Save the National Women & Media Collection
Help! The National Women and Media Collection is in danger of being marginalized. The NWMC is located in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri. Recently, the WHMC has been placed under the State Historical Society – and lost the $1 million UM allocated. There is a serious concern about the future of the archivists at the WHMC – people who know the collections best.
The SHS head may eliminate the WHMC reference staff – some of the best archivists out there. With the reference staff gone, the SHS staff will be responsible for providing reference service to historians and they don’t have archival training. They are largely librarians, a fine profession, but caring for manuscripts and caring for books are two different skill sets. Service will suffer considerably and collections will go unprocessed. People I respect could lose their jobs and this increases the likelihood that unknown women journalists in the papers of the NWMC will remain unknown.
The NWMC is an important resource in telling the stories of significant women journalists. These pioneers laid the groundwork for the women who are in the profession today. They worked to stretch the definition of news to be more inclusive to women. They were the trailblazers who fought battles big and small so that women would have a voice in a male-dominated profession. Yet, their stories are not part of much of journalism history. This Collection is a vital resource to record their stories. Some of the papers have been explored but there is still much that needs to be examined.
I urge you to contact leaders who can provide the funding to keep the WHMC archivists employed and allows historians to better use these collections. Gary Forsee is the UM system president (http://www.umsystem.edu/ums/president/contact.php) and Brady Deaton is the chancellor (Chancellor_Office@missouri.edu)
Save the National Women & Media Collection
Help! The National Women and Media Collection is in danger of being marginalized. The NWMC is located in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri. Recently, the WHMC has been placed under the State Historical Society – and lost the $1 million UM allocated. There is a serious concern about the future of the archivists at the WHMC – people who know the collections best.
The SHS head may eliminate the WHMC reference staff – some of the best archivists out there. With the reference staff gone, the SHS staff will be responsible for providing reference service to historians and they don’t have archival training. They are largely librarians, a fine profession, but caring for manuscripts and caring for books are two different skill sets. Service will suffer considerably and collections will go unprocessed. People I respect could lose their jobs and this increases the likelihood that unknown women journalists in the papers of the NWMC will remain unknown.
The NWMC is an important resource in telling the stories of significant women journalists. These pioneers laid the groundwork for the women who are in the profession today. They worked to stretch the definition of news to be more inclusive to women. They were the trailblazers who fought battles big and small so that women would have a voice in a male-dominated profession. Yet, their stories are not part of much of journalism history. This Collection is a vital resource to record their stories. Some of the papers have been explored but there is still much that needs to be examined.
I urge you to contact leaders who can provide the funding to keep the WHMC archivists employed and allows historians to better use these collections. Gary Forsee is the UM system president (http://www.umsystem.edu/ums/president/contact.php) and Brady Deaton is the chancellor (Chancellor_Office@missouri.edu)
