Fiscal Year In Review

Special Collections & Archives
2005/2006 Fiscal Year Highlights

SC&A focused its efforts on creating digital collections including the C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Digital Collection, the Planned Community Archives: Catherine A. Baum Digital Collection, and the 1972 Richard Nixon Campaign Photographs Collection. All of these collections are accessible via the Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS).

SC&A staff worked on preparations for a new Special Collections & Archives facility to be built in the new wing of Fenwick Library. During exploratory stages, Paul Koda, Robert Vay, Anne Hakes, and Veronica Fletcher toured the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections & Archives Library at the University of Virginia, and developed detailed documents specifying the required elements for SC&A’s presence in the new wing.

Veronica Fletcher toured Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s newly renovated Special Collections Library in preparation for a new Special Collections & Archives facility to be built in the new wing of Fenwick Library.

Anne Hakes toured the new Special Collections wing in the newly renovated Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary.

SC&A obtained five map cases to house its oversized flat items. Most notably, SC&A transferred numerous maps from the C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Collection into the cases.

SC&A accessed 17 cubic feet of materials from the estate of Edith Ker. The materials included photographs, slides, and travel journals. An image from the Ker Collection was selected to be the cover of the University Libraries’ 2005 seasonal greeting card.

Myra Anson Nicholas, daughter of the late Abraham Anson, donated her father’s scholarly materials to SC&A. The geographic surveying collection consists of 14 cubic feet of aerial photographs, working papers and lab notes, Anson publications, glass plate negatives, and slides.

Barbara Thaler’s donated nine Arthur Scott photography scrapbooks. This donation is a rich addition to SC&A’s Arthur Scott Collection. The collection came to SC&A thanks to the efforts of Theodore McCord, who worked with Thaler and the Scott family to bring the scrapbooks to SC&A.

SC&A invited Detective B.C. Bannon from the GMU Police Department to visit the department and to conduct a security audit, which the staff used as a springboard to compile a more thorough analysis. Additionally, staff continued to work to limit the number of after-hours alarms that are accidentally triggered in SC&A.

The Planned Community Archives Board unanimously voted to officially transfer ownership of the Planned Community Archives Collection (PCA) to George Mason University Libraries.

Paul Koda, Librarian for Special Collections & Archives, retired from George Mason University on March 17, 2006. Preliminary steps were taken to find a new Head of SC&A.

Anne Hakes toured the Conservation Lab at the University of Maryland’s McKeldin Library with fellow members of the Libraries’ Preservation Planning Committee.

As Mason’s official repository, SC&A actively collected men’s basketball materials related to the team’s season and participation in the NCAA tournament.

In April, University Libraries and the Center for Study of Public Choice co-sponsored the first inaugural James M. Buchanan Lecture. In correlation with the lecture, SC&A created the James M. Buchanan Electronic Collection, accessible via the Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS), and a physical exhibition and keepsake flyer.

In the spring, the Records Management website underwent a complete upgrade.

SC&A accessioned approximately 35 cubic feet of material from retiring GMU faculty member, Jerry Clapsaddle.

SC&A accessioned 298 Mason dissertations and theses.

Records Management accessioned 1314 cubic feet of new materials, disposed of 472 c.f., and handled 120 retrieval requests.

Katja Hering, Robert Vay, and former Librarian of Special Collections & Archives, Paul Koda, conducted an oral history interview with Edwin Meese, former United States Attorney General and former GMU Board of Visitor member.

SC&A curated a number of exhibitions during the 2005-2006 fiscal year, including The Yellow Book and the Age of Decadence,” “What Can a Woman Do,” and “The History of Virginia in Books.”

A large number of the books in the C. Harrison Mann Collection were professionally conserved by Etherington Conservation.

Anne Hakes attended the conferences of MARAC, VAGARA, and SLA. She is the webmaster of the University of Maryland’s student SLA chapter, which received the SARC award for Creative Use of Electronic Resources.

Anne Hakes presented a poster on digital conservation at the LOEX Annual Conference at the University of Maryland on May 5th.

Robert Vay attended “Copyright at a Crossroads: The Impact of Mass Digitization on Copyright and Higher Education”. The symposium was held June 14-16 at UMUC in College Park, MD.

Katja Hering, Robert Vay, and Anne Hakes interviewed Mason Basketball player Lamar Butler at the Patriot Center on June 30th.