Kevin Coriolan | News Editor

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The Buena Vista University (BVU) Ballou Library will soon be home to a collections room dedicated to preserving the university’s history.

Library Cataloger Joan Curbow and Reference Librarian Jackie AlSaffar proposed the idea of a library collections room to administration last year. Academic Affairs was on board and the State Historical Society of Iowa awarded the project a grant eventually used for acid-free boxes to store material artifacts and for consulting of a professional archivist.

“It is pretty common for colleges and universities to want to retain their history through documentation. This is the way to know who we are” Curbow said. Stemming from her involvement in the project Curbow is currently pursuing a Master’s in library and information science with a concentration in archives. Her inspiration to start online classes last fall came with the approval of the archives project. She has 36 credit hours left to complete her master’s.

“Archives are all about telling the story” Curbow said.

Lately, alumni have been mailing in BVU-related items such as timeworn books, theatre pamplets and freshman beanies.

The collections room has replaced the location of the children’s curriculum collection. These shelves were swept aside for construction of the room last spring semester.

The room requires the temperature to be 65 degrees F and have 45-55% humidity. A climate control system is required as to not allow fluctuations. This will come from the HVAC system to keep the artifacts cool and dry though proper ventilation. As of now, there are no plans to have public access to the facilities. The room’s primary use is for research.

At this point, there are plans for a collections room and a processing room. Archives typically have staff offices, a processing room, a collections room, a classroom for presentations and a display space for exhibits. The library staff hopes to have a research room eventually.

One goal of the project is to digitize issues of The Tack and old yearbooks. History major and sophomore Veronica King is the student worker behind the scenes of the process. Her first task is to process articles from The Tack. Depending on the course of the project, her responsibilities will vary.

“I enjoy looking back at BV and how things have changed” King said. She examines each volume searching for what she finds interesting and documenting her discoveries. Her investigation is the first documentation of the BVU archives with particulars like The Tack being called The Yell at first and the large increase of photos in the 1920’s issues. These discoveries are the seeds for further research of BVU’s story.

“It’s kind of like skimming through history.” King plans to be working for the project at least until 2015.

Reference Librarian Jackie AlSaffar has a great passion for the archives project. The 125th anniversary of BVU’s establishment is coming up in 2016. With the Quasquicentennial quickly approaching, the accomplishment of the collections room will come at a time of celebration that is important many, including the city of Storm Lake, the board of trustees, and alumni. The whole project is for protecting the story of BVU from time itself.

“Archives are about telling the story” AlSaffar said. “Here, we’re kind of empty-handed and it’s time to change that.”