Casper College's Western History Center Eliminates Its Archivist Position.

 

The Western History Center is now without a full-time archivist. Local historians aren't happy about it.

So reads a headline in the Tribune from the Sunday, May 30, edition.

The Casper College Western History Center is an excellent resource with a fine collection of materials.  The college emphasizes that it is not closing it, but rather combining the position with another one in its library, so that two positions will be held by one employee, more or less.  Or, put another way, the positions are merged and the archivist loses his job.

That archivist has done an excellent job, to the extent that I know him, which isn't well.  Others in the local history community do know him well, however, and rallied to back an effort to try to save his position.  The college said it just couldn't afford it.

And so one history position lost.

I wish I could comment more intelligently on this, but I can't.  I understand the need to balance budgets, to be sure, but this is a real treasure that I fear will now suffer.  And on a more personal note, the archivist has a Juris Doctorate, as do I, and therefore fits into that category of history loving lawyers, although unlike me, he was employed in the field.  I feel badly for him.

Indeed, even now, I hope this can be reversed, even though I know that it won't be, at least in the near term.