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By
Emer O'Sullivan Archive
Checklist for IRSCL Presidents and Secretaries
Background
The
Archives are housed at the Institut für Jugendbuchforschung
of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt,
thanks to the initiative of founder member of the IRSCL
and then director of the institute, Klaus Doderer, and
to the generosity of his successor, Hans-Heino Ewers.
The Institut cannot provide any service with regard
to ordering or arranging material; the responsibility
for the upkeep of archival material lies solely with
the Board of the IRSCL. In
1989, a first survey of the Archives was undertaken
and the President, Ann MacLeod, formalized the policy
that all the documents of each Board would be sent to
Frankfurt immediately after the end of their term. Board
member Thomas van der Walt visited and surveyed the
Archives in 1997, and, less than impressed by their
state, recommended that a member of the next Board (elected
in 2001) should be appointed archivist. As a member
of staff at the Institut für Jugendbuchforschung
at the time, I was an obvious candidate for the job.
Operation
'Archives'
The
archives consisted, in 2001, of 14 arch files bearing
descriptions which did not match their contents, as
well as three large cardboard boxes filled with unsorted
material. The task of the archivist was to sort the
existing material into categories, to identify and try
to fill the gaps, and to bring the Archives up to date.
The
major decisions to be made were: what should be kept
and how should it be ordered and documented. The Board
agreed the key documents to be kept and collected were:
minutes of Board meetings, minutes of General Membership
Meetings, Financial Reports, Newsletters, documentation
of the congresses, (programmes, lists of participants
etc), Membership Directories, IRSCL publications (proceedings
etc.), a record of Board members and recipients of the
IRSCL Award and Research Grant as well as important
correspondence or general documents relating to IRSCL
activities. Any documents which contained personal information
- membership application forms, applications for travel
grants etc. - would no longer be kept in the Archives. A
graduate student, Sonja Müller, who was paid a
modest fee for her work, and I went through every file
and box, sorting and weeding and organizing material
into units (individual Board meetings, congresses etc.).
Each unit was put into a file envelope and the envelopes
for each term of office into a Box File. A list of contents
was drawn up, and the box labled (as can be seen on
the photos of the Archive). The result is an Archive
with 22 numbered boxes, as well as Magazine Files containing
congress proceedings. 17 of the boxes hold the documents
from the terms of office of each Board from the first
meeting in 1970 up to the last General Membership Meeting
in 2003, 4 boxes contain correspondence from the early
days of 1970-1978, and one box (Box Number 1) is for
the Archive documentation and comprises a copy of the
list of contents of each archive box, lists of the Presidents
of the Society, the congresses (dates, places, topics),
published proceedings, recipients of the IRSCL Award,
recipients of the Grant, and IRSCL Fellows (Honorary
Members) - in other words a potted documentation of
the Society. 
Gaps
and fillings
In the course of the work
described above, several gaps were identified - some
of them fairly gaping. Members of previous Boards were
requested to send missing material, and many of them
generously did. I hope, at the end of my term of office
in 2005, to have filled the major gaps and to leave
ordered and complete archives covering the years 1970-2005.
It will be the responsibility of every future Board
to collect and order their own material and send it
to the Archives. A checklist of material and how it
should be sent has been drawn up and can found on the
IRSCL website.
Why
do the Archives matter?
The
Archives are an invaluable source documentation of the
history of the IRSCL, of the issues which have moved
its members, of the debates which have taken place and
the decisions which have shaped the Society and with
it, international children's literature research. They
are the link between the present and the past of the
Society, containing, as they do, every membership list
ever compiled, from the first typewritten, single page
photostat to the current bound 90-page Membership Directory.
They reveal to us that twenty years before the IRSCL
Award was conceived (it was first awarded in 1995),
there was talk of introducing a Comenius Prize for a
worthy academic publication in children's literature.
In them we can also find account of a project initiated
by Göte Klingberg in the 1970s to develop an international
nominclature for children's literature research. Without
the Archives, the history of the Society could never
be written, without them no exhibitions arranged - both
future projects which may be realised by keen members.
Access
The
Archives in Frankfurt are open to all members of the
IRSCL by prior appointment.
Contact:
Regina
Jaekel : R.Jaekel@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Tel:
+4969-79832995
Fax: +4969-79832996 Address:
Institut
für Jugendbuchforschung
J. W. Goethe-Universität
Frankfurt
Grüneburgplatz 1
60323 Frankfurt
Germany
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