Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

11-3-2023

Abstract

Our unit has been working for several years in various capacities with the Great Plains Black History Museum in North Omaha, a community museum located in a predominantly and historically Black area of our city. The Museum is a rich exhibit-based resource for Black history in Omaha and the region. Their stated mission is to “preserve, educate, and exhibit the contributions and achievements of African Americans with an emphasis on the Great Plains region, as well as provide a space to learn, explore, reflect and remember our history.” They mount rotating exhibits, give in-person and virtual tours to school and community groups locally and further afield, and have a robust Facebook presence with multiple posts a day every day. On the slide you'll see their exhibit space near their front door, and then that same door from the historic 24th Street corridor in North Omaha. They also have a large underutilized archival collection, which is our focus today. It holds a variety of formats including photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks, posters, pamphlets, ledgers, documents, and other material. The collection documents Black foodways, rural settlements after the Civil War, urban settlements to meet increasing demands for labor and during the Great Migration in the 20th century, education and schools (K-16), businesses, churches, community leaders, veterans of the armed forces, social organizations, musicians and music venues, police reform, the Underground Railroad in the Great Plains region, and more.

Our latest collaboration with the museum involves arrangement, description, and selective digitization of this collection. This project is ongoing but unfortunately stalled at the present time. This is a change from when we first proposed this topic for Brick & Click and even since we presented it at a local NE conference in May. We’ll get into this throughout our talk today.

Comments

This was presented at the Brick and Click: An Academic Library Conference on November 3, 2023.

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