The mission of the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) in the University Libraries is to collect, preserve and share original materials related to four primary collecting areas — one of those areas is the University Archives.
The purpose of the University Archives is to document and preserve the history of App State. Like other universities in North Carolina, App State is required by state law to retain, preserve and make accessible historically-significant records produced by the university — this includes The Appalachian, both physically and digitally. We are honored to serve as stewards of University history and are proud of our work.
Another aspect of the SCRC’s job involves supporting and educating students, faculty and staff who create the rich history of App State and, by extension, the local community. We promote the use of the historical student newspaper as a source for campus and town history in our everyday interactions with students and researchers interested in historical topics, and we appreciate all that past student journalists have done in documenting events as they unfold.
The SCRC’s staff empathizes with the distressed feelings that The Appalachian’s staff is experiencing by losing their morgue. Removing immediate access to resources on which people have come to rely is no doubt difficult and will introduce challenges for reporters. However, we want to assure the journalists and readers that, as long as the University Archives exists, App State history is not being lost.
While we cannot provide the 24/7 access to physical papers that The Appalachian’s staff has grown accustomed to, the University Libraries and the SCRC have offered space for The Morgue and made tentative plans for relocating it to secure, temperature-controlled storage.
Members of the SCRC staff also recently met with representatives from The Appalachian to advise on moving the papers and create a plan for acquisition and digitization of the newspapers that are not yet in our collections. We look forward to growing this partnership with The Appalachian in support of our shared goals of documenting University history and championing student, faculty, staff and community interests.
