This week, I continued revisiting previous repositories to allow time to make requests. I am getting some responses from previous queries, but so far these contacts have not provided new resources or finding aids.
I had made a list from online research of colleges and universities in Mississippi, and I have a half dozen left to review. This week I surveyed:
Copiah-Lincoln Community College has multiple satellite campuses, and the library website had limited information with which to identify special collections or archival materials. There was, however, digitized university publications, including yearbooks, annual reports, student publications, and similar content, continuing a trend in university archives making institutional periodicals available online. I have been pleased to find these digital repositories are good quality images with decent OCR text search capabilities, making them good resources for LGBTQ research, even though they are general sources. Publications like yearbooks and student newspapers provide photographs, context, and historical evidence to confirm or supplement other sources of information.
Many of the smaller repositories have made use of open source platforms for digital collections. I was familiar with the Internet Archive, but I hadn't realized organizations could use it as a platform for their own digital content. I have seen a couple repositories using this site, and it has been user friendly to access and a nice, clean platform for digital content management.
Delta State University was a pleasant surprise in the quantity of information available on their website about their archival programs. Thorough collections lists, including a complete list of all university records groups, are available, many with links to online finding aids. While there was not an LGBTQ research guide, nor did I find any LGBTQ keywords or content, the level of organization and access was nice. Reviewing so many special collections and archives websites has enhanced my appreciation for institutions that make information available, even if finding aids and digital collections are not all provided.
Despite not having much success in identifying LGBTQ-related collections among recent repositories, I have begun using ArchiveGrid for federated searches on some of the name headings I have been pulling from research with some success.