by Jeremy A. Smith
This article appeared in the Volume 2, Issue 1 Spring/Summer 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue.
On April 17, 2020, the Special Collections Committee of the Appalachian Studies Association held its first formal meeting via Zoom. The committee was originally schedule to meet during the 2020 ASA Conference and was rescheduled after the conference was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stewart Plein chaired the meeting and was one of nine archivists and librarians in attendance.
Gene Hyde and Liz Harper provided an update on the Appalachian Curator newsletter, noting that viewership continues to increase: from 300 visits for the first issue to 350 for the second issue to nearly 1,500 for the third issue.
The committee also discussed strategies for supporting remote research during the COVID-19 pandemic, shared available statistics around electronic reference queries from March and April, and discussed current projects to collect pandemic-related materials at the local level.
Plans for two new projects came out of the meeting. First, the members agreed to pursue a Special Collections Committee presence on the ASA website. Second, the committee agreed to develop a shared reference portal that could direct Appalachian researchers to relevant resources housed among the various archives and special collections throughout Appalachia. This will tentatively be called “Ask An Appalachian Archivist” and will be staffed on a rotating basis by members of the committee. Longer-term projects include updating the listings from 1985’s NHPRC-funded Archives in Appalachia: A Directory (ed. Ellen Garrison) and developing a roundtable discussion and meeting proposal for the 2021 ASA Annual Conference.
Minutes of the April 17 meeting and future Special Collections Committee meetings are in the “Special Collections Committee Minutes” category in the Appalachian Curator.
The committee will now meet quarterly, and anyone interested in participating can contact Stewart Plein: Stewart.Plein@mail.wvu.edu.
Jeremy A. Smith is Director of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University
