Processing, Cataloguing, and Digitizing HQBCA's Collections

FAIN: PW-290500-23

Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, Inc. (St. Paul, MN 55102-1744)
Kayla Jackson (Project Director: July 2022 to present)

An implementation project to arrange, rehouse, and describe 22 collections that document the experiences of the African-American community in St. Paul, MN after the Great Migration. The project would produce 15 finding aids and digitize 16 film reels.

The Hallie Q. Brown Community Archive [HQBCA] seeks funding for a one-year project to acquire, arrange, preserve, describe, digitize, and disseminate our twenty-two collections that document the experiences of the African-American community in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, MN, as well as the history of African-Americans in the Upper Midwest in the years following the Great Migration. This project will: - Support historical and African-American studies research by improving access to and preservation of HQBCA’s collections - Deepen our online presence by creating digital surrogates of our collections, allowing us to fully utilize CONTENTdm with the goal of users being able to conduct primary-research online - Improve our outreach capabilities with community members, who are both the source of and primary audience for our collections

Associated Products

From Mammy to Big Mama: Caring for Collections on Our Own Terms (Article)
Title: From Mammy to Big Mama: Caring for Collections on Our Own Terms
Author: Kayla T. Jackson
Abstract: Hallie Q. Brown Community Center (the Center) began as a settlement house in 1929. It has and continues to serve the predominately Black neighborhood, commonly known as Rondo, in Saint Paul, MN. I am the first professional archivist hired by the Center and, as such, I was the first to establish workflows, implement standards, and provide easy access to the Center’s archival collections. Yet, I was trained to be an archivist by white people at predominately white institutions and have learned over time that not all the frameworks, ideas, and expectations impressed upon me apply in community archives which serve Black people. In this paper I will discuss the underappreciated social and emotional labors involved in being a Black woman in charge of a community archive, which serves a historically Black community, and was initially led by Black women. I will explore aspects of internal colonialism, catalog description, and efforts in community collaboration and outreach as it relates to collections entrusted to the Hallie Q. Brown Community Archives (HQBCA). This paper will offer a vignette into the journey of a professional serving the majority as a minority in collections care, to serving an underrepresented community as a fellow member of a marginalized group.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15501906241232906
Primary URL Description: Link to Sage publication Collections: A journal for Museum and Archives Professionals.
Access Model: Subscription only
Format: Journal
Publisher: SAGE Publishing

Meet the woman who preserves and catalogs St. Paul's Rondo memories (Article)
Title: Meet the woman who preserves and catalogs St. Paul's Rondo memories
Author: Jim Walsh
Abstract: Kayla Jackson is an archivist at the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center. She describes her work as like being a road builder.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.startribune.com/meet-the-young-woman-who-preserves-and-catalogs-st-pauls-rondo-memories/600321402/
Primary URL Description: The Star Tribune is an American daily newspaper based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Format: Newspaper
Publisher: StarTribune

Hallie Q. Brown Community Archives: Online Collections (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Hallie Q. Brown Community Archives: Online Collections
Author: Kayla T. Jackson
Abstract: This mission of the Hallie Q. Brown Community Archives (HQBCA) is to collection and preserve items of enduring historical value, primarily relating to the Rondo Neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota. Through physical and digital preservation and access initiatives, HQBCA responsibly cares for and educates the public on the items that have been entrusted to her, today and for future generations.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://hqbca.contentdm.oclc.org
Primary URL Description: Online collections repository.
Secondary URL: https://hqbca.libraryhost.com/repositories/resources
Secondary URL Description: Online collections catalog.
Access Model: Open access

Iconoclasmania: Film Collection Screening and Conversation on Black Liberation (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Iconoclasmania: Film Collection Screening and Conversation on Black Liberation
Abstract: A night of celebration of Black short films with a Q&A panel around the importance of storytelling and archival work in the journey towards Black Liberation.
Author: Sabrina Ford (curator)
Date: 03/19/2024
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Primary URL: https://www.moonplaycinema.org/candidfestival.html
Primary URL Description: Candid Festival information on films presented and panelists engaged in discussion.

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