In celebration of American Archives Month, archivists from University Libraries Special Collections and Archives will be hosting events to share the value of archives and archivists' dedicated efforts to preserve history. Four events will take place over the month of October:
- Special Collections & Archives Reading Room Open House (Alkek 204)
Tuesday, Oct. 6, 3-5 p.m.
- What is a Primary Resource? workshop (Alkek 440)
Tuesday, Oct. 13, 5-6 p.m.
- #AskAnArchivist Day Panel Discussion (The Wittliff Collections Main Gallery) Thursday, Oct. 15, 3-4 p.m.
- Special Collections and Archives Featured Collections Webinar (online)
Friday, Oct. 28, 1-2 p.m.
The Special Collections and Archives Open House will be held in the Reading Room, located in Alkek 204 behind Starbucks from 3 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. During this time, students, staff, and faculty are welcome and encouraged to drop in, meet our team, and view select archival collections. History about Texas State University and San Marcos is abundant, and the archivists in Special Collections have taken great care to preserve it for generations to come. Items like Aquarena Springs memorabilia, The Pedagog yearbooks, and Sheila Hargett's portfolio will be available for viewing during the Open House.
Our What is a Primary Resource? workshop is open to all, and was specially designed to satisfy the Research Pathway requirement for US 1100 students. Join the Special Collections and Archives team as they define and explain the role of primary resources in academic research. Participants should gather in Alkek 440 at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13.
#AskAnArchivist Day is a day where archivists around the country take to social media and respond to questions, upload photos, and share information about anything related to their archive. Representatives from Special Collections and Archives and The Wittliff Collections are partnering to share about what archivists do in person, instead. On Thursday, October 15, from 3 to 4 p.m. a panel of professionals will be in the Wittlifff Galleries to answer questions about archives and explain why they are important. Panelists include Wittliff Collections Lead Archivist Katie Salzmann, Professor of History, and first institutional archivist, Ronald C. Brown, graduate student in archival studies Fiona Zupke, University Records Manager and Archivist Cait Burhans and Processing Archivist Meghan Willoughby. The panel event is open to students, faculty, and staff with time for audience questions at the end.
The Featured Collections Virtual Webinar will take place through Zoom to highlight all digital exhibits and collections available online, as well as discuss upcoming additions to our digital collections platform. It will be held on Monday, October 28, 2026, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and will showcase TXST collections, both physical and digital, available to view. Archivists will highlight collections that have been digitized over the years, present new collections in the process of being digitized, and answer any questions about what goes into the process of making a collection digitally accessible.
Interested in knowing more about Special Collections and Archives work? Visit this web page or check out our previous article about jazz artist Butch Miles Collection.