On the Shelf: New items added to Center for Restoration Studies collections, April 2019

In April our colleagues in Technical Services and Cataloging added 430 items to the Center for Restoration Studies, Rare Books, and Taylor Hymnals collections.  Some are new to us; in other cases these new additions gave us a second copy.  Some are books, others are tracts, and over half the items added this month (245 items) are A/V in the form of  cassette tape, CD’s, VHS, and a few sets of filmstrips. Further, the work performed on some items reflects original cataloging, which is a tremendous contribution to knowledge about information resources from and about the Stone-Campbell Movement.

The Library in Daisy Hall, with a Jesse Sewell reading a book at a table and shelves of books around him.

Our goal is to build a comprehensive research-level collection of print materials by, for, and about the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.  But beyond assembly and preservation, a collection should be discoverable by those who need the information.  Collecting and preserving is only part of our task; those objects must be described and made available.  Thanks to the close and careful work of our colleagues upstairs, who describe our holdings, these materials are now discoverable. By discoverable I mean a patron can utilize our online catalog (such as by searching by author, or title, or subject) to find these materials.

430 new items…cataloged, shelved, and ready for research:

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Foldered & Finished: Abilene Christian College Faculty Wives Records

The Abilene Christian College Faculty Wives Records are ready for researchers. The finding aid for the Abilene Christian College Faculty Records is now available on DigitalCommons@ACU and the digitized scrapbook is also available on DigitalCommons@ACU in its entirety.

Scrapbook [page 7], Abilene Christian
College Faculty Wives Records, 1924-1961. Center for Restoration Studies MS #121.
Abilene Christian University Special Collections and Archives, Brown Library. Abilene
Christian University, Abilene, TX.

These records include a scrapbook that recounts and details the history of the Abilene Christian College Faculty Wives (1924-1961). The scrapbook includes historical notes, lists of members, by-laws, and relevant newspaper clippings.

Scrapbook [page 37], Abilene Christian
College Faculty Wives Records, 1924-1961. Center for Restoration Studies MS #121.
Abilene Christian University Special Collections and Archives, Brown Library. Abilene
Christian University, Abilene, TX.

The Abilene Christian College Faculty Wives began in 1924 as the Dames Club. Wanda Baxter, wife of Abilene Christian College president Batsell Barrett Baxter, organized the group. Early on the group focused on assisting with the social affairs of the college and on doing personal work with the female students. Vera Sikes presented a history of the group during a meeting celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 1945. This sparked interest in preserving the group’s history, which led to the creation of the scrapbook.

Scrapbook [page 195], Abilene Christian
College Faculty Wives Records, 1924-1961. Center for Restoration Studies MS #121.
Abilene Christian University Special Collections and Archives, Brown Library. Abilene
Christian University, Abilene, TX.