Digitizing the treasures of the archives BYU–Hawaii Archivist Brooks Haderlie stands beside an overhead shot of Laie. He says digitizing the university’s collection can keep it safe from natural disasters that could destroy its artifacts and also makes the collection more accessible to students and others.
University Archivist Brooks Haderlie says the Library Archives will continue to keep records and digitize its collection The archives and special collections in the Joseph F. Smith Library contain more than 1,500 relics and items, ranging from photographs, microfilm, aging documents and cultural artifacts. According to University Archivist Brooks Haderlie, the archives serve the purpose of preserving the history and culture of BYU–Hawaii and the Laie community. Haderlie explained the immense challenge of cataloging all the variety of items in the archive, by saying, “We have a lot of bowls, stones, fish hooks, woven cloth and baskets, tapa cloth, Hawaiian quilt patterns, tapa beaters, gourds and a lot of shells. Those are just the artifacts. 10
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“We have over 10,000 videos, dating back to the 1940s, taken with early handheld film cameras, devotional videos and basketball games from the university. We also have a lot of audio recordings from the games, as well as recordings of David O. McKay from the dedication ceremony.” Additionally, Haderlie said the archives has about 2,000 cassette recordings, several vinyl audio pressings and 500 reels of reel-to-reel audiotape that need to be digitized. It also has almost 500 collections of photos, manuscripts, documents and first editions of the Book of Mormon in various languages, including an original 1830 edition of the book.
To preserve the aging antiques and heirlooms, Haderlie said the archives staff take steps to ensure its materials are not damaged. “We put them in archival boxes, made out of a material that is acid-free, in acid-free folders, and then we catalog them and assign them a call number.” This process, according to Haderlie, makes it easier for someone to find and access the artifacts and protects the materials from the elements. “Digitizing and scanning are easy to do. . . If someone requests a look at an old document, we can scan and send a copy to them, without damaging the original document.”
Photos By Chad Hsieh
BY ELI HADLEY
