Gardner-Webb University’s Alumni Relations and Dover Library are proud to team up for an Archive Preservation. Over the past few days several alumni have been on campus for training in a mission to organize, preserve, and evaluate University materials in an attempt to create a usable and properly preserved resource for the greater Gardner-Webb community. Alumni trainees will assist in the copy and placement of photographs and printed materials onto archival grade paper and into archival buffered folders and boxes for proper organization. At the conclusion of the process, the University Archives will find a new home in the Blanton House, located in Shelby, North Carolina.
The Gardner-Webb archival collection will be organized by material type including The Faye Webb Gardner Collection, photographs, news clippings, scrapbooks, and documents in addition to University publications like yearbooks, GWU Quarterly, Webb Words, and GWU Course Catalogs. At the completion of the process, a Finding Aid will be available in the University Archives as well as online so that alumni and friends can locate and request to view and copy certain materials contained in the collection. The Finding Aid will also contain a manifest of individuals who appear in the University Archives including people in photographs, new clippings, professors, and students.
Lynn Spangler, class of 1972, was one of several alumni who took part in the training. It is important for her to continue to be a part of the ongoing efforts to preserve Gardner-Webb’s history which has been richly influenced by members of her immediate family. Lynn is the daughter of R. Patrick Spangler who was Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1967 until 1969 and then again from 1972 to 1974. A great supporter of Gardner-Webb, he was instrumental in several campaigns including the naming of Spangler Memorial Stadium, which was completed in 1966 and named in memory of his father, Ernest W. and in honor of his mother, Verna Patrick Spangler. Lynn affirms, “We need to maintain our school’s history for future generations so that they can learn what has taken place, a mark of the great things yet to come.”
Natalie Edwards, Instruction Librarian for the Dover Library and leader for the training event feels good about the preservation process and has great expectations for the trainees. “I feel the volunteers have great enthusiasm and will be committed to the project. I believe the end product will be something that the Gardner-Webb community including alumni, faculty/staff, and current students can be proud of and use.”
If you are interested in being a part of this preservation project, please contact Natalie Edwards by phone at 704.406.3247 or by e-mail at nedwards@gardner-webb.edu.
