(Note: This post was authored by Taylor McNeilly, Processing & Reference Archivist.) Welcome to the first #WyattWalkerWednesday of 2019! This week we’re going to do a quick recap of some of the latest updates on the Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection, then talk about plans moving forward into the spring. The library here at the University of Richmond has been coming back to life after our winter break, and work on the collection started right away at full speed.

When last we posted, we had just received the first ten audio cassettes sent out as a test batch to our digitization vendor. While work on these is ongoing, we do hope to have at least the first few up and available online for the public soon! The files were delivered without problem and appear to be whole and complete. Description work is moving forward, and once that is done, we’ll be able to post them online.

While work on these first ten recordings is moving forward, I’m also working on the remaining cassettes! With the help of a student worker, all of these were inventoried for our digitization vendor – we ended up with over our estimate of 800! The total number of audio cassettes sent to the vendor capped out at 834. Included with these was also a single audio reel (a technology used before the audio cassette was introduced to the general public in 1963) and five film reels – you may recall I’ve spoken about the film reels in the past. Overall, 830 items were waiting to be sent along to our vendor after the successful test batch, and I am happy to report that those were shipped out yesterday afternoon! These may take some time to digitize and be returned to us, especially considering the six non-cassette items included, but we’re hoping to have these coming online for public use later in the year.

While work on the audio cassettes has been moving forward, processing has also of course continued. And one of the greatest benefits of processing the collection is that material that has been processed can be put on exhibition to allow some access to the collection while I finish preparing it for research. To that end, we have two exhibitions here in Richmond that will be using Walker Collection material. One of these opens in January and is hosted at UR Downtown, while the other will be later in the year – more information on that will be coming, too!

Overall, the past few months have been a quite busy time for RBSC and the Walker Collection. We hope to continue having some great news for you as we move through 2019, so keep a close eye on this blog for future announcements!