ALABI

This Spring, two of our ALABI officers accepted jobs outside Baptist circles and resigned as officers of our organization.  Steve Jones (president) took a job at the Frazier Museum of Kentucky History, and Wendy Richter (vice president) became the State Archivist for Arkansas.  They both served ALABI so well and we will miss having them in our organization.  Before leaving for his new job, Steve Jones appointed ALABI secretary Jennifer Taylor as acting president for the remainder of his term.  The nominating committee recommends the following slate of officers to be voted on at this year’s business meeting:

President: Jennifer Taylor (Samford)
Vice President: Jill Botticelli (Southwestern)
Secretary: Daniel Williams (Mercer)
Executive Secretary-Treasurer: Taffey Hall (SBHLA)

Nominations are being accepted for the Betty Hurtt Meritorious Service Award.  This award honors a current or former ALABI member or any individual who has served as a role model and contributed significantly to the preservation and promotion of Baptist records and manuscripts.  The award includes a plaque and a resolution honoring the individual from the association.   If you would like to nominate someone for this award, please submit a letter of nomination to Taffey Hall (taffey@sbhla.org) by Friday, May 25, 2018.

The Baylor University Libraries seek a creative, collegial, and collaborative Rare Books Cataloging Librarian to join their Cataloging & Metadata team.

Ideal candidates will be passionate about cataloging, understand how this vocation underpins the research and scholarly discovery activities that occur in academic research library settings, and have expertise in rare books cataloging and extensive familiarity with effective descriptive practices for antiquaria and other unique materials frequently found in library special collections.

Please see the attached position summary or visit https://jobs.baylor.edu/postings/3461 for more information on this exciting opportunity.

The Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is seeking an Archivist and Digital Collections Manager to direct the work of Archives & Special Collections, the Digitization Lab, and their employees in order to procure, preserve, and promote access to unique archival resources in print, digital, and other formats in support of the research needs of SEBTS students, faculty, and staff as well as the broader research community.

Visit https://bit.ly/2G4p8zH for details on responsibilities, requirements, and application instructions.

Guest post from Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Director of Special Collections & Archives, Wake Forest University.

Special Collections & Archives (Z. Smith Reynolds Library), Wake Forest University recently hosted Marcia Phillips, a representative of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention and Chair of the Convention’s History Committee. The occasion was to present SCA with a resolution of appreciation at a small ceremony including Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch, Provost Rogan Kersh, Z. Smith Reynolds Library Dean Tim Pyatt, and SCA Director Tanya Zanish-Belcher. SCA was honored for its efforts in digitizing collections which are part of the North Carolina Historical Baptist Collection.

A week after receiving the resolution, SCA was notified it was one of 16 recipients of a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Recordings at Risk Grant: https://www.clir.org/about/news/pressrelease/rar2

CLIR will provide $50,000 for “Documenting the Evangelical Movement in the United States: Digitizing Baptist State Convention of North Carolina Open-Reel Audiotapes, 1957-1980.”  George Blood LP (Philadelphia) will reformat and digitize approximately 1,500 at-risk and rare open-reel audio recordings for SCA. The open-reel tapes document the American evangelical movement and contain presentations by prominent Southern Baptist pastors and church representatives at a number of evangelical conferences and annual meetings of the Convention. The speakers and programs on the tapes document the denomination’s activities and subjects of discussion, 1957-1980, ranging from Baptist theology to broad cultural and societal issues. This project will result in the long-term preservation digital storage for these tapes, and broad access through the Wake Forest University North Carolina Baptist History Portal currently being developed. Once completed, there will be an active outreach program, focused on demonstrating how historians, researchers, and religious scholars can use these records in their research and teaching.

As primary source material, the insight this material provides for the American evangelical movement through four decades is invaluable on many levels. The speakers include prominent Southern Baptist leaders, including such notables as Kenneth Chafin, Billy Graham, Dale Moody, Wayne Oates, and Stephen Olford. The subjects range widely, from internal Baptist concerns relating to baptism and dancing at Baptist colleges, the role of the church in an increasingly liberal society, missionaries working abroad, political involvement, and the role of women. Historians, researchers, scholars, and students, whether focusing on culture, the evangelical movement, gender, or religion, will gain new perspectives and understanding by having access to these previously unavailable materials.

For further information, please contact Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Director, zanisht@wfu.edu

To update ALABI members on news from your institution, please contact Steve Jones at sjones@sebts.edu.

Guest post from Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Director of Special Collections & Archives, Wake Forest University.

Articles of Faith, 1861, Baptist Church (Mount Gilead, N.C.) Records (MS755)

In 2015, Z. Smith Reynolds Library received an EZ Digitization Grant-Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)/Library Services and Technology (LSTA) Grant from the State Library of North Carolina for the description and digitizing of archival material that is part of the North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection at Wake Forest University. Nearly 100 linear ft. of original archival records (dating back to the 18th century) belonging to churches throughout North Carolina are now available as part of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library’s online NC Baptist Collection:
https://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/handle/10339/63998

Dismission letter for Frances Hart, circa 1797 (Grassy Creek Baptist Church).

The funding was used to hire a digitization technician, Kylie Bradley, and metadata specialist, Weihua Wang, who performed the majority of work on this project. In addition, Marcia Phillips, a member of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina History Committee, volunteered to assist with rehousing the physical materials within this collection prior to digitizing. Student assistants completed the remaining digitization during the Fall 2016 semester.

A total of 65,996 pages/objects were digitized for 113 churches, with 6 remaining to be added online. Metadata records were also created for each church collection. ZSR Library is excited and honored to have the opportunity to provide scholars, students, researchers, and the public with access to these Baptist collections.

For further information, please contact Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Director, zanisht@wfu.edu

To update ALABI members on news from your institution, please contact Steve Jones at sjones@sebts.edu.

The association is happy to announce that the ALABI and Baptist History and Heritage Society Woolly Award Committee has selected the Arkansas Baptist History Collection at Ouachita Baptist University as the recipient of this year’s Davis C. Woolley Award for Outstanding Achievement in Assessing and Preserving Baptist History.  Of special note were Ouachita’s projects to digitize and provide online access to pre-1920 association annuals and the Arkansas Baptist State Convention annuals, 1848-1900.  The committee commented that these projects are rich resources for students of Arkansas Baptist history.

To explore Arkansas Baptist History Collection resources and learn more about the work Wendy Richter and her staff are doing to preserve and promote the use of Baptist resources, visit https://www.obu.edu/library/.