Special Collections and Archives blog

Cline Library Special Collections and Archives is excited to announce the award of a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This transformative grant will allow Cline Library Special Collections and Archives (SCA) to digitize 400 rare and unique moving images documenting the human and natural history of the Colorado Plateau. The moving images are held by SCA and three regional cultural heritage partners: the Hopi Tribe, the Hualapai Tribe, and Diné College on the Navajo Nation. All together, these moving images offer a glimpse into the collective, complex, and nuanced history of the American Southwest as recorded on film.  The grant provides funding to hire a three-year project archivist, working 32 hours a week, to help support this work.

Position Description:

Title: Project Archivist 

Term: 3 years (fall 2021-summer 2024) 

Start Date: August/September 2021 

End Date: June 30, 2024 

Rate of Pay: $18/hour for 32 hours/week or $2,304 monthly  

Position Overview: 

Special Collections and Archives (SCA) at Cline Library organizes, cares for, and provides public access to unique archival material, including historic documents, photographs, sound recordings, films, and born-digital materials. Reporting to the Archivist for Digital Programs and the Archivist for Discovery, the Project Archivist will be responsible for coordinating the digitization of 400 moving images and developing appropriate descriptive metadata for online access via the Colorado Plateau Digital Collections.  

Special Collections and Archives (SCA) values the diversity of the people it hires and serves. Diversity in SCA means fostering a workplace in which individual differences are recognized, appreciated, respected and responded to in ways that fully develop and utilize each person’s talents and strengths. 

Please note: All applicants for the position will be required to work on-site 32 hours a week during SCA’s normal operating hours (8 AM – 5 PM, M-Th, 8 AM – 4 PM F).

Duties and responsibilities: 

Cline Library Special Collections and Archives (SCA) is embarking on a three year digitization project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to convert analog and magnetic media moving images to digital objects and provide online access to those objects using robust, appropriate, culturally responsive, and accurate descriptive metadata. The Cline Library is partnering with three regional Native American communities to digitized moving images from their collections. Under the supervision and guidance from the Archivist for Digital Programs, Archivist for Discovery, and Head of Special Collections and Archives, the Project Archivist will be responsible for the following activities: 

• Participate in all training related to the conversion technology and equipment, related software, best practices, and workflows for digitizing analog motion picture film and magnetic media. 
• Understand and adhere to current national standards for the conversion of analog motion picture film and magnetic media.  
• Use appropriate technology to convert analog motion picture film (R8/S8mm, 16mm, and 35mm) and magnetic media (VHS, Betacam, Betamax, Umatic, DVCam, Hi-8, and ¾” tapes) to digital files. 
• Gain familiarity with the operation of archival content management systems such as CONTENTdm and ArchivesSpace.  
• Work closely with Digital Production Specialist to ensure all workflows are followed precisely, all digital files are examined for quality control standards, and the proper transfer of digital surrogates from a local workstation to the library’s cloud-based storage solution.  
• Participate in all training related to the production and maintenance of descriptive metadata for discovery via the Colorado Plateau Digital Collections and the integration of digitized material into Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids using ArchivesSpace and oXygen XML Editor.
• Develop robust and accurate descriptive metadata according to local and national standards (Dublin Core for Moving Images (DCMI), Library of Congress Subject Headings, Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core Categories (for individual records), Art and Architecture Thesaurus, Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), and Resource Description and Access. 
• Work closely with Native American colleagues to select, inventory, digitize, develop baseline description, and care for moving images from our tribal partners’ collections. 
• Become familiar with and apply guidelines based on the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials.  
• Work closely with tribal partners to identify culturally sensitive content from their collections, as well as culturally sensitive materials from SCA’s holdings Coordinate with appropriate team members and tribal partners to determine appropriate access and use protocols for culturally sensitive materials.   
• Track and document information to include in reports for the Archivist for Digital Programs, Archivist for Discovery, and the Head of Special Collections and Archives. 
• Assist Archivist for Digital Programs and Archivist for Discovery in training, supervising, and providing timely feedback for NEH project student assistant.

Qualifications and Requirements: 

• Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited library or information science program with a concentration in archival studies, or other relevant degree, such as master’s degree in visual communications, public history, etc.
• Or; a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (History, Applied Indigenous Studies, Native American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Comparative Cultural Studies, Communication Studies, Journalism, Creative Media or Film, Photography, or similar fields) with 1-2 years experience working in a cultural heritage institution.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Familiarity with archival and bibliographic descriptive standards, such as Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Resource Description and Access (RDA), and Dublin Core Metadata Schema (DCMI). 
• Experience digitizing analog motion picture film and magnetic media moving image materials. 
• Familiarity with audio and video moving image material in an archival context  Experience with technology and software associated with the conversion of moving images. 
• Experience developing appropriate, accurate, and robust descriptive metadata for archival material.
• Familiarity with the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials. 
• Knowledge of the human and natural history of the Colorado Plateau. 
• Knowledge of filmmaking production practices or other relevant subject expertise. 
• Familiarity with CONTENTdm, ArchivesSpace, or similar archival content management systems. 
• Excellent research, writing, and communication skills (both written and verbal). 
• Detail-oriented and ability to be flexible.
• Strong organizational skills with demonstrated initiative to complete projects within deadlines. 

Application Deadline: 

The position of Project Archivist will remain open until filled. Review of applications will begin on August 26, 2021. 

To apply, please submit the following documents to: 

• Letter of application addressing your qualifications for the position 
• A resume or CV which details relevant coursework, work experience, etc. 
• Name(s) and contact information for three professional references 
• Copy of current transcript (optional) 

Submit all application materials to Peter.Runge@nau.edu.

Background Information 

Northern Arizona University requires satisfactory results for the following:  a criminal background investigation, an employment history verification and a degree verification (in some cases) prior to employment.  You may also be required to complete a fingerprint background check. 

Additionally, as an employer in the state of Arizona, NAU is required to participate in the federal E-Verify program that assists employers with verifying new employees’ right to work in the United States. 

Finally, each year Northern Arizona University releases an Annual Security Report. The report is a result of a federal law known as the Clery Act. The report includes Clery reportable crime statistics for the three most recent completed calendar years and discloses procedures, practices and programs NAU uses to keep students and employees safe including how to report crimes or other emergencies occurring on campus. In addition, the Fire Safety Report is combined with the Annual Security Report for the NAU Flagstaff Mountain Campus and NAU-Fort Defiance as these campuses have on-campus student housing. This report discloses fire safety policies and procedures related to on-campus student housing and statistics for fires that occurred in those facilities.  

If you would like a free paper copy of the report, please contact the NAUPD Records Department at (928) 523-8884 or by visiting the department at 525 E. Pine Knoll Drive in Flagstaff. 

Benefits 

NAU is a tobacco and smoke-free campus. 

Employees offered a position will be eligible for state health plans (including NAU’s BCBS Plan).  New employees are eligible for benefits on the first day of the pay period following their enrollment, after their employment date.  Employees will have 31 days from their start date to enroll in benefits. If a new employee chooses the ASRS retirement option, participation in the Arizona State Retirement System, and the long-term disability coverage that accompanies it, will begin on the first of the pay period following 6 months after the new employee’s start date. New employees who choose to participate in the Optional Retirement Plan (ORP), which is an alternative to the ASRS plan for faculty and other appointed staff, will begin to participate on the first day of employment.  Additionally, the long-term disability plan that accompanies the ORP will begin on the first day of employment.  More information is available at the NAU HR benefits page. 

Equal Employment Opportunity 

Northern Arizona University is a committed Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution. Women, minorities, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. NAU is responsive to the needs of dual career couples. EEO Law Poster. NAU is an Employer of National Service. AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and other National Service alumni are encouraged to apply. 

Today, August 14th, is National Code Talkers Day. There are only four living code talkers remaining. These brave men played a vital role in the Pacific Theater during World War II. For those who may not be aware of the code talkers or the code talker program, Philip Johnston, the son of an early 19th century Navajo missionary and a World War I veteran, proposed using the Navajo language as a code for the United States Marine Corps. At the time, the Navajo language was an unwritten language and so unique that it would be difficult for non-speakers to decipher meaning from phrases spoken in Navajo.

The United States Marine Corps accepted the concept and began recruiting young Navajo men to serve as code talkers. Philip Johnston, enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age 50 to help recruit Navajo men to serve as code talkers. The first group of 29 Navajo Code Talkers was trained at Camp Pendleton, CA, where the initial code was developed. The Navajo code talkers program was very successful and allowed messages to be transmitted, received, and translated much faster than previous codes.

The Cline Library Special Collections and Archives is honored to house the Philip Johnston Papers. The papers document the development, proposal, and evolution of the Navajo Code Talker Program, including several lexicons outlining the code. The code was never “cracked” or successfully deciphered by the Japanese or Axis Powers.

The program was so successful that the Marine Corps used other Indigenous languages to develop codes, such as the Cherokee, Choctaw, Comanche, Cree, Mohawk, and Basque.

The finding aid for the Philip Johnston Papers can be found on Arizona Archives Online or by clicking here. To see digitized selections from the Philip Johnston Papers on the Cline Library’s digital archives, click here. To view all digitized content pertaining to the Navajo Code Talkers, click here.

Beginning August 12, 2020, Special Collections & Archives (SCA) will offer online resources and virtual research support for all users and scheduled appointments for on-site access to physical collections in the Meriam Lamont Reading Room for members of the NAU and CCC community. Special Collections & Archives’ hours of operation during this time are Monday – Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, Friday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.

To learn more about changes to the Cline Library and the broader NAU campus for the Fall 2020 semester, click on the linked text.

Online Resources

Special Collections & Archives’ Digital Collections, which includes digitized and born-digital material from the Colorado Plateau Archives, Northern Arizona University Archives, and other regional cultural heritage institutions, is available online 24/7 for all researchers.

SCA’s current online-only exhibit (Flagstaff 2020: A Clear Vision) and an online version of the Cline Library physical exhibit Full Circle: the Life and Legacies of Katie Lee are available at nau.edu/special-collections/exhibits/. You can also browse past exhibits at that link.

All researchers can search and browse finding aids (narrative guides) for SCA’s archival collections using Arizona Archives Online (http://azarchivesonline.org).

Virtual Research Support

Special Collections & Archives staff are available to support all researchers virtually during SCA’s hours of operation (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday-Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Friday). If you have a research inquiry or need to speak with an archivist, please email special.collections@nau.edu. You can also call SCA at (928) 523-5551 or submit a question via chat during SCA’s operating hours. A staff member will respond to your inquiry within 24 hours.

Requests for digitization of archival and published materials will be considered on a case-by-case basis, as staff time and resources allow. Please note that the fulfillment time for digitization requests will vary based on staff availability, scope and content of request, and other factors. Please contact the department to learn more. 

If you are a faculty member or instructor seeking to use scans of published material (e.g. books, periodicals, etc.) held by SCA for a course, please place a course reserves request.

SCA will fulfill reproduction and permission to use requests virtually, with some limitations. Please contact the department to learn more.

On-Site Appointments

Beginning August 12, 2020 Special Collections & Archives will offer appointment blocks for on-site access to collections material in Cline Library’s Merriam Lamont Reading Room. Appointments will be available during SCA’s operating hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday – Thursday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Friday. SCA staff will work with you to ensure that you have adequate time in the reading room to review your requested materials.

At this time, on-site appointments are limited to NAU and CCC community members in accordance with Cline Library’s general access policies. Non-NAU and CCC users may request virtual research support as detailed above.

Making an Appointment

To schedule an appointment for on-site access to collections materials in the Meriam Lamont Reading Room, please email Special.Collections@nau.edu or call (928) 523-5551.

Please include the following information:

• Your name
• Your availability (dates and times) for an on-site appointment in the Meriam Lamont Reading Room, Cline Library
• Information regarding requested materials (see below)
• Any other information regarding your request (e.g. purpose of research, digitization needs, research questions, etc.)

A SCA staff member will respond to your request within 24 hours.

Requesting Materials

Please send SCA staff the following information regarding your request for an on-site appointment in Meriam Lamont Reading Room.

Published materials

• Title
• Author
• Year of publication
• Call number 
• Library catalog record (if available)

Archival materials:

• Collection name(s)
• Collection call numbers (e.g. NAU.MS.###, NAU.PH.###)
• Box number(s) (e.g. Box 3, NAU.MS.526)
• Item number(s) (e.g. NAU.PH.2020.11.12-30)

Appointment Policies & Guidelines

Please review the following information about accessing material in the Meriam Lamont Reading Room before arriving at Cline Library for your reading room appointment.

Access to Cline Library

• Cline Library is open to NAU and CCC students only. Bring your JacksCard or CCC ID to access the library. Need help with your access to the building? Call (928) 523-2173.
• Beginning August 12, 2020, Special Collections & Archives’ hours of operation will be Monday – Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• While you are visiting Cline Library, please practice physical distancing: stay at least 6 feet away from other people.
• Face masks or cloth face coverings must be worn by all NAU and CCC students and employees in Cline Library when in the presence of others and where physical distancing measures can be difficult to maintain.
• Similarly, SCA requests that its users wear masks when interacting with SCA staff or in public spaces in the department, including the exhibit space, reference desk, and the reading room.

General Reading Room Policies

• No food or drink are allowed in the Meriam Lamont Reading Room. There is a water fountain down the hall on the second floor of Cline Library.
• Backpacks, purses, and other items must be left in a locker in SCA for the duration of your visit. An archivist will assign you to a locker and provide you with a key.
• You may bring the following into the reading room:
  • your own pencils (no pens)
  • loose-leaf paper for notes
  • a personal laptop
  • a camera, cell phone, or hand-held scanner
  • a USB drive or other digital storage device
• There is a flatbed scanner available in the reading room which you may use to scan materials for future reference. Do not scan photographs using this scanner. Ask an archivist if you have questions.
• Do not use flash when taking photographs of archival material. Ask an archivist if you have questions.

During Your Appointment

• Special Collections & Archives is located on the second floor of Cline Library, as shown below.

• When you arrive in SCA, please proceed to the reference desk located towards the back of the department, on the right-hand side. An archivist will be available to assist you. If the archivist is away from the desk when you arrive, please call their office phone number.
• Please wash your hands before handling collection materials. It protects your health and the materials! There is an all-genders restroom on the first floor of Cline Library and men and women’s bathrooms down the hall from Special Collections & Archives.
• An archivist will briefly review proper handling techniques for archival materials with you. In most instances, you should handle archival materials with clean, dry hands. If necessary, the archivist will provide you with a pair of nitrile gloves for handling photographic materials.
• The archivist will show you to your assigned seat in the Meriam Lamont Reading Room. The materials you requested will be available on a cart near your seat.

After Your Appointment

• Following your appointment, the materials you used will be quarantined for 72 hours per recommendations from the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC). If you will need the materials for multiple days, please let an archivist know.
• If you do not finish reviewing your materials within your allotted appointment time, please let an archivist know. SCA staff will work with you to schedule a follow-up appointment or extend your appointment.

By accepting an appointment in the Meriam Lamont Reading Room in Cline Library, researchers agree to abide by the policies described above.

Geraldine “Jerry” Emmett is likely one of the most infamous centenarians in Arizona’s history. A two-time graduate of Northern Arizona University (NAU), she was born two years after Arizona achieved statehood and five years before American women’s right to vote was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, historical events which would profoundly shape the course of her life. In 2017, her family donated personal scrapbooks, binders, photographs, and other materials to Cline Library’s Special Collections & Archives in order to preserve a documentary record of Jerry Emmett’s extraordinary life. These are now titled the “Jerry Emmett Papers.”

But before we jump into Jerry Emmett’s story, a bit of background…

About the intern

My name is Megan Connolly. In addition to my role as Executive Assistant for the Office of Alumni Engagement at NAU, I am currently a student at the University of Arizona, working on my Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science (MLIS). As part of my coursework, I needed an internship where I would get hands-on experience working in a library—or in my case, an archive. 

Cline Library’s Special Collections & Archives (SCA) offered to host me as an intern, assigning me primary responsibility for processing the Jerry Emmett papers under the supervision of Sam(antha) Meier, Archivist for Discovery. My internship was intended to be a start-to-finish project touching on all aspects of archival appraisal, arrangement, and description, culminating with the digitization of selected material from the Jerry Emmett papers.

While my work began without any issues, quickly my internship had to move online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I could no longer handle Jerry Emmett’s materials in person. I was disappointed not to be able to continue my work at Cline Library, but I was equally determined not to let the coronavirus impede the progress I had made.

Now, onto the Jerry Emmett papers! 

About Jerry

As I learned from reading the two self-published autobiographies included in the Jerry Emmett papers, Geraldine (Jerry) Emmett was born in 1914, before the 19th Amendment was passed. The political importance of women’s suffrage influenced her life greatly. She became involved in Arizona politics in her youth, when she played ukulele and sang at Arizona Governor George W.P. Hunt’s reelection campaign in the 1920s.

Emmett pursued her education at what was then Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education in 1937. After receiving her degree, she began teaching in Kayenta, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. Jerry Emmett taught throughout Arizona for 40 years, spending the majority of her career at Lafayette Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona (now Larry C. Kennedy School).

Throughout her career, Emmett stayed active in politics and the Democratic Party at the state and the national level. She was neighbors-turned lifelong-friends with Carolyn Warner, former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, gubernatorial candidate for Arizona, and U.S. Senate candidate. With Warner at her side, Jerry Emmett attended many Democratic National Conventions, meeting the likes of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Gore, and more.

In 2016, Emmett served as an honorary delegate from Arizona for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was 102 years old. Many of the clippings in Emmett’s papers pertain to her role as delegate.

Jerry Emmett passed away on April 30, 2019, at the age of 104.

Starting the process

Processing the Jerry Emmett papers was supposed to be fairly straightforward. I would create an inventory to reflect the “found order” of the materials before moving on to drafting a finding aid and carrying out physical processing tasks such as rehousing materials into appropriate storage like archival folders, Mylar sleeves, and so on for their long-term preservation and care.

Emmett’s papers had lots of different facets, format-wise. When I started working on them, they included a photo album, three pink 3-ring binders filled with mixed media, audio recordings on microcassettes and audio cassettes, video recordings on mini DVD-Rs, two self-published autobiographies, and a scrapbook. Before I even started my internship, SCA received a small accrual of materials about Jerry Emmett created by Carolyn Warner, including 390 digital photos from Jerry Emmett’s 100th birthday party on a CD! With so many different formats to work with, I knew different aspects of the papers would have different needs.

Initially, I used ArchivesSpace to create an inventory of the items to see what was actually in the Jerry Emmett papers. Recording information about everything that was there and how it was presented helped me document any “original order” in evidence at the time that SCA received these materials. I also took photographs of the materials as they were when I began my internship to help guide my processing decisions later on.

Based on my inventory, I created a collection-level finding aid which included biographical information about Jerry Emmett and a broad overview of what was in the Jerry Emmett papers. I used oXygen XML editor to edit the finding aid so that it could be ingested into Arizona Archives Online. This collection-level guide let folks who are browsing SCA’s collections know that the Jerry Emmett papers exist, but that they are not processed in any way, and so if anyone would like to view them, they could request further help from SCA staff to access the materials.

Preserving Jerry’s mixed media memories

Due to the way that Emmett’s materials were originally put together, there were — and at this moment, still are—some preservation concerns. The binders with mixed media needed to be taken apart in order to be preserved for future use, but this is pretty delicate work.  

After consulting with SCA staff, I decided to physically take the binders apart, putting photographs with other photographs, newspaper clippings with other clippings, and generally grouping like materials with like.

We reached this decision for two reasons, the first being ease of access. With so many of Emmett’s photographs of one event, like a Democratic National Convention, spread out over three different binders, it made sense to place all of the photographs from that event in one place. Same thing with Emmett’s correspondence and clippings. I believed it would be much easier for a researcher to locate relevant textual materials when they’ were organized chronologically or by content, which was how I proposed arranging the collection.

Secondly, we concluded that keeping similar formats together would allow SCA to store different types of materials in appropriate environments and similar housing, which would be best for long-term preservation.

Putting Jerry’s memories online—from home

It was during the time that I was physically sorting the materials according the format in order to fully process the collection, as well as working with the Digital Programs Archivist, Kelly Phillips, to digitize Emmett’s microcassettes that I was asked to switch to a remote-only internship. We had one day of warning, which allowed me to take photos of everything I had been working on so that I could consult them from home. From there, I was able to accomplish other various tasks associated with the project remotely, with the help of SCA staff.

For Jerry Emmett’s born-digital materials, notably the CD from her 100th birthday party mentioned above, I looked through all the photographs, chose about 20 that I thought represented the whole well, and created descriptive metadata for those items so that access copies of those images could be added to Digital Collections. My selections can be found here. 

Special thanks to digital programs staff Kelly Phillips and Jess Vogelsang for working on getting the access copies (also known as “DIPs,” or “dissemination information packages”) and their associated item numbers to me, so that I could finish that!

While I also reviewed video recordings on mini DVD-Rs, I was unable to finish appraising their content and working with digital programs staff to transfer their contents due to the pandemic. I did, however, work with Kelly Phillips to digitize and review Emmett’s audio recordings on microcassette! Those are now available through Digital Collections here.

Since my internship finished remotely, I was unable to physically process much of the materials for long-term preservation. The Jerry Emmett papers were left in a state where I had taken apart the binders and began to group things by format, but had not yet finished housing or describing them. Instead, I created a number of reports which laid out my thinking on how these partially-processed materials should be fully processed and then arranged for preservation and access. This will allow the next person who works with the Jerry Emmett papers to understand my thinking, see where I left off, and complete the processing as I would have liked it to be done.

Wrapping up, remotely

Once I had a much clearer picture of the Jerry Emmett papers as a whole, I was able to create two more finding aids, one of which reflects how the materials are currently organized, and the other which lays out my proposed final arrangement.

The former finding aid is available through Arizona Archives Online here, so that researchers can find and (hopefully) access the Jerry Emmett papers even though I was not able to finish processing them.

The latter finding aid, shown above, allows SCA staff to see how the papers could be arranged in a more organized state, and it will be implemented once SCA staff are able to return to Cline Library and pick up where I left off. It is currently hosted in ArchivesSpace, accessible only to Sam and other SCA staff who may use it in the future.

While my internship was not a start-to-finish project, as anticipated at the beginning of the semester, it was still valuable work for me to do and to learn from. Ultimately, I am just grateful to SCA for not only allowing me to begin archiving the Jerry Emmett Papers, but to finish as much as I could in such a weird time. I’ve learned through both hands-on and remote work many new things. My experience in Special Collections and Archives has been wonderful, both in person and from afar.

To learn more about the Jerry Emmett papers, please review the Jerry Emmett Papers finding aid available through Arizona Archives Online or digital material from the Jerry Emmett papers available through Digital Collections. Interested researchers may contact Sam Meier, Archivist for Discovery, with further questions.

For the past four years, Special Collections & Archives has been honored to work with two outstanding members of Northern Arizona University’s undergraduate class of 2020: Britney Bibeault and Will McMullan. This week, we are thrilled to congratulate Britney and Will on their graduation!

• 

• 

While Will was unable to participate in an oral history interview before commencement this coming Friday, May 8, 2020, we happen to know that for years, he’s been obsessed with a mystery he discovered in the Martin Litton collection.

Litton, a noted conservation activist, environmentalist, and river runner, donated his archives to Special Collections & Archives over the course of two decades, with a final posthumous donation in 2016. His collection includes textual material like business records, correspondence, pamphlets, and publications, photographs, and films. Will spent several years at SCA exhaustively inventorying the later donations to Litton’s collection.

The mystery centers around this photo, which Will uncovered while processing later accruals to Litton’s collection.

As Will speculates in his notes about “The Murder Case,” the image appears to show a crime scene, possibly in Los Angeles, California, based on the police officers’ uniforms. It seems to be a violent crime rather than a car accident, though it’s hard to tell what might be happening in the image. By examining details of the photograph, such as the clothing and uniforms, the make and model of the cars and their wheels, and even the film itself (ANSCO Safety Film), Will deduced that this event, whatever it was, likely took place in the 1940s or ’50s.

But even Will’s eagle eyes couldn’t solve the mystery of why Martin Litton had this photo, or why he kept it. For now, that remains unknown…

Special Collections & Archives thanks Will McMullan and Britney Bibeault for their years of hard work, dedication, and commitment as SCA Student Assistants, and congratulates them both on their upcoming commencement as members of the class of 2020! We wish them both continued success and encourage them to come back and visit.

While Lumberjacks near and far, past and present, struggle with the changes to their lives caused by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), Special Collections & Archives (SCA) staff are focused on ensuring that future generations of scholars can access a historical record of these strange and difficult times to better understand the pandemic’s impact on the NAU community, on campus, on the Colorado Plateau, and beyond.

Like many other libraries and archives across the country, SCA is currently working to preserve snapshots of NAU’s response to the coronavirus pandemic by capturing born-digital content like websites, emails, blog posts, and other publicly available material produced by the university which reflects the university’s actions and communications.

The goal of the project is to collect a body of otherwise ephemeral, web-based materials that will help future researchers understand NAU’s COVID-19 response in context. Some of these items may eventually be added to University Archives as historic records documenting the university.

Beginning in mid-March 2020, the Archivist for Digital Programs, Kelly Phillips, began using SiteSucker to regularly download local copies of two NAU websites, as well as the Arizona Board of Regents, City of Flagstaff, and Coconino County’s COVID-19 response pages:

• https://nau.edu/coronavirus
• https://nau.edu/library/covid-19/
• https://www.azregents.edu/news/novel-coronavirus
• https://flagstaff.az.gov/4299/COVID-19
• https://www.coconino.az.gov/covid19

SCA staff are also using the Internet Archives’ Wayback Machine to periodically capture NAU’s official COVID-19 webpage (https://nau.edu.coronavirus) as the content on that site is updated over time.

While SCA is currently unable to accept physical donations of material, those who are interested in contributing digital content which documents the NAU community’s experiences with COVID-19, such as digital photographs, videos, documents, etc. are encouraged to contact the department at SCA.CollectionsManagement@nau.edu to learn more.