It’s guest blogger day again here at OTR as Teresa Brinati, SAA’s dynamic, ever-enthusiastic Director of Publishing, reminds us that voting is open until May 15th for the I Found it in the Archives! contest. Hey, and next year how about making sure at least one entry goes in from your archives? It’s great public relations. Your boss will love it! 🙂
Here’s something you already know: all archives—including yours–hold unlimited fascinating possibilities for research. Here’s something you may not realize: right now is when you can help SAA showcase the exciting work people accomplish by using archives.
From East Coast to West, and from the Midwest to points South, the five contestants in this year’s I Found It In The Archives! national competition learned first-hand that archives yield unexpected surprises and discoveries:
- New Albany, Ohio, resident Doug Tracy describes how a visit to the Ohio Historical Society led him to uncover long-lost details about his ancestors.
- Misty Hurley used the East Texas Research Center to learn more about Nacogdoches and its citizens through studying funeral home logbooks.
- Charlotte Farmer of Redding, California, illustrates how archival documents from the Shasta Historical Society helped preserve the memory of Noor, a champion racehorse who was trained by the famous Charles “Seabiscuit” Howard.
- Brianna Barnard of Laurel, Mississippi, stumbled on a letter from Helen Keller while working at the University of Southern Mississippi, School of Library and Information Science.
- Naomi Marrow’s quest to learn a man’s life story after she spotted his headstone on her daily walk past the Bruton Parish Cemetery in Williamsburg, Virginia, led her to the Earl Gregg Swem Library of the College of William & Mary.
Read more about their stories of discovery and pick your favorite. But don’t stop there. The I Found It! campaign is all about using your networks to spread the word about the contest—and, in the process, exposing even more people to the amazing questions that can be answered in archives.
Please use your social media channels to encourage people beyond the archives sector to vote, and don’t forget to use #FoundArch in your tweets.
Voting ends May 15. The winner of the national competition scores a trip to the SAA/CoSA Joint Annual Meeting in New Orleans this August.
This is the third year SAA is hosting the I Found It In The Archives! campaign as a complement to American Archives Month. Help make it the best year ever. Spread the word!
–Teresa Brinati, SAA Director of Publications
Off the Record 
This is a good tip particularly to those new to the blogosphere.
Brief but very accurate information… Thank you for
sharing this one. A must read article!
Hey there, I think your website might be having browser
compatibility issues. When I look at your blog in Firefox, it looks fine but when opening
in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to
give you a quick heads up! Other then that, excellent blog!