1. Thinking Outside the Archive Walls:
Enriching Community Book Discussions
Jan Zauha, Humanities & Outreach Librarian
Special Collections & Archival Informatics
Montana State University Library
Bozeman, MT
Pacific Northwest Library Association
Annual Conference
Kalispell, Montana
August 3, 2018
Has your community book group hit the wall? Would you like to take your meetings to the next level? Explore how free digital archives can enrich book discussions by providing inside knowledge about history, authors’ lives, and writing processes. Identify best ways to find and include primary sources in discussions.
Objectives for the program:
1. To expose attendees to free and interesting archival resources
2. To help attendees understand ways these archives can add dimension to their community book discussions
3. To generate and share ideas that will refresh book group programming

2. We’ll talk about... Book groups generally Why archives?
What kind of archives?
Where are they?
How might they be used?
What are YOUR ideas/experiences?

3. Who am I?
Outreach & Humanities Librarian at Montana State University in Bozeman
Since 1995 at MSU;
Since 2018 located in Special Collections & Archival Informatics
NOT an archivist!
Project co-lead on The Ivan Doig Archive: Voices and Vistas exhibit at the Big Sky Country State Fair, summer 2017
Leader of 3 community book groups in Bozeman
Masters in literature and library science

4. The Book Group Low-Down
How are our numbers?
Who’s participating?
What kinds of books are you reading?
How are they running? Democratically? Controlled?
Things that are working? And things that are not working?
My experience

5. Friends of MSU Library Book Group: 2000-
Democratic selection
Focused discussion
Your book? You lead!
No wine  (ok, sometimes)
No authors invited!
But supplemental materials encouraged

6. Archives + Reading Group: The Doig Experiment

8. What kinds of books/book groups might benefit from archival materials?
Great books groups
History-focused (fiction or non-fiction)
Place-based
Disengaged or floundering groups: wine + archives = insight?
Diversity/social justice-focused
Single author-focused
Other?

9. Author archives with significant digital content
Jack London --
Ursula K. Le Guin --
Richard Brautigan --
Owen Wister --
Willa Cather --
Tony Hillerman –
Mark Twain --
Ivan Doig –
Not available
Ken Kesey
Tom Robbins
AB Guthrie
Wallace Stegner
Vardis Fisher
Norman Maclean
Dorothy Johnson

11. History and Place-based Archives
Alaska’s Digital Archives
Alberta on Record
MemoryBC
Idaho State Historical Society Digital Collections
Montana Memory Project
Washington State Library Digital Collections & Resources

12. Drifter, sheep wagon and band, winter camp. 1907. Huffman, L. A
Drifter, sheep wagon and band, winter camp Huffman, L. A. (Laton Alton), Montana Memory Project

13. National & Regional Archives
Archives Canada
Library of Congress Digital Collections
National Archives (US)
Archives West
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

14. Archives Canada – search on “sled dogs”

15. Diversity Archives
GLBT Historical Society Archives
BC Gay and Lesbian Archives Photography Collection
Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives
Black Past Digital Archives
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection
Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains great-plains/
Latino Cultural Heritage Digital Archives

16. ACT UP Die-In to protest the number of AIDS-related deaths due to lack of education and funding. 1990s. BC Gay and Lesbian Archives Photography Collection

17. Specialty Archives
The Soundscapes of Ivan Doig
National Public Radio Archive
Weather Underground Historical Weather
Western Soundscape Archive
The Culture of Cooking topics/bon-appetit-cooking/Pages/culture-cooking.aspx
Western Slang, Lingo, & Phrases: A Writer’s Guide to the Old West

19. Thank you! Would you like to…
Collaborate?
Talk to me about ideas?
Share information?
Contact me at