Documents, books, photographs and other pieces of information dating back more than 100 years are kept tucked away in six levels of stacks in special archival boxes with humidity and temperature control to protect them among the thousands of square feet of Hill Memorial Library.
No one from the public is allowed into the stacks, and each document must be touched by human hands as little as possible, said University archivist Barry Cowan.
“Every time you touch something, it deteriorates the oil, and the amount of salt in your hands makes a difference,” Cowan said.
Cowan said Hill Memorial Library receives documents and artifacts from offices of the state, departments at the University and other people. Each article has to be carefully cataloged and placed into a collection.
To access Hill Memorial Library’s archives, researchers, such as faculty members and graduate students, must sign in at the front desk and wear a badge. They go to the Reading Room, where they look up and ask for items they want from the stacks.
Having visitors sign in lets the library know who is looking at what in case anything goes missing or is damaged. Between two and 20 people visit each day, sitting in the nearly silent room poring over documents that are pieces of history.
“When I was a student, I came in this building once to do research … I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to leave my backpack at the front, and I didn’t want to have to go through all the rigmarole, but it was the only place where I could find what I needed,” said Cowan, who has worked at the library for more than 17 years. “This is the only place in the state where there are things like the Russell Long papers, just to use that as an example.”
The senator’s documents, detailing Long’s time in office, were acquired by the library in 1986, according to its website, and Hill Memorial is the only place people can go to look at those archives.
“Dealing with people who use the library and how to help them with their research is a type of public service. If we can make somebody’s research job easier, it cuts down on their research time,” Cowan said. “The more knowledgeable we can be about our collections here, the more we can help others.
At times, Hill Memorial receives boxes of items that have been in attics and may contain bugs or mold. These artifacts are placed in a subzero walk-in freezer for three days to kill anything living inside of them. After they are frozen, the items are unpacked and treated like other archival items.
Hill Memorial often receives old photographs with no information about who is in the photos or when they were taken. Archivists research each photo to learn about it and find a proper label.
“We can [learn] a lot by what’s in a photograph — we can use cars or the clothing,” Cowan said.
The first place archivists look to identify people in photos is in old Gumbo Yearbooks from the University — the library has four sets of every Gumbo published since 1900. Eager researchers can look through the pages to find former students or buildings, and archivists use them to identify unknown people in photos. One set of Gumbos is kept locked away in the stacks in pristine condition.
All of the newspapers from the state and the University also are sent to Hill Memorial. They are ironed flat with care and photographed to be placed on microfilm.
Rolls of microfilm are stored in the basement of Hill Memorial, each one labeled. Putting them in a digital format makes it easier for researchers to look at them, but it is costly compared to using the microfilm, Cowan said.
“Going digital is not necessarily the best archival preservation method, it’s more of an access medium. Microfilm is the best preservation medium — they last virtually forever,” Cowan said.
Microfilm, according to the National Archives website, is inexpensive and durable. It has a life expectancy of more than 100 years. Digital images are made of a variety of machine codes, require computers for access and must be reformatted periodically. Microfilm only needs light and magnification to be viewed.
“People call and ask all kinds of questions about LSU history. ‘My dad went to school here, could you tell me something about…’” Cowan said. “It could be anything, but people ask everything about the University. ‘Do you have a picture of the 1958 football team?’ Yes we do.”
Hill Memorial has everything — except for film of Pete Maravich, Cowan said. He turned down the researcher who asked for the film of the school’s basketball icon.
“We have pictures of him, though,” Cowan said.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Raegan Labat

University Archivist Barry Cowan inspects the date on a photograph Monday, Mar. 2, 2015, in his office in Memorial Hill Library.