W. Frank Steely Library Special Collections & Archives Security Assessment & Training

FAIN: PG-51973-13

Northern Kentucky University Research Foundation (Highland Heights, KY 41099-0001)
Lois Hamill (Project Director: May 2012 to September 2014)

An assessment of the security of the university's institutional archives and special collections. Holdings include more than 3,000 linear feet of manuscripts, publications, photographs, maps, audiovisual and other materials documenting the history of the university and the Ohio River Valley from colonial times to the present. Among the library's holdings are the Warren J. Shonert American Collection (1794-2002) containing records on the Civil War, the history of Kentucky, and Abraham Lincoln; the Congressional papers of Kentucky Representative and Senator Jim Bunning (1987-2010); and the H. Lew Wallace Newport History Collection (1950s-1970s) on the campaign against organized crime in Newport, Kentucky.

W. Frank Steely Library's Eva G. Farris Special Collections & Schlachter University Archives (SC&A) at Northern Kentucky University requests funding for an on-site security assessment to identify risks and for training. An archives security specialist will conduct the assessment and training to staff and area archivists. SC&A collections document aspects of the region's culture, history and heritage and include paper documents, rare books, newspapers, photographs, A/V cassettes, blueprints, maps, and objects, and concentrate most heavily on the northern Kentucky/Ohio River Valley/Cincinnati region, military and Civil War history, Appalachian authors/region, and papers of Kentucky's political leaders. The significance to the humanities is long-term preservation of the collections for continued access by local, regional, and national researchers. A security assessment is essential to meeting the project goal of providing a protected environment for SC&A's distinctive collections.