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We are now approaching six months of renewed processing work on the James M. Buchanan papers. A lot of hard work has happened in that time, and Project Archivist Rebecca Thayer has made significant progress and moved into new phases of the project since her last blog post<\/a>. I\u2019ll let her tell you more about what she\u2019s been up to and what her next steps are in her own soon-to-come post, but in the meantime, I want to introduce you to the newest staff member working with the Buchanan papers, Graduate Research Assistant Rachel Barton! Follow SCRC on Social Media on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0accounts. \u00a0To search the collections\u00a0held at Special Collections Research Center, go to our\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0and browse the finding aids by subject or title. You may also e-mail\u00a0us at\u00a0speccoll@gmu.edu<\/a>\u00a0or call 703-993-2220 if you would like to\u00a0schedule an appointment, request materials, or if you have questions.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are now approaching six months of renewed processing work on the James M. Buchanan papers. A lot of hard work has happened in that time, and Project Archivist Rebecca Thayer has made significant progress and moved into new phases of the project since her last blog post. I\u2019ll let her tell you more about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[882,3,5],"tags":[30,37],"class_list":["post-9617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neh-buchanan-papers-project","category-news","category-scrc-interest","tag-gmu-students","tag-james-buchanan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/processing1-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-2v7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10353,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=10353","url_meta":{"origin":9617,"position":0},"title":"Open for Access – the James M. Buchanan Papers","author":"Amanda Menjivar","date":"May 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at George Mason University (GMU) is pleased to announce that the James M. Buchanan papers are now open for access! This collection consists of the papers of the Nobel Prize-winning economist James McGill Buchanan, documenting his career and research from the mid-20th century through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NEH Buchanan papers project"","block_context":{"text":"NEH Buchanan papers project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=882"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/JMB_001.jpg?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/JMB_001.jpg?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/JMB_001.jpg?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/JMB_001.jpg?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/JMB_001.jpg?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9358,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9358","url_meta":{"origin":9617,"position":1},"title":"NEH Grant for the Buchanan Papers update\u00a0","author":"Lynn Eaton","date":"October 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This past spring, the\u202fGeorge Mason University Libraries\u202freceived a grant in the amount of $334,720 from the National Endowment of the Humanities\u2019 Humanities Collection and Reference Resources program for the \u201cPreserving the Legacy of James M. Buchanan\u201d project.\u00a0\u00a0 The purpose of this processing grant project is to preserve and make accessible\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "George Mason University History"","block_context":{"text":"George Mason University History","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=529"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BuchananGustaf-copy-1.png?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BuchananGustaf-copy-1.png?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BuchananGustaf-copy-1.png?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BuchananGustaf-copy-1.png?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BuchananGustaf-copy-1.png?fit=1200%2C833&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9494,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9494","url_meta":{"origin":9617,"position":2},"title":"The James M. 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We were informed that our application for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to finish processing the James\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GMU Fairfax Campus"","block_context":{"text":"GMU Fairfax Campus","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=272"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/buchananhouse_landscape-530x342-1.jpg?fit=530%2C342&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/buchananhouse_landscape-530x342-1.jpg?fit=530%2C342&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/buchananhouse_landscape-530x342-1.jpg?fit=530%2C342&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10193,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=10193","url_meta":{"origin":9617,"position":3},"title":"Processing from the Outside In: Ann Bakke Buchanan","author":"Rebecca Thayer","date":"July 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This blog post was written by Rachel Barton, GRA for the Buchanan Papers processing project and is one in a series about the project. The project is supervised by Buchanan Papers Project Archivist Rebecca Thayer and is grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. When you work in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NEH Buchanan papers project"","block_context":{"text":"NEH Buchanan papers project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=882"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black and white photograph of three couples of men and women at a restaurant. 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This is Rachel\u2019s first semester as a student at George Mason, where she is earning a Master\u2019s Degree in history. This will be her second graduate degree \u2013 she has a Master\u2019s in teaching from James Madison University, as well as a BA in history from the same institution. Rachel\u2019s keen eye for detail and her skills as a historian and an educator will be a great asset to the Buchanan project.
As the GRA for the Buchanan papers processing project, Rachel reports directly to Rebecca and will assist her with arranging and describing the papers. This will include tasks such as putting materials in folders, creating titles for folders, arranging folders based on the order that best reflects how Buchanan and his administrative staff (Betty Tillman and Jo Ann Burgess) used the papers while also making them as accessible as possible for researchers, and assisting with writing parts of the finding aid that will guide users of the Buchanan papers to the parts of the collection that they want to see. Archival processing requires a processor to make judgement calls about how to accomplish these tasks, and as part of the GRA experience, Rachel will be learning about archival theory and applying what she reads and learns from us in her work on the Buchanan papers. She will also help Rebecca supervise undergraduate student assistants who we will hire in the future.
Right now, Rachel is hard at work reading about James M. Buchanan and gaining valuable contextual information about his life and his professional and personal relationships, as well as learning about the history of the Buchanan processing project itself. She is also taking her first steps into arrangement by alphabetizing parts of the correspondence series, with guidance from Rebecca.
You\u2019ll be hearing from Rachel herself soon in a future blog post once she\u2019s fully settled in and has spent more time working on the project. Until then, welcome Rachel!<\/p>\r\n