Did you know the month of October is American Archives Month?
In case you did not, we are here to tell you that it is! The Concordia College Archives is very excited to celebrate this month dedicated to the thing we love the most: history! Since we believe American Archives Month is so special, we want to share this celebration with you. All month-long, we will be posting Concordia-related trivia questions for you to answer for a chance to win a special prize. In addition to trivia, we will also be hosting a History Harvest during Homecoming weekend, where we'll be unveiling a special project entitled "The Concordia Memory Project." Last, but certainly not least, keep your eyes open for a spooky new blog series on some of the most mythical inhabitants of Concordia College. Be sure to check out the Archives' Facebook and Twitter pages for daily updates and posts for this special celebration! Happy American Archives Month! Hello everyone! My name is Lisa Sjoberg, and I have the good fortune of serving as the College Archivist & Digital Collections Librarian at Concordia College. I hope that you have enjoyed the Humans of the Archives blog series this September and the Student Worker Highlights published last spring on this blog. We get a great deal of work done up here in the Concordia College Archives, and it would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of the amazing students that are the humans of the archives. I absolutely adore each and every one of them and am so grateful for the opportunity to work along side of them. All of these blog posts have discussed what we do in the College Archives, so here's my story. In the land of archives, I am known as a lone-arranger, who is an archivist that works in a solo shop where only one or two archivists are on staff. As a lone-arranger, I have primary oversight of all things archives including assisting patrons, processing and preserving collections, supervising staff, digitizing materials, teaching classes, managing public relations/outreach initiatives, working with donors, and more. My daily work is always an adventure with great variety, and that is an aspect of my job that I really love. In addition to my work in the Concordia College Archives, I am actively involved in professional organizations by serving on various committees and presenting at conferences. Since there are not any other archivists on Concordia's campus (and just a handful in the Fargo-Moorhead community), I have found the connections that I have made through participation in these organizations to be valuable. I'm very grateful for my archivist friends and colleagues across the nation. What I love most about my work is exposing people to archives and helping them understand why archives matter. Nate, Luke, and Gillian's recent posts certainly expressed this theme in terms of understanding the present in the context of the past. It truly is an awesome privilege to be an archivist because our facilities house information that documents the origins and developments of so many important changes in history: the Civil Rights Movement, numerous wars, immigration, the Great Depression, and so many more. These documents help us understand the impact national and international events have had in our community, which would go undocumented without local archives. We also collect documents of local individuals, so we can tell the story of our communities throughout time. Archives are in the business of remembering and honoring the people that have come before us, and some of my favorite people that I get to work with are those individuals in Concordia's history that I get to read about and see photographs of. These people shaped the college into what it is today, and I love having them in my company on a daily basis. I could go on and on with stories about Concordia's history and the value of archives, but what it boils down to is that I love my work. If you ever are curious about Concordia's history or would like to learn more about being an archivist, let me know! “Concordia College Archives, this is Nate”. If you’ve ever called the Archives, this is usually what you hear. Well, that’s because I spend a lot of time in the Concordia College Archives. I’ve worked here since I was a sophomore, and have put in my fair share of hours labeling, doing data entry, helping folks get the resources they need, and more! If you e-mail the archives, you’ll probably get a response from me too! I’m currently a senior at Concordia with a major in Political Science and a minor in Spanish. I’m originally from Billings, Montana, and travel back very often. The Archives has been one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. Not only have I been able to refine various clerical skills but I’ve learned so much about Concordia College, its community, and our traditions. This has helped me to build strong relationships with professors, alumni, and people in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Like I said, I love my job. One of my first projects I was assigned was to reorder and restore the Archives vinyl collection. While doing this, I discovered a recording of the Concordia Concert Choir singing “Beautiful Savior” by F. Melius Christiansen that was recorded in 1939! The best thing about it was how pristine and beautiful that recording sounded and to see the tradition almost completely unchanged. As of late, I find myself accessioning the donations our patrons give to us. One of the more recent cool donations was that of a Khodynka Cup of Sorrows. This was a toasting mug given out to over a million Russians to commemorate the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna in 1896. It’s called the cup of sorrows because there was a rumor among the common folk that the cup had a gold coin in it. Due to the confusion many were trampled on that day. The cup bears the cyphers of Nicholas and Alexandra surrounded by a geometric pattern with the Romanov eagle on the opposite side. It was so cool to hold something in my hands that impacted so many people. Had it not been for archives like ours and others around the world, the preservation of things like this would simply not be possible. I am ever thankful for my colleagues and my boss, the Archivist, Lisa Sjoberg. Every day in the Archives is filled with laughter, learning, and love. I’m so grateful to be a part of something so important and greater than myself. Hello everyone, I’m Luke! While we've only just met, I’m going to start out by telling you something you may not have guessed about me before reading this blog post. Ready? Before getting the opportunity to serve as the Public Relations Intern for the Concordia Archives, I had never paid a visit to the Archives or even really knew about it in the first place. While this was probably for multiple reasons, I don’t think I ever really linked history as an important and applicable piece to my field of study here at Concordia. Being a Communication Studies/Public Relations major, I really only focused on things happening in the present. Regardless, I decided to take on the position at the Archives. As a college student, I was eager to gain relatable experiences and skills for the “real world” and of course, earn a few bucks as a result. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was just how eye opening of an experience working at the Archives would really be. After working at the Archives for two semesters now, I have had a lot of great experiences and opportunities. I get to manage our blog and all Archives-related social media pages, interact with current students and alumni with engaging activities like the Photo Recreation Contest, and in general, increase awareness of the Concordia College Archives to the public. While doing all these things is extremely fun and rewarding, the most valuable part of my experience at the Archives hasn’t been work-related. Instead, it is what the Archives taught me about the undeniable value of history. History is something that people can easily take for granted. We can chose to live our lives not taking into consideration the work and efforts of the people that have come before us. But, when we take the time to learn more about both why and how things came to be, we can see everything a little more clearly. History helps us to better understand why things are the way they are today. It helps to develop, grow, and reflect. It even helps instill in us a sense of pride. Working in the archives has really helped me to better understand both Concordia, and what it means to be a Cobber. People often describe their experience at Concordia as feeling like they are a part of something bigger. Learning about the history of Concordia and the Cobbers that have come before me has really helped me to make sense of that. I now have a greater appreciation and understanding for both the subject of history, and of course, the place I call home: Concordia. For that, I am forever grateful. Hello blog readers! I'm Gillian. I've been working in the Archives for 4, going on 5, semesters now. I absolutely love it! I've worked on a few different projects throughout the years including: sorting and filing information into the Biography files and working with the daunting task of converting and sorting thousands of pictures into DROBO, our digital photo database. Currently, I’m working on cleaning up the labels in our record groups, and collaborating on this lovely blog with Luke. People don’t often want to show off their place of work, but I honestly tell my friends to come up and see the Archives all the time, because it's a wonderful place. From our rare books collection, to our yearbook collection, to the last remains of an Antarctic explorer, to gifts from Norwegian royalty, it’s undeniable that the college archives are a special place. I've learned more about Concordia and Moorhead history, than I ever would have otherwise. As an out of state and first generation cobber, learning about the history and traditions of the college has really helped make Concordia a special part of my life. Likewise, I feel like contributing to the preservation of the local/college history has helped me earn my keep, and really become a part of this place. The people I work with, more so than anything, have made my experience as enjoyable as it’s been. I love the humans of the Archives! I couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with, and Lisa is an amazing boss, confidant, and person in general. Yay archives! It's that time again, Cobbers! Are you ready for a blast from the past?
The Archives is excited to introduce the Picture Recreation Contest; an opportunity for you to recreate some of our favorite photos from the archives and Concordia's past! How do you participate in this awesome contest, you ask? Well, it's simple! The Archives will be selecting some of our favorite pictures of students, events, buildings, etc. from our photo collections in the archives. We will then upload them to our Facebook page for you to choose from. Pick out a couple favorites, or just one, and then the rest is up to you! Recreate the original photo(s) of your choosing as best and creatively as you can. You'll want to make them good, because our favorite picture recreation will be winning a special prize! Once you have taken the picture, create a side-by-side comparison of the original photo and your recreation. To do this, simply download the original picture off of our Facebook page. Then, use this website to help you create an awesome side-by-side comparison! Once you have done this, send your submission(s) to [email protected]. Once the contest is over, we will be posting them to our Facebook page, as well as selecting the winning submission. The Picture Recreation Contest will run through the entire month of September. Ready, set, recreate! Ello! My name is Emily Johannes and this is my second year working up here in the Archives. The Archives is a great place to work 1) because it is so fascinating to learn about the history of Concordia and 2) because of the wonderful people who also work here. I first visited the Archives while working on a speech for my Oral Communications class taught by Lisa ;). I found it very interesting and when Lisa offered me a job up here, I was really excited! When I first started working here, I was mostly completing random jobs here and there and my nickname was “Jill of all Trades.” Since then, I have moved into the photo division of the Archives. I started out by making file listings of all the photos in all the files that we have in the Archives (which still is not complete because there are LOTS of files). Now, I have been blessed with the opportunity to work on DROBO! YAY! Drobo is a digital database where I get to make new files of photos that are stored on our Archives drive, but not organized yet. This job is never –ending, but I do enjoy it. I have the opportunity to look up people and events from the past while creating new records for these photos. Sometimes, I even come across some pretty funny pictures, like a photoshopped picture of the Belltower with a dogsled team. I have no clue where it came from, but I think I laughed for about 20 minutes after finding it. I have seen endless photos of the Belltower, turkeys on campus, and the infamous campus squirrels, along with photos of past presidents of the college and the construction of campus buildings. There’s always something new to uncover when working with Drobo! With all that being said, the people I work with up here in the Archives are absolutely wonderful. I love working for Lisa because she is the nicest, sweetest, most caring person that I know. So if you do not know her, you should really come up to the Archives and say hello. Everyone is friendly and willing to help you find what you are looking for, so do not hesitate to trudge up to the fourth floor to do research. You may be pleasantly surprised with the information you find up here! Concordia's Celebration of Student Scholarship is coming up in two short days: April 9, 2014. Students are showcasing their excellence through poster presentations and concurrent sessions during this event. Two interns from the Concordia College Archives will be among those presenting their work: Tessa Wakefield and Sam Mersch. Both Tessa and Sam are presenting their posters from 8:50 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. in Memorial Auditorium. We are very proud of their work and hope many will stop by and enjoy their posters. Here is a sneak peek of the content Tessa and Sam will be presenting: "Animating Archival Collections: Sharing a Civil War Soldier's Experiences" |
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