By Sr. Virginia Jung, OSB, Community Archivist
Article originally published in Sacro Speco Winter/Spring 2024
Not all archival work is digital. Maribel Garcia, Katrina Swanson, and Sr. Virginia Jung, OSB prepare an embroidered Corpus Christi canopy for preservation and boxing.
In September 2023, the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago Archives began to create an online resource using the ArchivesSpace platform. Our Sisters, Oblates, Staff, and other researchers use our ArchivesSpace site as a catalog to the materials our Archives holds. In it, we create and post finding aids to the different collections. Finding aids are the guides that archives use to educate researchers about the contents of collections. Called Resources in ArchivesSpace, the finding aids include biographical or historical notes, information about the scope and content of the collection, possibly a note about related materials, and any conditions governing use of the archival materials.
Our Archives identifies six main record groups within our collection: Monastery records, Schools records, Summer Schools of Religion collection, Sisters’ papers, Oblate records, and Catholic Culture collection. An advantage to having a digital catalog is the ability to create links between related materials, people, organizations, and subjects. Also, users can visit the Archives from home before arranging a visit or they can request that material be sent to them in electronic format.
Justin Anderson, a student of art history and photography at Columbia College, assisted Sister Virginia Jung, OSB with the implementation of ArchivesSpace as part of his internship this year. He dedicated great care and attention to detail as he entered basic information on sisters, oblates, schools, parishes, and towns into the site as well as identifying multiple subject areas. Justin also learned to finish processing diverse collections and create finding aids for them – for example: Prioress’ papers, sisters’ papers, publications, and summer schools.
Justin also contributed to our workflow, the manual to our implementation of ArchivesSpace. This workflow is invaluable as it assists other workers in the Archives as they learn to use the platform, and it helps us to be sure that we are all doing things the same way. Elizabeth Piskorski, an archives student from Dominican University, and Madison Carter, a peace and justice major from DePaul University, both used this workflow to guide them as they created finding aids for the collections they processed this year – collections of textiles and religious education textbooks.
Make some time to explore the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago Archives in ArchivesSpace. You may find that you want to come in to explore the physical collections or to join us in our ongoing work assessing, preserving, arranging, and describing all manner of things that carry the history of our community at prayer and at work in Chicago and in Colorado.
Learn more about the Archive and find the link to ArchivesSpace here - www.osbchicago.org/archives
Intrepid Oblate Mickey Smith has made the transition from Microsoft Word and now uses ArchivesSpace to continue her excellent work processing and creating finding aids for Sisters’ papers.
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