Mining the Backlog: Uncovering Collections to Enrich Labor Community Heritage and Memory
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The Patch/Work Voices Project began in the 1970’s with the collection of oral histories to document the heritage of the coal and coke industry in Fayette County. Artifacts, photographs, and other materials were donated by interviewees and the coal community up until the early 2000’s. Accession records were made, on occasion, and some records were kept in notebooks. This collection, aside from the oral histories, has been kept in a storage room, untouched until 2014. Roughly estimating 180 linear feet. Experience how the story of Fayette County’s mining community was rebuilt through the backlogged Patch Work Voices Community Collection at the Coal and Coke Heritage Center at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. The conversation covered the challenges faced and the significant transformations these and similar projects could have on the library and archival profession.