DELAINEY BOWERS
FOLKLORIST + ARCHIVIST + LIBRARIAN
GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIP
WKU Manuscripts and Folklife Archives
Department of Library Special Collections
Collections that are particularly intriguing, or that run the risk of being overlooked, are featured on the WKU Libraries Blog. To read the posts I've written about hidden gems located in the Folklife Archives, visit this link!
Finally, one of my biggest accomplishments during this assistantship was co-authoring the Manuscripts and Folklife Archives Digital Preservation and Access Profile (2018). In partnership with WKU's IT Division, I assessed the current state of the oral history collections within the Folklife Archives. Looking at issues like public access, integrity evaluation, and digital storage policies, I argued that Western Kentucky University was worthy of earning institutional accreditation from the Kentucky Oral History Commission. Our efforts were rewarded in the spring of 2018 when the Folklife Archives was officially granted accreditation status.
To view a copy of the report, click here, and to read a brief press release about our recognition, visit this link!
Over the last two years, I have had the pleasure of working as a graduate assistant in Western Kentucky University's Manuscripts and Folklife Archives. In this capacity, I digitize, accession, and catalog collections that are meaningful to the cultural landscape of Kentucky. Student research papers, field notes, photographs, newspaper clippings, and assorted audiovisual material—such as reel-to-reel audiotapes, cassette tapes, DATs, VHSes, and BetaMax—are only a handful of the items that exist within the archives' collection.
I routinely create finding aids, which are then uploaded to our institution's digital repository, TopSCHOLAR, to be used by a wide array of researchers across the world. I also work closely with oral histories stored in our collection. After cataloging these interviews, I add them to Pass the Word, an online discovery tool maintained by the Kentucky Oral History Commission.
To browse through the entire listing of Folklife Archives finding aids, click here, and to view content added to Pass the Word, click here.