Congratulations to SLIS Archives students, who received an unofficial "assist" for the 2011 State History Award in the Restoration/Preservation category.

From the Historical Society of Michigan's website:

The 2011 State History Award in the Restoration/Preservation category was presented to the Detroit Public Library for their preservation of the Burton Historical Collection. The Burton ranks as one of America's premier cultural resources. Founded in 1915, the collection includes thousands of original archival collections that document the history of New France, the Great Lakes region, the Old Northwest, and Michigan. Beginning in 2008, the Detroit Public Library began a project to develop an online public access catalog to help researchers around the world access the Burton Collection. Staff members of the Burton and students from Wayne State University have cataloged 4,000 archival collections. These have been added to WorldCat (the national bibliographic database) and MeLCat (the Library of Michigan's Electronic Library), thus allowing searchable access to the catalog citations. The project has resulted in a 56 percent increase in the number of researchers using the Burton Collection between 2007 and 2010.

Many people played a role in this project. A few others to mention: State of Michigan Archivist Mark Harvey, MLIS '05, wrote the grant. SLIS Archives Coordinator Joseph Turrini helped arrange the student volunteers and interns. And of course, many students spent many diligent hours at the Burton. Thanks to all!