Archive Work Continues with Help from British Library & American Scholars
Liberian Collections Project—Archives of Traditional Music
Indiana University
News Release
Wednesday, January 11 , 2006
A group of American scholars arrived in Monrovia on January 4th to continue work with the Center for National Documents & Records/ National Archives and the Presidential Archives that began in 2004.
The project, funded by a grant from the British Library Endangered Archives Programme, is designed to assist with the improvement of the archiving techniques used at the Archives, aid in the restoration of papers that have been damaged and provide further education for current workers in the archives.
During a visit to Liberia in July and August of 2005, Dr. Verlon Stone, Dr. Elwood Dunn and other members of the Liberian Collections Project recovered the W.V.S. Tubman papers, the Bai T Moore papers, and the E. Reginald Townsend & Evelyn Diggs Townsend Papers. The papers were then sent to Indiana University where the papers are being restored. The Tubman papers will be microfilmed and returned to the Tubman family, while the Moore and Townsend papers will be restored and made available for scholars from around the world to access.
A pilot study was also begun during the Summer 2005 visit to survey and sample the holdings of the Presidential Archives and the National Archives, each of which holds invaluable and irreplaceable materials for understanding Liberia’s history. Key document series will be located, assessed, and selected for future preservation. The group will follow up on these surveys and provide guidance for Liberian archivists.
Members of the team include:
Dr. Verlon Stone, coordinator of the Liberian Collections Project at Indiana University. Dr. Stone first began working in Liberia in the 1970s.
Dr. D. Elwood Dunn, a former Liberian government official and now a Professor of Political Science at Sewanee–The University of the South ( Tennessee). Dr. Dunn is also an Advisory Board member for the Liberian Collections Project.
Dr. Svend E. Holsoe has worked with materials from the Liberian National Archives since the 1960s and donated his Liberian materials to the Liberian Collections Project. He has also generously funded the processing of many materials in the collection to make them available to Liberian and international scholars. Dr. Dunn and Dr. Holsoe are also Advisory Board members for the Liberian Collections Project.
Philip Bantin has 27 years of professional archive service and is the Director of the Indiana University Archives as well as the Director of the Archives Specialization in the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science. During is stay in Liberia, Bantin conducted four days of workshops on archival and records management practices for Liberian archival professionals.
Dr. Afeworki Paulos is the African Studies Librarian at the University of Michigan and has been consulting and conductin workshops the library staff at University of Liberia. His work is sponsored by Dr. Lester Monts, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, University of Michigan, a member of the Liberian Collections Project Advisory Board, and an ethnomusicologist who has done on-going research on Vai music.