University System of Georgia Executive Vice Chancellor Tristan Denley and Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council Chair P. Toby Graham recently presented the GHRAC Award for Excellence in Archival Program Development by a State Institution to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College for stabilizing, rehousing, and cataloging the collections of the ABAC Archives.
 
The presentation took place at the 16th annual GHRAC Archives Awards ceremony at the Georgia Archives.  The GHRAC Awards recognize outstanding efforts in archives and records work in Georgia.
 
In early 2018, ABAC re-directed the duties of Polly Huff, the curator of ABAC’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village, to stabilize, preserve, rehouse, catalog, and begin to digitize the collection. Huff and two ABAC Rural Studies student interns, Will Hunnicutt and Britt Fuller, entered a room containing hundreds of boxes of material on shelves and covering the floors, and thousands of loose pages, along with artifacts and various discarded materials.
 
The team spent the next couple of months going through every box, stabilizing the contents, pulling metals out, and properly re-boxing records. Using USG Approved Records Retention Schedules, they cataloged and arranged the records and then moved them to storage where they will stay during the renovation of the library. The most significant records are currently undergoing digitizing.
 
GHRAC works to promote the educational use of Georgia’s documentary heritage and to support efforts to improve the condition of records statewide.  The Board is charged with advising the Chancellor and the Georgia Archives on records and policy issues.  Nominations for the 2019 Awards will be accepted beginning Feb. 1, 2019, and they must be postmarked by June 1, 2019. More information is available from the Georgia Archives website.