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In
the spring of 2007, the Robert W. Woodruff Library of
the Atlanta University Center (AUC) began a collaborative
planning partnership with The
Howard Gotlieb Archival Center at Boston University (HGARC)
and the Martin
Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford
University.
This partnership, known as The MLK Jr. Archival Collaborative,
establishes an ongoing dialogue between three academic
institutions closely involved with the preservation of
King historical materials. The project will allow researchers
to benefit from scholarly work associated with the King
Papers Project at Stanford, and to electronically search
finding aids for the papers, writings and other items
representing the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. housed at both the Woodruff Library of the AUC and
Boston University.
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Archive at Boston University
includes more than 80,000 items, with the bulk of the
collection consisting primarily of King’s office
files, manuscripts, awards and extensive correspondence
from 1955 to 1961. Stanford’s King Papers Project
is a major research effort to publish a definitive 14-volume
edition of King's most significant correspondence, sermons,
speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts.
In Phase I, completed in September 2007, Woodruff Library
and HGARC staff mapped out implementation strategies and
completed training in the use of the “Archivists’
Toolkit” software, an open-source data management
system that provides integrated support for arrangement,
description and location of archival materials. Also as
part of Phase I, a four-member team was hired by the Library
exclusively to process the Morehouse King Collection.
Phase II of The MLK Jr. Archival Collaborative encompasses
the implementation of training and strategies developed
in Phase I. Woodruff archivists are creating common subject
terms and names for items within the Morehouse King Collection,
while HGARC archival staff do the same for the collection
housed at Boston University. Efforts are being undertaken
to make the description of the collections consistent
with those used for King materials described as part of
the King Papers Project at Stanford.
The Morehouse King Collection at Woodruff Library of the
AUC remains closed to the public so that archivists can
complete the arrangement and description process necessary
for scholarly access. The collection is expected to be
open for research during fall 2008.
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