organizing our communities’ records: connecting a community to its history by yesenia lopez
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Organizing Our Communities’ Records: Connecting a Community to Its History By Yesenia Lopez. NJHRIC. The Puerto Rican Community Archives’ Mission. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Organizing Our Communities’ Records: Connecting a Community to Its History
By Yesenia Lopez
NJHRIC
The Puerto Rican Community Archives’ Mission
To identify, collect, process, preserve, and make available for research, materials that will document the history and legacy of the Puerto Rican communities in New Jersey
Over 2,000 cu. ft. of material statewide
Resulted in a MapIndicating
• Location• Subject matter• Size• Condition• Type of material
St. Columba Neighborhood Club –History of Inactive Records
Numerous executive directors Flood damage Move High school students –
Youth Employment Summer (YES) program No inventory of current holdings
NJHRIC & St. Columba Neighborhood Club Collaborative Project (2006)
Project Archivist trained NJHRIC’s summer intern to serve as project leader
Project leader trained and guided HS students in record keeping and identifying historical records
Students attended a Career Day at the Newark Public Library
Collaborative Project Issues Lack of work space
Boxes were removed from the room to make space
Lack of storage suppliesYES Program coordinator managed to find
other boxes, supplies, and extra filing cabinet Lack of computers to input inventory data
Only the Project Leader input all the inventory data
Collaborative Project Outcomes
HS Students and project leader learned valuable work, life, and technology skills
A complete inventory was created Historical records were identified Project leader and students were
introduced to college, career and employment information resources at the Library
OOCR: a Workforce Development Project
2007
ASPIRA, Inc. of NJ At-Risk Youth
Mentoring Program Funded by
Verizon Foundation CHPRD NPL
Curriculum H.S. Jrs & Srs
2008
FOCUS, Inc. Project Shadow
Funded by HSBC CHPRD NPL
Curriculum 13 – 16 yr olds
Curriculum
Weeks 1 – 2: Project Leader Training
Weeks 3 - 4: Record Assessment and Youth Training (Workforce Development Workshops Begin)
Weeks 5 – 8: Organization of Records
Weeks 9-10: Wrap-up/ Evaluations
Workforce Development Workshops(High School Juniors & Seniors)
Career Goals and Interests: What do I Want to be When I Grow up?
How to Write a Killer Resume Getting to College: Information on Colleges and
Scholarships Using Microsoft Excel Power Point: How to Create Multimedia
Presentations
Homework Helpers Tutor.com, QandANJ Email reference Webguides for homework help for preteens and
teens Remotely available databases for biography,
history, magazines, and general information College & Careers
Resources for finding higher education according to degrees offered, location, and cost
How to find career information
BEFORE
AFTER
PRCA RESULTS
ASPIRA, Inc. of NJ – 38cu ft of historical records were identified and donated
FOCUS, Inc. – 10 cu ft of historical records were identified and are pending donation
Raised awareness of need to preserve history
OOCR: a Workforce Development Project (2009)
HISPA, Inc. – RecordsDonated 20 cu ft. of historical records
Processing project Academic year Field trips to local history sites (museum,
library, historical society)
The Connection Students & community organizations
learned:About archives and the value of history
How to identify historical recordsThe proper care and storage of
historical recordsThe practice and importance of
recordkeeping
Yesenia LopezYesenia LopezProject ArchivistProject Archivist
Puerto Rican Community Archives Puerto Rican Community Archives The NJ Hispanic Research & Info Center The NJ Hispanic Research & Info Center
at The Newark Public Libraryat The Newark Public [email protected]@npl.org(973)733-4791(973)733-4791