Charmaine Tomczyk is working to preserve the history of Coastal Carolina University. Founded in 1954, the university is young in comparison to other institutional cohorts. However, the archives documenting its history did not start until CCU was already 60. This has left Tomczyk feeling like she is playing catch-up to ensure that significant documents are not lost.
“Having worked at Coastal for 40 years in various positions, I felt I experienced much of its progressive and unique history. It needed to be preserved,” she said. Her training and experience within other university libraries and archives helped her recognize the importance of such preservation. She knew the lack of a CCU institutional archives would be a great loss to future researchers and the university.
“What got me interested in this Coastal project was the opportunity to support the creation of a university archives (again!) and preserve the rich history of the college,” she said. “Knowing one’s history helps to plan for one’s future. Just like the Founding Fathers of our nation, the founding fathers of the college exemplified the principles and values we uphold today. The biographies of those who built Coastal provide insight to the programs and initiatives that gave us distinction.”
Knowing why CCU has taken the path it has will not only provide insight to future leaders, it will keep them from repeating any mistakes.
“We also can learn from our mistakes. Historical perspective helps in decision making. As I get older, I have more appreciation for the accomplishments and sacrifices others have made to build a valuable educational institution,” Tomczyk pointed out.
She knew early on that librarianship was her calling. This inspired her education and work decisions to give her the best foundation possible to tackle a project of this nature.
“I knew I wanted to be a librarian when I was in fifth grade, so I wrote to the ALA and they told me to major in whatever I liked because I would need a master's degree,” she said. Originally from New Haven, Connecticut, Tomczyk received her BA in English from the University of Connecticut (Storrs). She went on to work at Yale University Libraries while she pursued her MSLS at Southern Connecticut State College (now Southern Connecticut State University).
In 1978, she made the move to South Carolina and began working at the University of South Carolina-Coastal Carolina College. (CCU did not become autonomous until 1993.) During her time at CCU, Tomczyk served as Head of Technical Services in the library for 16 years, before spending seven years as an Associate VP for Academic Affairs, seven years as Associate Dean of the Library, and seven years as Faculty Ombuds.
It was not until she retired in 2016 that the University Archives finally began to take shape.
“The idea of a university archives began well before that when the previous University President, Dr. Ron Ingle, and the CCU Board of Trustees' Chair at that time signed a Charter that I drafted to begin a university archives,” she recounted.
CCU’s Kimbel Library was already home to the Horry County Archives Center, currently under the tutelage of Ben Burroughs. The HCAC was housed with history materials of the former Waccamaw Room, which had been established by Dr. Roy Talbert when he was VP for Academic Affairs. Tomczyk’s charter included hiring a professional archivist.
“It was from [the HCAC] collection that the first archivist did her work,” Tomczyk said, adding that she also gave the archivist some college history documents to add during her time as Faculty Ombuds.
“Given how our College was formed, it's important to note that the Horry County Archives' materials and Coastal Carolina University history materials often complement one another,” Tomczyk said. “The college contributed to the history of the county and the county has supported the growth of the university. So the "project I undertook" directly related to the university archives. It involved documents and materials that I discovered I had actually collected back when I was the Technical Services Librarian and others in the library had continued to collect items of historical significance.”
Unfortunately, the archivist hired left after less than a year and the position was not renewed. Tomczyk was asked to return from retirement part-time as the Director of the CCU History Project, which she has done for the last four years. Tomczyk was quick to point out this means her title is not technically one of archivist. Instead, she is the Director of the University History Project. This new project was to create, organize, and preserve a collection of boxed items and report directly to the University’s Provost.
“The History Project began with 250 boxes of unorganized college documents that had to be moved from the Foundation Center on Hwy 501,” Tomczyk said. “I have been working strictly with the archives as a temporary employee for about 20 hours per week. My work has included organizing and "cataloging" the now 500+ banker boxes of materials in addition to collecting materials and augmenting the CCU Oral History Project I began.”
One of the first jobs Tomczyk tackled was identifying the materials thrown in these boxes and setting about the task of organizing them in a way that made sense.
“I discovered that some items were mislabeled. For example, a box labelled accreditation studies was really Program Reviews conducted by SC CHE (which are no longer done). It was actually fun for me to re-discover some of these materials and chuckle at what someone thought they were.“
She credits her membership in the Society of American Archivists with being a great asset. She said their resources, website, and mentor program have been very helpful to the work she is doing. She classified the collection based on the South Carolina Department of Archives and History Records Management schema. She employed archival principles in arranging and customizing some of the units, then used the archival process to help round out the collection.
“After arranging and describing the items in the collection, I identified gaps and began to pursue filling them by contacting relevant departments or individuals,” she explained. “Knowing more gaps existed, I began an oral history project and have interviewed about a dozen people (former Board chairman, former administrators, faculty and staff).”
Tomczyk transcribes the interviews, then works with Scott Bacon, Kimbel’s Coordinator of Digital Initiatives, to upload them to the University’s Institutional Repository.
”I have scanned selected university documents / publications for uploading, too. I try to find a balance in the collection so that all units and initiatives of the university are represented. That's why I started the "Anonymous Archives" booklet placed in the library. I had very little on student activities. While that office has sent me some items, I don't have much from student groups.”
The collection has evolved over the years as various university departments, clubs, groups, and alumni have donated. She accepts everything that has a significant relationship to the university. The only exception being items where multiple items in good condition are already owned. This means accepting more than just books and papers.
“Each donation is a treasure and I am thankful for them. For example, I recently received a set of coasters made from the former slate roof of Atheneum Hall and a huge marquis sign that announced campus events before the time of electronics. The collection also contains a beanie from Rat Week in the 1970s.”
Tomczyk said she has been working “under the assumption that a full-time permanent professional archivist would be hired at some point to continue with the collection and likely report to the library director. However, at this point, a new slot would need to be designated and a new position approved.”
With all of the current unknowns presented by the Coronavirus Pandemic, there is no firm timeline of exactly when any of that will happen. A new library building was scheduled to begin this Fall. When it was complete, the old Kimbel Library building was to be renovated, creating a new special collections and archives facility. All building projects have been halted due to quarantine conditions and a new schedule is months away from being decided.
This has become one of the most challenging aspects of what Tomczyk is working to achieve.
“Trying to secure the future of this collection for the use of others. The attention to university archives has been unstable at best over the years. Finding individuals who see the value of archives and who are able to support them is a continual objective.”
As the collection grows almost daily, she also faces the challenge of digitizing documents from various formats fast enough. While she primarily works with print materials, “the university also has photography and video studios that also struggle with identifying items to be digitized and funding to support it. A campus-wide coordinated initiative is needed.”
Luckily, Tomczyk loves her job regardless of the challenges it presents. She has no intention of abandoning the project so close to her heart and intends to see it through.
“I love archival work. During my graduate work, I visited conservation studios where repairs and preservation work was superbly done on rare items. At Yale I worked for a short time in the Beinecke Rare Book Library in the Western Americana collection. While there, I also pursued the other collections of manuscripts (like Gertrude Stein's) and other rare and scarce collections,” she recalled.
These collections have inspired her in her work. One of her favorite aspects of the job is using the archives to answer questions from all sectors of the CCU community. It offers an ongoing reminder of how archival collections can serve the needs of their communities.
“I say this is one of my favorites because, quite frankly, all the things I do with the collection are my favorites!”
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