Rose Library Presents: Behind the Archives

Anicka Austin is an Atlanta-based artist and archivist curious about the relationship between ephemerality, documentation and legacy. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Carolina Academic Library Associates fellowship, graduating in May 2020 with a Master of Science in Library Science. She is currently working as visiting archivist for the Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade papers at Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. Leo Holder is a visual artist, who also serves as the family archivist in charge of preserving his parents' legacy as well as reconstructing their works. Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade papers at Rose Library

Monet Lewis-Timmons is an English PhD candidate at the University of Delaware and an alumna of Emory University (2018), where she double majored in English and African American Studies. Her dissertation research focuses on the genealogical lifecycle of Black women’s archives through Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s personal papers. She recently interned at the Rose Library where she received curriculum support on teaching undergraduates on how to use archives for seminar research and processing the collection of Black woman writer and poet J.J. Phillips, author of the 1966 novel Mojo Hand. Learn more "Black Women Building Their Own Archives, A Practice" by Monet Lewis-Timmons Digital Exhibition | “I Am an American!” The Authorship and Activism of Alice Dunbar-Nelson Finding Aid for the J.J. Phillips family papers

Randy Gue, Rose Library Curator of Modern, Political, and Social Movements and host of “Rose Library Presents: Atlanta Intersections,” joins us for a cross over episode that kicks off three episodes talking with members of the bands that played that show and others who have helped shape Atlanta’s punk history. In this edition, Randy and Atlanta music writer Chad Radford talk to Greg King and Jesse Smith of The Carbonas, a legendary Atlanta band that everyone hated, according to Greg and Jesse, in the 2000s. Listen to lots of stuff: Carbonas Gentleman Jesse GG King Check out the Finding Aid for Rose Library's Atlanta Punk Rock Collection (1980-2009).

Head of Collection Processing Sarah Quigley and Rare Book Librarian Beth Shoemaker take us into the Rose Library archives to talk about two curiosities connected to history in unique ways. In this episode, we learn how the purported beard hair of English monarch Edward the IV may one day help solve a mystery that dates back to the War of the Roses. We also learn of the rare book, The Danish Chronicles, that contains stories of Danish Kings, including Amleth, who inspired Shakespeare to write the play Hamlet, based on his life. Learn more about King Edward IV's beard hair and other materials in Rose Library's English collections here, and about The Danish Chronicles here. Sarah Quigley is Head of Collection Processing at Rose Library. Beth Shoemaker is Rose Library's Rare Book Librarian.

Lolita Rowe is the Community Outreach Archivist at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She works with the Metro Atlanta community to collect, preserve, and provide access to diverse voices in the archive. She has recently joined the Society of American Archivists podcast series, Archives in Context in the new project management role. She is the host, co-producer, and creator of the Rose Library Presents podcast series, Community Conversations and Behind the Archives. Nick Twemlow is Literary and Poetry Collections Visiting Librarian at Rose Library. He is the author of two books of poems and co-edits Canarium Books, a publisher of books of poetry in English and in translation. He co-produces the Rose Library Presents podcast series, Community Conversations, Behind the Archives, and Atlanta Intersections (with the series' host, Randy Gue).

Rare Book Librarian Beth Shoemaker talks about books as information rich records that contain a multitude of topics and different voices that invite readers, researchers, and many more to learn about the history of thought.

Head of Digital Archives Katherine Fisher demystifies digital archives and explains why items are not always available online.

Instruction Archivist Gabrielle Dudley talks about her roles as a faculty coach and student advocate and how she and her team design meaningful engagement opportunities with the archives.

Society of American Archivist Vice President and Head of Research Services at the Rose, Courtney Chartier, talks advocacy of the profession, engagement with the community, and about her experience as one of the processing archivists for the Martin Luther King Jr. papers, the Voter Education Project, and the Tupac Shakur papers during her time the Atlanta University Center.

Follow Randy's podcast, Rose Library Presents: Atlanta Intersections, which explores how lives and place are bound together. The series brings activists, artists, authors, journalists, musicians, photographers, scholars, and urbanists together to discuss their lives, their work and their experiences of the city and how it all converges.

You can read Rose Library’s statement on Harmful Language in Finding Aids here and follow along here as we detail our work with Anti-Oppressive Archival Description in our latest blog series. The first post in the series appears on November 18, 2020. Click here to learn more about the SCLC collections.

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Meaghan and Rosemary had to cancel their site visits in the Chicago area and the Northeast region of the United States. Both trips were scheduled in March and were supposed to be the last ones for the first round of trips. Although they were scheduled to present on their research for the first and second times at the New England Archivists annual meeting and Rare Books & Manuscripts Section of the joint Association of College and Research Libraries and the American Library Association meeting, both were cancelled for 2020. Once travel restrictions are lifted, additional site visits will be possible through a strategic growth grant, received from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Foundation. Until then, they have also turned their attention to working on a writing project to share findings from the survey they conducted, and the data collected from pre-pandemic site visits. In addition to the writing project, they are formalizing the accessioning community through a Slack channel and petition for a Section to be created in the Society of American Archivist, as well as applying for additional funding via IMLS. Meaghan O'Riordan is the Accessioning Archivist for the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives & Rare Book Library at Emory University. Her start in special collections was at the Special Collection Research Center at North Carolina State University as a Library Associate while she earned her MLS at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also holds a Masters in Theological Studies from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and a BA in English (Creative Writing) and a BA in Religious Studies from North Carolina State University. Rosemary K. J. Davis is the Accessioning Archivist for the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Prior to joining the Beinecke, she worked at institutions including Amherst College and Duke University. Davis received her MSLIS + Archives certificate from Pratt Institute and her BA with concentrations in Art History + Writing from the New School. Currently, Davis serves on the Steering Committee for SAA’s Women Archivists Section, as Chair of SAA’s Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct, as Co-chair of the New England Archivists’ Inclusion and Diversity Committee, and as Managing Editor for the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies.