Hosted by Mitchell Community College, J.P. and Mildred Huskins Library, November 4, 2022
Conference Photos
Schedule & Resources
8:30-8:55 a.m.
Welcome (Rotary Auditorium)—Light refreshments served.
9-9:50 a.m.
Strategies to Maximize Engagement with Your Alumni and Retirees (Computer Lab)—Sarah Sowa, Librarian, Mitchell Community College; Molly Nicholson, Executive Director for Advancement and College Relations. At Mitchell Community College, the Library and Advancement Office have developed a mutually beneficial relationship. A shared interest in preserving and sharing the history of the College has led these departments to collaborate on a variety of projects, from alumni celebrations to grant applications. This session will discuss how to begin building relationships with your Alumni Association and/or Advancement Office and provide examples of what such a partnership can accomplish.
Resurrecting a College Archives on a Narrow Budget: How SCC is Preserving the History of the Oldest Comprehensive Community College (Rotary Auditorium)—Ginny Gaweda, History Instructor, Sandhills CC; Tammy Stewart, Dean of Learning Resources, Sandhills CC.
This session will offer information on how Sandhills Community College’s archive initiative was resurrected after decades of non-activity. Emphasis on the college’s history and identifying the starting point for cataloging and digitization of tangible documents will be addressed. Discussion of encountered challenges and solutions developed during the process include creation of finding aids and purchase of scanning equipment. Feedback received through acceptance into the State Library’s Traveling Archivist Program will also be discussed.
10-10:50 a.m.
Resources from the State Archives (Rotary Auditorium)—Brooke Csuka, Outreach Specialist, State Archives; Sarah Koonts, State Archivist.
The State Archives of North Carolina offers many tools and services to support community college archivists. State Archivist Sarah Koonts will showcase some of the resources the State Archives has to offer, including the Traveling Archivist Program (TAP). TAP partners with several selected repositories each year to provide free consultations, supplies, and best-practice advice, helping improve preservation and access to their archival collections. Learn how you can apply and more during this session.
Preserving Archival Materials: Care, Handling and Common Conservation Concerns (Computer Lab)—Cindy Bradley, Head of Collections Management, State Archives.
This session will cover basic strategies for preserving archival material including environment, storage, housing, handling and display. Common conservation concerns and methods for stabilization will also be explored including water, mold and pest damage.
11-11:50 a.m.
Ask The University Archivists (Rotary Auditorium)—Erin Lawrimore, University Archivist & Engagement Coordinator, UNCG; Katie Howell, University Archivist, UNCC; Kim Sims, Coordinator of Special Collections and University Archivist, Associate Professor, Interim Curator for the W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, ASU. Clark Adams, Moderator.
This session is a panel discussion featuring three public North Carolina university archivists, who will share their experiences with managing a larger university archives collection, by discussing best practices, resources, tips, successes, challenges, and pitfalls to avoid as you are working to establish, develop, and promote your own archives collection.
12-12:50 p.m.
Lunch (Huskins Library Main Floor)
1-1:50 p.m.
Advocating Existence Every Day: Community College Archives Advocacy Panel (Rotary Auditorium)—Erin Allsop, College Archivist, CPCC; Isabel Folck, Archive & Cataloging Librarian, Rowan-Cabarrus CC; Touger Vang, Dean of Learning Resources, Montgomery CC; Sarah Sowa, Moderator.
This session is a panel discussion featuring three North Carolina Community College librarians/archivists, who will share their experiences of how they have gained administrative support for their college archives collections, how they promote their archives collections, how they have obtained space for archives, and how they have helped to make the archives an important part of the college culture. You will learn tips and strategies to help you be able to speak up for your archives collections and make sure that they get the attention and institutional support that they need.
2-2:50 p.m.
Special Collections—What You Didn’t Learn in Library School (Computer Lab—Christy Earp, Wilkes CC; Nancy Daniel, Western Piedmont CC.
In a perfect world, an archive is an orderly, finite, and easily accessible collection of rare and valuable documents and artifacts. The archival training we had (if any) in library school, addressed accessioning, preservation, and probably digitization, all activities essential to maintaining that perfect collection. However, did your training address staff shortages, lack of funding, fighting to maintain space, or dealing with hands-on donors? In this presentation, Nancy Daniel and Christy Earp share their experiences in working with special collections in their libraries.
Assessing and Preserving Your AV Collections (Rotary Auditorium)—Skip Elsheimer, A/V Geeks; Erica Titkemeyer, Associate Head, Repository Services, UNC-Chapel Hill.
Join Skip Elsheimer of AV Geeks and Erica Titkemeyer (UNC-CH) in a hands-on session exploring strategies for assessing audiovisual formats. Topics will include identification, description, prioritization and options for digitization with a focus on expanding access to audio, video and film recordings in your collections.
3-3:50 p.m.
What is the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and What Can They Do for Me? (Computer Lab)—Kristen Merryman, Digital Projects Librarian, North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.
This session will discuss the work of the North Carolina Digital Heritage and ways it has supported efforts to preserve community college’s materials and history.
Community Connections: Creating a Digital History Project (Rotary Auditorium)—Dr. David Wright, Retired Associate Dean of Learning Resources, Surry CC.
Using the Surry Digital Heritage Project as an example, this session focuses on planning for a digital history project, seeking support through grants and community participation. Participants will brainstorm about potential projects and paths to successful implementation.
4-4:50 p.m.
Oral History 101: Planning for Success (Computer Lab)—Erin Lawrimore, University Archivist & Engagement Coordinator, UNCG.
Oral history interviews can be an important way to document historical events from individual people’s perspectives. From planning to permissions to preservation, we will learn about the important steps that go into building a successful oral history program.
The Community College Movement in North Carolina (1927-1963) (Rotary Auditorium)—Clark Adams, English & Communications Instructor, Randolph CC
When most discuss the beginning of the North Carolina Community College System, they start with the 1963 Legislation (G.S. 115A) which provided for the establishment of the Department of Community Colleges under the State Board of Education. However, at that point, there were already 20 Industrial Education Centers, six community colleges, and five extension units. This session will explore the history of public two-year colleges, vocational schools, and industrial education centers that were in operation between 1927-1963 and shed light on the beginnings of our current system.
4:50-5 p.m.
Closing Remarks (Rotary Auditorium)
5:30-7 p.m.
Optional Social Event—Twisted Oak American Bar & Grill, 121 N Center Street #104, Statesville
Speaker Bios
Clark Adams is a full-time faculty member at Randolph Community College where he has taught English and Communication since 2004. Prior to 2004, he taught English and Humanities at Davidson County Community College and served as Director of the Writing Center. Adams has conducted extensive research on the North Carolina Community College System since 2003. Adams received his Associate in Arts degree from Davidson County Community College, Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Master of Arts in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Adams is a third-generation educator as his grandfather, W. H. Adams, taught vocational agriculture in NC high schools for 39 years. Adams’ father, Dr. Bill Adams, retired in December 2018 with 53 years of service in North Carolina public education, spending 49 1/2 of those years in the NC Community College System. In 2005, Adams led an effort along with Debbie Luck, retired Dean of Library Services at Randolph Community College, to establish a College Archives Collection. In 2016, he developed an idea for a statewide association to preserve the history of North Carolina’s community colleges, which became the North Carolina Community College Archives Association later that year. Adams served as the first President of the North Carolina Community College Archives Association in 2018-2019 and is a member of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.
Erin Elizabeth Allsop (pronouns: she, her, hers) is the College Archivist for Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she preserves and provides access to the college’s institutional heritage materials. Erin is passionate about archival advocacy, outreach, and instruction, and works collaboratively with her colleagues in the Central Piedmont Library and beyond to promote archival collections and raise awareness about the value of archival research and the importance of the archives profession. Through her outreach efforts, Erin is working to make archives more approachable for all ages and levels of students.
Cindy Bradley is the Head of the Collections Management Branch and Preservation Officer for the State Archives of North Carolina, based in Raleigh. Originally from Western North Carolina, Cindy holds degrees in history and historic preservation from the University of Georgia and has over 10 years of experience in collections management. Prior to working for the State Archives, Cindy was the Collections Manager and Exhibitions Coordinator for the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. She has also held positions with the North Carolina Maritime Museums and Biltmore Estate. Cindy has experience in the care and handling of a diverse range of historic artifacts and archival materials. One of her most memorable
projects was collaborating with the Museum of Warm Springs in Warm Springs, OR and Tribe Elders learning about the culturally responsive handling, care and display of the museum’s ethnographic collections.
Brooke Csuka is an outreach archivist for the State Archives of North Carolina. Her work and interests focus on engaging educators, youth, and communities with archival collections and building a more inclusive historical record that accurately reflects the people of North Carolina. She earned a Master of Science degree in library science from the University of North Carolina and is a member of the North Carolina Community College Archives Association and the Society of North Carolina Archivists.
Nancy Daniel is the Director of the Library at Western Piedmont Community College. She received her MLIS in 2001 and has worked in both public and academic libraries, and has been in her current position since 2014. At WPCC, Nancy is responsible for managing and curating the Senator Ervin Library & Museum, which is located in the Library.
Christy Earp is the Director of Pardue Library at Wilkes Community College. She has worked in librarianship since 2000, and has been in her current position since 2011. At WCC, Christy is responsible for managing several archival collections, including the Wilkes County History Collection, the James Larkin Pearson Collection, and the Bowman Rare Book Collection.
Skip Elsheimer (he/him) is the founder of the A/V Geeks 16mm Film Archive in Raleigh, NC. Over the last 30 years, besides digitizing the archive’s holdings, Skip has been digitizing films and video for such clients as the Internet Archive, Duke University, NC State Archives, NASA and lots of community colleges. He has co-hosted digitizing bootcamp workshops in NC, SC and even in Albania.
Isabel Folck (pronouns: she, her, hers) is the Archive Services Librarian at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. She believes that one core purpose of archives is to make room for the voices that have previously gone unheard. To that end, she encourages donations and exhibits that illustrate the multi-faceted history of Rowan-Cabarrus. Isabel works with library staff and college faculty to build instruction sessions that introduce students to all the library can offer, including the archives. She also recently passed her Certified Archivist exam.
Ginny Gaweda currently serves as the Department Chair for Social and Behavioral Sciences at Sandhills Community College (SCC). She is also a History Instructor and the Coordinator for History and Political Science. She has served as Coordinator since 2011. Recently, she joined Tammy Stewart in the Sandhills Community College Library, where as a Faculty volunteer, she will be assisting with the preservation of the campus Archives, events related to the archives, and collaborating with the Library to create a process that supports more Faculty and Staff getting involved with the preservation of campus documentation. Gaweda earned her Master of Arts in European History, specializing in late Medieval History, in 2007 and received her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature in 2004. Both degrees were completed at UNC Wilmington, while her Associate of Arts in General Education was completed in 2002 at Fayetteville Technical Community College in her hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Currently, she resides in Carthage, NC and she is a member of the North Carolina Community College Archives Association (NCCCAA), the North Carolina Community College Faculty Association (NCCCFA) and the American Historical Association (AHA).
Katie Howell (she/her/hers) is the university archivist at UNC Charlotte. In this role, she is responsible for managing the university archives and guiding the campus records management program. Her prior experience includes serving as the college archivist for Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC and as reference archivist for the Austin History Center. She received her MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in Art History from DePaul University.
Sarah Koonts became State Archivist of North Carolina in 2012. Working with a staff of 72, she is responsible for the statewide archives and records management programs operated by the division. With more than 190,000 cubic feet of public records, private manuscripts, organizational records and non-textual materials in their care, the division of Archives and Records operates one of the largest and most comprehensive state archives operations in the country. She is active in the programming and advocacy work of the Council of State Archivists, a national organization representing the interests of the 56 state and territorial archives. Prior to becoming State Archivist, Sarah worked in a variety of units within the division, including reference, local records analysis, and preservation programming. She received her undergraduate degree from Simpson College and her MA in public history from NCSU. Sarah also serves collaterally as the Chairwoman of the America 250 NC, the statewide planning committee for our nation’s upcoming semiquincentennial anniversary.
Erin Lawrimore is the University Archivist and Student Engagement Coordinator in the UNC Greensboro University Libraries. She is also one of the co-creators of Well Crafted NC, a project focused on documenting
the history of beer and brewing in North Carolina through digitization and oral history interviews with industry leaders.
Kristen Merryman is the Digital Projects Librarian for the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center. Prior to working at the NCDHC, she served in positions at the Durham County Library North Carolina Collection, the North Carolina State University Special Collections Research Center, and the North Carolina State Archives, with over 15 years of experience in the cultural heritage field. Her work has primarily been in digitization of archival materials. She holds an M.S.L.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A. in public history from North Carolina State University, and a B.A. in history and political science from UNC Greensboro.
Molly Nicholson is the Executive Director for Advancement and College Relations at Mitchell Community College. She is a 2012 Mitchell Community College graduate and an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she double-majored in organizational communication and business. She has a master’s degree in higher education and a masters certificate in strategic communication from Appalachian State University. Molly is an Iredell County native and was the 2018 R.D. Grier Excellence in Education Award for Support Staff winner. She currently lives in North Iredell County with her husband and two children.
Kim Sims is the Coordinator of the Special Collections Research Center, University Archivist, and Director for Records Management at Appalachian State University. She earned a master’s degree in public history with a focus on archives from N.C. State University om 2001. She began her career working as the Technical Services Archivist for University Archives at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University. Prior to coming to App State, she worked as the University Archivist at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA.
Sarah Sowa (she, her, hers) is a Librarian at Mitchell Community College in Mooresville, North Carolina, where she has worked with other staff over the last few years to develop a formal archive. She received a BA in English from Ohio University, a MLIS from UNCG, and will soon graduate from UNC Chapel Hill with a PSM in Digital Curation and Management. She is the current President Elect of NCCCAA and serves on both the Education Committee of the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) and the Advocacy Committee of NCCCLA.
Tammy Stewart serves as the Dean of Learning Resources at Sandhills Community College. Prior to her current position, she served as the Librarian for Technical Services at Fayetteville Technical Community College from 2007-2017. She earned a Master of Library Science degree from North Carolina Central University in 2005 and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2000. She is a member of the North Carolina Community College Archives Association and has made great strides to revive the archive at Sandhills Community College. She is also a Signal Corps Army veteran who served on active duty for 13 years. Tammy has 3 children, 4 grandchildren and 3 fur babies. Her hobbies include Green Bay Packers football, travel and upcycling. She and her husband Dan reside in Cameron, NC.
Erica Titkemeyer (they/them) is the Associate Head of Repository Services within the Library and Information Technology department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). In this position they coordinate staff charged with digitization of Wilson Special Collection materials, and serve as Project Director on a Mellon-funded initiative to preserve audiovisual recordings for UNC-CH and partner institutions across the state of North Carolina.
Touger Vang is currently serving as Dean of Learning Resources since July 1, 2022, for Montgomery Community College (MCC) located in Troy, North Carolina. He served as Director of Learning Resources and Professional Development Coordinator from October 2019 to June 2022. He holds a Master in Library and Information Studies from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has worked with refugees and first-generation college students in North Carolina for over 15 years. His experience and research with underrepresented populations inform his community-engaged approach to delivering library and information services. Raised in the Hmong tradition and growing up in the United States, he is aware of the value of preserving traditional cultural heritage and the need to provide multilingual information access in today’s culturally diverse communities.
David A. Wright, PhD retired from Surry Community College as Associate Dean of Learning Resources after nearly 15 years in that position. He has held Library Director positions in TN, OH, and MS. He also worked at SOLINET, now Lyrasis, a Library Network representing libraries across the Southeast and the Caribbean. He currently volunteers at his church and with The Shepherd’s Center in Winston-Salem.
North Carolina Community College Archives Association 