A two-year grant will allow NCSU Libraries to import, organize, and make accessible, a special collection of documents regarding animal welfare and the animal rights movement of the late 1900s .
Linda Sellers, head of technical services for N.C . State’s special collections research center, explained how the grant is going to work.
“We received $219,000 over two years. With this, we will hire a full time project manager and two undergraduate students to arrange the works, organize, and tag them,” Sellers said.
The collection of documents consists of boxes upon boxes of papers, videotapes, and other media that, as of now, would go unnoticed.
“Special Collections houses rare works that are valuable for research and that scholars from around the world travel to see. When we’re finished organizing the collection, these scholars can see what we have online before making the trip out here,” Sellers said.
David Hiscoe , director of communication strategies for NCSU Libraries, says that it’s no surprise the University was chosen for such an honor.
“With all our programs in veterinary medicine and agriculture, we have a real stake in understanding animal rights,” Hiscoe said.
He added, however, that the University’s history of consideration for animal rights is also deeply rooted in Tom Regan, a former professor who defined an understanding of these topics for students on campus in the 1980s .
“I’m a very strong advocate of free inquiry, and like it or not, animal rights is a current movement,” Regan said.
Though he is currently very considerate of the “brotherhood” existing between man and animal, this was not always the case.
“When I was in college, I worked as a butcher,” Regan said. “The cold flesh of dead animals gave way to my cruel will, but over the years, I came to regard my younger self as misguided.”
Regan explained that, at some point in time, he came to understand that animals are just as aware of the world and their lives as humans.
Though he was not a campus activist, Regan took it upon himself to introduce students to these ideas, and is very excited that NCSU Libraries is working to expose them to a larger audience.
“What I hope is that the NCSU Libraries will be recognized as a premier repository of materials pertaining to the scholarship and history of animal rights,” Regan said. “That is something we should all take pride in.”
The grant will officially begin March 1, though the University has not yet hired the staff necessary to commence work.
“We’ve started advertising for people now, so we’ll be a little late in starting,” Sellers said. “We’re open to graduate students who have an interest or background in animal rights and welfare, or in archives or library school from UNC -Chapel Hill or N.C . Central.”
Sellers added, however, that graduate students from N.C . State would have an upper hand in the hiring process.
“This is a project deeply rooted in the University’s history, so of course we would love to hire an N.C . State graduate student to work on it,” Sellers said.
While the collection is two years away from completion, Hiscoe and Sellers are hoping that the library will host some events to get the word out to students, faculty, and scholars, that this special collection is at N.C . State.
