NUCMC Seeks to Describe Civil War Collections

As part of the Library of Congress observance of the forthcoming sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) is seeking the assistance of eligible repositories in identifying and describing archival collections relating to the conflict. Eligible repositories must 1) be located in the United States or its territories; 2) must regularly admit researchers; and 3) must lack the capability of entering their own archival cataloging into OCLC.

Also part of the NUCMC observance of the Civil War sesquicentennial will be a five year/five part exhibit on our Web site entitled “NUCMC and the Documentary Heritage of the American Civil War.” The exhibit will highlight program cataloging of the last quarter century and will also contain related visual content. Initial plans call for the first exhibit (2011) to focus on the election of Abraham Lincoln, the secession crisis, the outbreak of hostilities, mobilizing for war, and foreign public opinion. Succeeding  exhibits will feature personal narratives of members of the Union and Confederate armed forces (2012); the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and the African American experience from slavery to the end of the war (2013); the home front, women in the war, the role of charitable organizations, economic aspects of the war, and patriotic societies (2014); and the sesquicentennial of the death of Abraham Lincoln, Reconstruction, Confederate exiles, and the rise of veterans’ organizations (2015).

For more information about NUCMC program participation please visit our Web site at http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc or contact us at Library of Congress, Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division, NUCMC, 101 Independence Ave., S.E., Stop-4230  Washington, D.C. 20540-4230. Email: nucmc@loc.gov . Telephone: (202) 707-7954. Fax: (202) 252-2082.

New Steering Committee Members Announced

Yesterday, at the spring membership meeting, the newly elected steering committee members were announced.  48 ballots were distributed and 32 ballots were received and tabulated.  The three new members of the committee will be replacing outgoing members Kathleen Crosman, Josh Zimmerman, and Emily Hughes Dominick.  Thank you to everyone who participated in this process!

The committee for 2010-2011 year stands as follows:

New members of the steering committee

Seth Dalby who is currently head of Archives and Records Management at the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

Odile Dumbleton who is currently a volunteer with the Special Collections Division of the University of Washington Libraries

Jennifer Hawkins who is an MLIS student at the University of Washington iSchool, a student technician in Special Collections at UW, and a volunteer at the Redmond Historical Society.

Returning members of the steering committee

Nicolette Bromberg who is Visual Materials Curator in the Special Collections Division of the University of Washington Libraries

Ken House who is an archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration in Seattle

Reminder: Spring Membership Meeting this Wednesday!

Who: You!

What: Seattle Area Archivists Spring Membership Meeting

When: 2-4 pm on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Where: Olympia Diocese (Episcopal) Archives, Seattle, located at 1551 10th Ave E (check previous post for map and directions)

Why: We’ll be announcing the winners of the Steering Committee election, sharing committee news, and getting a tour of Diocesan House and the Archives led by Archivist Diane Wells!  This will be the last meeting of this membership year.  The next meeting will be held in the Fall.