Meet the people at the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS

Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS Archivist and Curator Laura McLemore remembers what a professor once told her, "It takes so little to make a historian happy". McLemore believes it is because historians are "always looking for that little missing piece."

It could be a document, a photo or just facts needed for their research. The search can be long, with no promise of an answer, so it creates what McLemore describes as an 'aha moment' when an answer is found. "When you find some little clue, it's just so exciting. I just think that, for me, it's an opportunity to understand people better to understand the world I live in better."

The LSUS archives, located on the third floor of the Noel Memorial Library, has approximately 23,000 linear feet of records and manuscripts. With more than 1000 maps, 200 oral histories, and over 1.5 million photographs and negatives, many ‘aha moments’ are just waiting to be found.

It began in 1971 when an archives advisory committee was formed, consisting of the then Chairman of the LSUS Social Studies Department Dr. John Hall, Library Director Malcolm Parker and Assistant Professor of History Hubert Humphreys. Three years later, in 1974, the archives were created, making this the golden anniversary.

For those 50 years the facility has been the 'go to' place for historical information of NWLA, "Just as each of us has a personal history that helps us know who we are, our community also has a history that ties us together and helps us to understand who we are, how we got to where we are, and even where we might need to improve in the future," said McLemore.

McLemore has been helping the community discover their own 'aha moments’ as the archivist since 2004 when she heard of the position while working as the archivist at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. "As a fourth general Shreveport native, I jumped at the opportunity to come home and become the curator of, essentially, my own history."

For Mark and Mike Mangham of Twin Blends, the archives are vital in preserving local history. They routinely go through the large collection of negatives and photographs, then post their findings on their Facebook page, as well as share in their regular Shreveport Times column, History Corner.

"While researching through the thousands of photographs and negatives we have learned more about this area’s history than we ever could in hundreds of books," said Mike Mangham.

Also working in the archives is University Records Manager and Archival Associate Fermand Garlington II and Assistant Curator Leah Widmeyer.

Widmeyer processes new collections per current archival standards whenever they get a donation. “I think preserving every group's history for future generations will be my life’s passion," she said.

Garlington remembers the dedication of the library in 1991 when he was a student and has since worked in some form or another for the last 26 years. He describes his job as 'wearing many different hats' as he goes from the archivist for the university's history to records management and then to research archivist. In the last position, he helps those who come in to do research.

They come from all over the United States and even the world and Garlington takes it as an opportunity to meet new people and get to learn from them. "In my opinion, we as humans are truly most enriched when we are given an opportunity to engage in dialog with those from different regions, ideologies; and, likewise, a rich diversity of cultural experiences."

"It is often said that our greatest human resource is actually we ourselves," Garlington said. It is with gratitude that he assists researchers as part of his job duties, an exchange of ideas, history and knowledge. "Far too often, in spite of our myriad differences, we truly fail to recognize the sheer plethora of our commonalities—inextricably rooted and deeply intertwined within the various complexities of our mutually shared human history, lived experiences; and, multi-generational coexistence."

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Go inside the LSUS archives in Shreveport Louisiana