Library and Information Science Commons^™

How Disillusioned Debate Documentarians Discovered The Silver Lining, Gypsy Moody, Chuck Hodgin

Library Faculty Scholarship

Belmont University was chosen to host the final presidential debate of the 2020 election. Undeterred by even the COVID-19 pandemic, administration was determined to forge ahead with holding this historic event at Belmont. They formed a committee to document the event and archive its materials. As IR managers, we thanked our lucky stars for this huge opportunity and potential spotlight for our relatively unheralded IR. We were tasked with writing a scalable preservation policy and collecting and archiving physical and digital Debate materials. Unfortunately, our pursuit of these goals revealed that the university had some work to do before we …