Archives, Athletes and the Academy: A Digital Exhibition and Collection at the University of Oregon
Digital projects are not a new undertaking by university archives, and those related to university sports are often some of the earliest created. This is the case, not only because of the evocative imagery, but also because in the United States college sport is a subject that cuts across economic, social, geographic, and educational strata. To put it plainly, the audience is huge. Thus the opportunity to connect the college sports audience with university archives, which does not normally have a large audience, is irresistible. Increasingly, repositories are taking to the web with their sports collections, while at the same time trying to balance the needs of their mission to preserve knowledge and to serve the educational, research, fiscal, legal, and service missions of their parent institution. In analyzing the successes and challenges posed by the development and implementation of the University of Oregon (UO) sports history digital exhibition and collection, lessons were learned that will improve this on-going project and that can be applied to other projects.