Charmaine Bonner-The HistoryMakers, A Year in Review

I am approaching my year anniversary of working as the Visiting Archivist for African American Collections at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. I cannot believe it has already been a year since my first day of work! I have learned a lot since I began working at the Rose Library. Prior to working in the Rose Library, I had processed one small collection that prepared me a bit but I learned processing a large collection is more complex. I trained with my supervisor Carrie Hintz to learn the ins and outs of processing at Rose. I also consulted with the processing manual. As much as the processing portion to working in an archive interested me, I still wanted to learn about the other departments. I began a sort of residency working within different areas.

Cleaning printed material in the Preservation Office

I began training sessions in the Preservation Office with Ann Frellsen who was the head conservator. During the course of my preservation training, I learned how to clean mold from precious documents, clean dirt, mend pages using wheat paste and how to identify damage.  My experience in preservation was very important because I learned early on that the best defense against deterioration is early detection. I continued my rotation by meeting with Trey Bunn who is the audiovisual conservator to discuss the audiovisual materials I found in the Mari Evans papers. Trey Bunn was very helpful in teaching me how to detect when film is deteriorating. I learned if you smell vinegar, then the film reel is at risk, so those old book smells are not necessarily as innocent as one would think.

My next rotation is working with Meaghan O'Riordan, she the Accessioning and Collections Manager. I have been working with Meaghan to learn about accessioning additions to collections and new collections. I have successfully accessioned a few additions into our African-American photography, Black Print Culture and African-American miscellany collections. Simultaneously, I have been working with Beth Shoemaker who is our rare book cataloger learning how to catalog, create new MARC records and edit MARC records.

My primary duties consists of working with Collection Services processing archival collections, however I also work on the Research Services side. In Research Services, I have learned how to provide reference services for patrons, use AEON to print call slips & request materials, schedule appointments and help patrons create a special collections account. I learned Research Services is the first line of defense to making sure our archival collections are actively being used with care. I also work within the Reading Room which all of the staff members divide responsibility of a two-hour shift, once a week. The Reading Room staff has a large responsibility to making sure the rules are being followed so the archival collections can continue to be accessed for years to come.

The reason I have elected to work in so many different areas of the Rose Library is that I want to make sure I am prepared for my next journey. I know many repositories have a staff of three to five people for the entire special collections library.  In my next journey, I might be the only person in collection services or research services so I want to have a large skill-set by the end of my position. As I am entering into my second year of this fellowship, I have many goals I would like to achieve. One of my goals is to grow my skill-set in the area of digital archiving and using digital humanities tools.  I am working on achieving this by working on a digital humanities proposal with Elizabeth Russey Roke who is the digital archivist. I am elated I have had the support of my supervisor and the digital archivist to move this forward. My second goal for year two is to participate in public services programming of some kind pertaining to the Mari Evans papers. I have also had the support of my supervisor, public services and the leadership team so I am looking forward to planning.

Currently I am beginning the first steps on my next collection to process and that will be the James E. Hinton photographs and papers. James E. Hinton was a New York based photographer who captured some iconic photos during the Civil Rights Movement in the South and North. I am in the early stages of beginning a first sort of the collection but one photo that stood out to me is a photo of H. Rap Brown holding a baby in one hand and a rifle in another. The Brown photograph was a powerful photograph for a powerful man; it really captured the essence of the time. I look forward to uncovering more in the Hinton Collection.

            Outside of my processing duties, I am one of the Library Employee Advocacy Forum representatives for the Rose Library. LEAF meets monthly to discuss employee concerns and hosts monthly coffees to increase staff engagement and communication. I am also working as social media coordinator for Georgia Archives month and will be promoting Georgia's archives up until the Society of Georgia Archivists annual meeting in October. I am participating with the Atlanta Black Archives Alliance, ABAA exists to enhance the visibility of Atlanta’s African American archival collections in order to educate and empower diverse communities. ABAA meets monthly at archival institutions throughout the city to develop tools for researchers and program ideas for community outreach, all around Atlanta’s rich African American cultural resources. The Rose Library presented on collections and hosted the latest meeting for July.  My year in review has been a lengthy one, which displays just how much I have learned thus far.

I have had a wealth of great experiences in just a year of being at the Rose Library. I look forward to my second year being even more engaging. I appreciate the flexibility I have to broaden my skill-set, which is crucial for an early career professional.

Charmaine Bonner

Visiting Archivist for African American Collections

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library

Emory University