This article appeared in the Volume 1, Issue 3 Winter 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator. Click here to view a PDF of the full issue.
Welcome to the Winter 2020 issue of the Appalachian Curator, which wraps up our first year of publication. The editors have been pleasantly surprised at how well the Curator has been received. As of this writing, we’ve had over 2,000 unique visitors, and you viewed individual stories and articles over 5,800 times. Thanks for reading …or at least stopping by and checking out the Curator!
The Appalachian Curator is a publication of the Special Collections Committee of the Appalachian Studies Association, and we’re featuring an article about the Special Collections Committee by Committee chair Stewart Plein. The Committee will have our first meeting on Saturday morning at this year’s Appalachian Studies Conference at the University of Kentucky. The session is entitled “Roots of the Region: The Special Collections Committee Roundtable,” which will meet from 8:30-9:45 pm Saturday morning (room to announced in the final conference schedule). We hope to see you there.
This issue features several articles describing outreach and collaboration efforts at Appalachian Special Collections, including how Appalachian State is contributing information about ginseng for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival this summer and how West Virginia University created an “Appalachian Futures” exhibit.
We’re pleased to share three community archiving profiles, one from the Buncombe County Public Library in Asheville, NC, a second from the Arthurdale community in West Virginia, and a third from Smoky Mountain High School and Western Carolina University. Related to community archiving, there’s also an article about a digital history storytelling project at California University of Pennsylvania.
Our Featured Collection column this issue focuses on the development of the Southern Highlands Research Center, which later became Special Collections at the University of North Carolina Asheville.
We’re looking forward to launching our second year with the Spring/Summer issue in April, and we are looking for stories about anything related to Appalachian archives. Please let us know what you’d like to share with the Appalachian Studies community. Possible story ideas include:
- community archiving projects
- digitization projects
- histories and profiles of archival repositories
- profiles of archivists and donors
- descriptions of collections
- articles on the craft and practice of archival work
- lists of new acquisitions
- upcoming workshops or training opportunities
- upcoming or current exhibits and events
- news about grants or collaborations
- or anything else related to Appalachian archives
Have an idea? Please contact the editors – Gene Hyde (ghyde@unca.edu) or Liz Skene Harper (eharper@email.wcu.edu).
Our next issue (Volume 2, No 1, Spring/Summer) will be published in April 2020, with an article deadline of April 15.
