as many members of the St. Olaf community as possible. This project is still accepting submissions.

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Using recommendations from CCAHA’s preservation report, the Archives has begun digitizing portions of our collections. Staff prioritize materials at the intersection of greatest historical value and greatest potential for loss. Digitizing these materials assures they will be accessible for years to come. Notable digitization efforts over the years include the Felland Glass Negatives Collection, Northfield Panorama Collection, Northfield Postcard Collection, and the upcoming digitization of the F. Melius and Olaf Christiansen manuscripts. Before materials are sent to off to be digitized, items are inventoried, carefully assessed and rehoused.

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St. Olaf is building a single, secure, climate-controlled vault to better preserve and steward primary source materials, while increasing their visibility and use, for decades to come. The funding for this vault came from three major sources: The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) provided the College Archives with a generous capital infrastructure challenge grant in August of 2019, $160,000 of the required matching funds for that grant were provided by the Norwegian American Historical Association (NAHA), with whom we will share future space, and the remainder of the required match is being met by generous donations from alumni and friends of the college.

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Students studying Archival materials in a DiSCO classroom with instruction facilitated by Jillian Sparks. 

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The impact of the College Archives’ effort to preserve materials and make them more accessible is felt outside of the walls of the department. Jillian Sparks, Distinctive Collections Engagement Librarian, works with faculty to offer classes that introduce students to our materials and primary source research. Students often use the collections in digital assignments or as inspiration for their creative work. We are excited to preserve some of these assignments in our archives.

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The St.Olaf College Archives was awarded their third MNHS grant: “Cataloging the Rise and Development of St.Olaf College through Archival Items”. This grant funds the hiring of two Processing Archivists in 2022 who will reprocess, describe, and create finding aids for four collections: Early Registrar’s Records and Correspondence, Inez Frayseth’s Personal Papers and Registrar’s Records, Dean of Students Records, and Student Scrapbooks.

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Don Bezanson preparing panoramas for transport.

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As St.Olaf continues to grow and diversify, College Archives aims to curate a collection that reflects this growth. We accept donations of materials from alumni, students, staff, faculty, student organizations, campus offices, and academic departments. The Archives wants YOU reflected in the college’s history. The donation process for these groups is linked.

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Descriptions and finding aids created by grant-funded Processing Archivists are discoverable in St.Olaf’s newly created Collective Access system. Collective Access acts as a search engine for our archival materials. These descriptions are DACS-compliant, which means that they follow standards set by the Society of American Archivists.

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Example of new shelving that will house materials in the new vault space 

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Excerpt from Deborah Lease Becker-Galewski’s’74  scrapbook from her time at St. Olaf.

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Excerpt from Deborah Lease Becker-Galewski’s’74  scrapbook from her time at St. Olaf. Scrapbooks like this one are a favorite among students. They love discovering that the past student experience is often not so different from their own

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Library student workers, staff, and CCAHA conservators preparing Felland glass negatives for shipping and digitization 