The
Rutherford County Archives is moving. For
those who have not heard, the Rutherford County Commission voted in December to
designate the old county health building as an Archives facility.
This was welcome news, since the Archives has been in urgent need of
space for quite some time. The
Rutherford County Historical Society, led by Dr. E. C. Tolbert, played a key
role in advocating for the move, while County Executive Nancy Allen actively
supported the measure. A County
Archives Implementation Committee, chaired by Gore Center Director Dr. Lisa
Pruitt, is working out details for renovating the space to make it accessible to
the disabled and to bring safety and security features up to modern standards.
In February, Middle Tennessee State University donated a large amount of
shelving from the old Todd Library for use in the new facility.
Target move-in date is January 2004.
Taffy Hall came to the archives in the spring of 2003
from the Center for Historic Preservation. She is preparing for comprehensive exams in April and working
on her thesis. More exciting news
though is that Taffy has accepted the position of Archivist at the Southern
Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville. She assumes her new
position in May. We hate to see
great workers like Taffy leave but certainly wish her the best in this exciting
new opportunity.
Van Zbinden continues as the senior graduate student
at the archives. On the
“three-year-plan,” Van has committed to another year at the helm of the
Rutherford County Archives. He is
working closely with the Rutherford County Government, Implementation Committee
and Dr. Pruitt at the Gore Center to further the goals of archives.