Flora Stone Mather College exists on paper, in aged photographs, yearbooks, and faded newspapers.
With a history that spans more than a century, staff members in University Archives became concerned about preserving the college’s materials, many of which are oversized, fragile, and in some cases, deteriorating.
To address this matter, archives’ Acting Director Jill Tatem and colleagues Helen Conger, Tom Steman, Heather Arnold Henderson, and Sue Yellen applied for and received a $1,500 grant from the Flora Stone Mather Alumnae Association. Funds enabled the staff to have digital images, negatives, and reference prints produced to help preserve and enhance access to all things Flora Stone Mather—particularly the oversized photographs—as well as document the college. So far, they have produced 700 Mather-related and other digital images. Ms. Tatem notes, however, that archives’ film collection contains more than 200,000 photographs.
The process of transforming the Mather images into a digital format prompted the staff to examine the legacy of the college in broader terms and its impact on society. The result: “Pioneers: CWRU’s First Women,” an online pictorial and historical display launched last June. It highlights as many of the women groundbreakers from Case and its predecessor schools as possible. It also offers links to external information related to the subject.
To learn more about the display, visit www.case.edu/its/archives/Women/women.htm.
While the Mather Pioneers project was a one-time initiative, the staff has continually engaged in efforts to preserve and make accessible the university’s vast collection, particularly online. To help gauge usage, the staff surveyed and interviewed people on campus to determine the kind of information they sought, the source materials they used, and how archives handled those requests.
“What we learned is that most people want to look things up for themselves,” Ms. Tatem says. “And secondly, traditional search services are labor intensive and done with limited resources.”
As a result of their findings, the staff created online reference packages with text and images. Though less comprehensive than the paper resources, Ms. Tatem says, the online version offers pertinent information in organized chunks that lend perspective and context to the material.
In addition to the Pioneers project, other online reference packages focus on buildings and grounds, athletics, and school and corporations. Future packages will include student housing over time to coincide with the fall opening of the North Residential Village for undergraduates; and “By the Numbers,” with historical data about enrollment, tuition, and budgets.
Eventually, the staff wants to provide an online database searchable by end-users to further enhance research capabilities. Ms. Tatem adds that the staff welcomes feedback about these efforts. 
MARSHA LYNN BRAGG
Photograph courtesy of University Archives
