CARA member Patricia Carroll has joined a new working group
of the Archivists for Congregations of Women Religious (ACWR) called Custodia. Its
purpose is to gather information and facilitate discussion on issues and
obstacles that arise for congregational archives when there is a decision to
close or merge.
ACWR’s mission statement includes a commitment to “advocate for the protection of the historical records of women
religious.” To that end, Custodia is researching best practices and models of
possible solutions that would ensure proper storage and future accessibility of
congregational records. Patricia’s
emphasis is to reach out to college and university archivists to document collection
parameters and learn if and how closing congregational archives might fit
within their institutional collections.
The other members of
Custodia are ACWR President Sarah Cantor, ACWR Vice
President Elect Dee Gallo and ACWR Members-at-Large Jennifer Head and Colleen
McFarland Rademaker. If you are an archivist of a community considering a
merger or closure of your archive within five to ten years, please get in touch to share information about your
situation and your needs. Custodia also welcomes conversation with those
who have already merged, consolidated, or closed their archives.
You can contact Patricia at carrollp
[at] claretians.org or parocarroll [at] sbcglobal.net
