As residents of rural communities, Sophie Cade and Emily Prines understand that small archives and museums are often under-resourced. The two saw an opportunity to use their Master of Library and Information Science Capstone project to help their local archives.
The online MLIS students are conducting research on the practices of rural community archive centers and museums for their Capstone project. Cade and Prines plan to provide management recommendations to enhance the capabilities of these small institutions.
Cade, who lives in Olympia, focused on archives in rural Washington. She studied the Lummi Island Archive and the Jefferson County Historical Society. Prines, who lives in Austin, Texas, studied the Wimberley Valley Museum, the Seguin Heritage Museum and the Seguin Conservation Society.
“We wanted to look at communities that were meaningful to us while also highlighting their stories,” Prines said.
Cade and Prines met during their first class in the MLIS program. Together, they worked on a group project analyzing archives, and that led to several more collaborations during their time in the program. When it came time to consider Capstone projects, Cade was on Lummi Island, completing directed fieldwork for the island’s Historical Society Archives. She recalled discussing the island’s archives with Prines. “Not a lot of professionalization had been brought to the archive,” Cade said.
This led them to the idea of archives in rural communities. They drafted questions concerning agency, community and sustainable preservation practices. From there, the project was born.
The team shared the importance of participant input. They were interested in the success of rural museums, and they asked, “How can one’s successes help other small archives?”
Cade concluded that her biggest advice for rural archives is to establish a regional network, a concept she learned about while speaking with a representative from the Washington State Historical Society. Using the analogy of a spider web, Cade explained that a large archive center in the middle of the ‘regional web’ can disseminate resources to smaller centers along the outskirts. Making these local connections helps many rural archives thrive. “Without a strong center, it is hard for these smaller locations to keep moving forward,” Cade said.
Prines was particularly interested in how rural archives manage their assets. Visitors often think of museums in respect to the artifacts inside. However, museums like the Wimberley Valley Museum highlight the building itself. Prines explained that these structures are physical reminders of the past and their preservation is important. Because the museums she studied are largely considered assets, they require a different kind of management than small artifacts might. “I knew these structures existed, but I had never thought about how they fit within these memory institutions,” Prines shared.
As their project moved along, they realized that their research focused on community more than they initially thought it would. Community awareness and engagement is crucial for these small archives to succeed.
The project is sponsored by Karen Fisher, an Information School professor and chair of the MLIS program. Fisher has done research on the dissemination of information in small communities, particularly in refugee camps. “Her work spoke to us,” Cade said.
Together, Cade and Prines are writing a research paper titled “Resilience, Innovation, and Storytelling: An Exploration of Rural Community Archives and Museums.” They will present the paper to Fisher in June. Cade and Prines’ recommendations will provide rural communities with guidance toward successful archive management.
They hope to continue adding to their research and eventually publish their paper.