Notes from the Rotary Meeting 12.30pm Thursday, 11, 2025.
President Olaf chaired the meeting. Rotarian Elaine’s husband Bob, himself a former Rotarian, was welcomed to the lunch meeting.
Guest Speakers
After lunch Elaine introduced the guest speakers John Bodner, a Folklore professor at Grenfell Campus, and Crystal Rose, the Associate Dean of Libraries at Grenfell Campus. They titled their talk “Preserving our culture, history and stories,” and they spoke about the Grenfell archives and the value of archives not only to scholarly and general researchers but to everyone interested in past times.
John began by speaking of how interviewing people helps to preserve the way life was lived in earlier times. He continued by talking of the four main areas of organizing archival material from collecting material, handling of the information given, preserving of material and the accessibility of that material for others.
He continued by looking at why material is held in archives. He talked of his and his students recording short stories and the value for people coming to listen to voices of relatives long gone and even hearing relatives’ voices.
Crystal looked at the Grenfell special collection archives that includes unique and not published materials that make it a primary source of material celebrating the history and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador.
John and Crystal each continued giving examples of collecting of material, organising the material and the value of preserving the material, all of which requires skill.
They went on to look at when donations are made what the donator can expect as all material donated might not be used, some information might not be politically correct from today’s standpoint and how important it is to have original documents and photographs. They then looked at the value of digitalized information which allows general access to information.
The talk was fascinating, informative and most interesting on a topic, Grenfell archives that most listeners knew very little about.
John and Crystal answered several questions before being thanked by Olaf and the meeting adjourned.