PMSS ARCHIVE Mission Statement

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 00: ARCHIVES
PMSS Archive Mission Statement

John Spelman III Drawings. [spelman_drawings_tone_001_cropped]

PMSS ARCHIVE Mission Statement


TAGS: Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive, mission statement, Appalachian place-based education, institutional accountability, curation, research communities, institutional memory, PMSS disposition policy, access for researchers, vision of the PMSS Archive


PMSS ARCHIVE: Introduction

The Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive is the institutional memory of a unique school in the Southern Appalachians. It serves to appraise, collect, organize, preserve, and make available records of enduring value. It supports the educational and administrative mission of the School which is to “Enrich lives and connect people through Appalachian place-based education for all ages.” The Archive provides and protects the records and materials of enduring value to the institution while encouraging transparency and openness regarding its past and its future. To this end the Archive systematically collects, preserves, maintains, promotes, and makes available official records and personal papers of enduring historical, legal, administrative, and fiscal value. It maintains records of acquisition and de-accessioning activity. It promotes effective and responsible diffusion of information utilizing both material and digital formats. In documenting and sharing the rich and diverse collections in its care, the Archive strives to maintain open and transparent methods that are accountable to the institutional goals and standards of archival practice. While exercising responsible curation of archival and material collections, the Archive seeks to make educational resources exciting and useful. The Archive is committed to promoting a balance of professional practice with access and educational needs. 

The Archive is also responsible for ensuring institutional accountability, while enhancing access to the rich and diverse administrative resources in its care. It is dedicated to both digital and non-digital formats in furthering the goals and objectives of the institutional mission. To this end the Archive seeks to provide secure, organized, and innovative access through both material and digital innovation. It seeks to serve diverse research communities whose interests will grow and expand institutional goals and objectives and the idea of “Appalachian place-based education for all ages.”  

As a comprehensive museum environment, the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive seeks to maintain an active inventory of its physical facilities and their contents, particularly its arts and crafts collections. To that end, periodic inventory checks and reviews of the museum environment will be gathered and documented by institutional staff for the Archive while promoting and encouraging research and use of collections.

Because the institutional memory of Pine Mountain is woven throughout its collections, the Archive will responsibly monitor, manage, maintain, and work with staff to responsibly store current records of administrative offices and the documents of enduring value of the current Board of Trustees as outlined in the current PMSS DISPOSITION POLICY. It will promote current and periodic staff training in records management and disposition policy.

While every effort will be made to grant researchers access to on-site collections, our resources are limited by staff and hours. Individual application must be made and granted by the institution before on-site research may proceed. 

PMSS ARCHIVE: Mission

The mission of the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive is committed to the following actions

  • Assisting in the creation and promotion of programs and services that broaden understanding of the history and culture of the Southern Appalachians and Eastern Kentucky through openness and transparency;
  • Appraising, acquiring, and preserving the records and materials of the Pine Mountain Settlement School;
  • Offering a range of research and reference services to the public both material and digital;
  • Establishing and maintaining policy and providing expert guidance on archival and record-keeping practices;
  • Collaborating with and providing professional archival and preservation expertise across the institution and to the public.

PMSS ARCHIVE: Vision

The Vision of the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive is to provide a voice that will encourage the transformation of the public’s relationship to the culture of the Appalachian region through access to a unique and extensive body of materials about the Southern Appalachians and Eastern Kentucky and its people. We envision an accessible, vibrant and vital resource that will encourage collaboration and the sharing of information across all public, private, and federal sectors interested in Southern Appalachian culture and life.

Our vision seeks to join the standard archival resources with our new digital voices. We see a partnership that will enable a broader dialog on Appalachian culture and will ensure that no one voice will erase the many and that we can all carry our memories and our voices as we move forward together in new times and new worlds. While our collections are focused on the twentieth century, our future is in the twenty-first century as we look for ways to grow our memories forward in a vital and energetic educational model.


See Also:

ABOUT
ABOUT Our Archival Mission

ABOUT Our Vision for the PMSS Archive

ARCHIVE Access Guidelines
ARCHIVE 2017 PMSS Turns a Corner

ARCHIVE GUIDE About the Archive
ARCHIVE Keepers of the Archive
ARCHIVE PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL Collections
ARCHIVE Policies and Procedures
ARCHIVE Keepers of the Archive
ARCHIVE Privacy Policy

PMSS ARCHIVE Mission Statement (extended)