Summer Intern 2023 – Erin Creel
Erin Creel joined the Collection Management Team for a six-week internship this summer. Erin came to us from Florida, where she is completing her MLIS with the University of South Florida. Her work concentrated on rehousing, describing, and transferring the papers of Tulane president Scott Cowen to our offsite collection facility. This is an important project that has crystalized CMT workflows and set precedents for iterative processing and backlog triage.
The Cowen Presidential papers are comprised of 285 boxes (approximately 309 linear feet) of materials transferred to University Archives during and directly after President Scott Cowen’s tenure at Tulane, which lasted from July 1998 to June 2014. The papers contain correspondence, operational files, administrative files, and other materials created by the President’s Office. Cowen’s presidency was notable due to his tenure during the events of Y2K, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. As part of the University Archives’ standard access policy for presidential papers, these materials are restricted from research access for 30 years after the end of Cowen’s tenure as president and will be made accessible in 2044. Erin’s internship focused on the critical work needed to stabilize the Cowen papers and collect data for processing at a future date.
The materials were stabilized for long-term storage offsite and will be processed as they get closer to the end of the access restriction. Erin carefully transferred materials from old, nonarchival boxes into new, archivally appropriate housing. She performed interventions such as removing rusty fasteners, and rubber bands, and creating folders for unfoldered materials. Erin collected information about the subject and contents of each box to aid future processing. This internship provided hands-on collections experience for Erin, who was able to rehouse and transfer 83 boxes, or about 1/3 of the whole collection, to our off-site facility. This internship provided a great start for this ongoing project and CMT was delighted to work with Erin, who is “so proud” of her involvement.
10/5/2023
