More Thoughts on Archival Reference

Last week, I had the opportunity to do some more work assisting with answering reference questions.  I always enjoy getting the chance to work on reference questions because it gives me the opportunity to learn a bit more about the history of the university and a little bit more about our collection.  The more reference questions one answers, the more one gets a grasp on which collections and resources are most useful for documenting which types of information.

I helped one patron last week who was writing a dissertation and needed to find some basic factual information about several employees, both faculty and staff, who worked at IU during the 1960's.  For some individuals, he had the full name and needed to know that person's full title and position at the university in a certain year so that he could properly describe and contextualize the person in the paper.  For other individuals, he had part of a name and needed the individual's full name and title.

In answering these types of questions, I used a variety of ready reference archival sources to find the information the patron needed.  One such resource is our collection of university bulletins and registers which contain, among many other things, an alphabetical listing of faculty members by department with corresponding information about individual faculty member titles.  Some departmental staff members are also included.  IU Phone books from the era can also provide similar information.  The phone book listings provide less detail about an individual's role or title at IU, but they include listings for more staff members than the bulletins and registers.

The IU Archives has also kept one-sheet biographical files on many faculty and prominent staff.  These sheets typically include some basic biographical information and provide a CV that documents the individual's career and accomplishments.  Finally, the archives also keeps clipping files on certain prominent faculty and affiliates.

I used all four of these sources in the process of helping this patron find the answers he needed about the individuals he is discussing in his research.  Working on this question helped develop my understanding of the collections and resources at the archives that are best suited to provide different levels of basic information about IU staff, administrators, and faculty from previous years.  These collections are essential to the running of a repository as they provide well-organized and easily accessible information that patrons often need.