Chapter 10 : The Creation of the Historical Resources Center

Chapter 10 : The Creation of the Historical Resources Center

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Description

In this chapter, Ms. Hoffman talks about the creation of the institution’s Historical Resources Center. A task force submitted a white paper to elaborate on the importance of this new center. She then talks about the three projects undertaken once the Center was established: creating a physical place to safely house documents and artifacts; writing the institution’s history; creating the oral history project.

Identifier

HoffmanKJ_02_20180326_C010

Publication Date

3-27-2018

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Building the Institution; Leadership; On Leadership; Institutional Processes; MD Anderson Culture; Building/Transforming the Institution; The Value of the Oral History Project

Transcript

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

I wanted to kind of talk about some of the other landmark events in—during your time here at MD Anderson, but I just wanted to make sure that we covered everything that you felt were sort of the changes that you needed to make to get the operation of the library state of the art, and really addressing its mission in all ways.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Well, I guess that would lead up to the establishment of the Historical Resources Center.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, and we talked about the TexTreasures grant last time, and...

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

We submitted, I guess, a white paper to the president, and it was—I do have a document that we can put on record with this. Dr. Tomasovic [oral history interview], who was my boss at the time, chaired a task force, and I served on it, and Steve Stuyck [oral history interview]from Public Affairs, Walter Pagel [oral history interview], Mary Jane Schier, and—

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Schier, yeah. Is it Schier? Is that how you say it?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I thought so, but I might be wrong. (laughs)

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Oh, gosh. Was I saying it wrong for four years? (laughs)

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

No, you’re probably right.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

No, you never know. Sometimes people here in the South are so polite they don’t correct you. (laughter)

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

And Dr. Elizabeth Travis [oral history interview]. We were on this task force. And we wrote this proposal to establish the Historical Resources Center, which was to have kind of three projects. One was to establish the—a physical place where we could collect and process and manage the history of the institution. We started with the papers from the Office of the President, all the way—way, way, way back. It was all on microfilm. It was just phenomenal, what we had. And I think other collections have come to the library since, fortunately. It started with a very small, little rare book collection that Marie Harvin started when she was here, but it has grown. So that was one thing: to establish this as a place in the library. The other was to write our history. And we contracted with Dr. Olson, James Olson, an incredible individual, to write our history. I don’t know if anybody’s talked to you about Dr. Olson. Have you met him?

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

I’ve not met him, no.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Okay. He was a patient. He still is a patient. He has been living with cancer his whole life. And he’s a historian. He was chair of the History Department at Sam Houston State University. And I would love to have studied history with him. He’s the type of historian who just tells a story, and he can make it so interesting. So much of history—and I think why a lot of people shy away from history—is that it’s a story that’s not told well, and so it’s dry, it’s boring. People don’t like history. But Dr. Olson was one of those rare individuals that could tell a story like no one else. And when he wrote our Making Cancer History book, it’s just incredible. When you read that first chapter, you’re just totally there, and it’s like... I don’t know how to describe it. It comes alive. History comes alive in the way he can tell a story. We’re just so fortunate that we were able to get him to write this book. It just... Everybody should read it. I had the honor (laughs) of being one of the early proofreaders of the book, so I got to read the manuscript early on. But it was just a fascinating process. And this task force met with him, oh, I think almost once a month he would be here, as he was writing—working on the book. He did all of his research in the library, plowing through microfilm, microfiche, reviewing all of these documents in the Office of the President’s collections. Just phenomenal, what he unearthed. So it really told me just this incredible resource we had in the library that came from the Office of the President. Anyway, so that was a piece of it. And then, of course, the other piece, the third piece, was to develop our oral history program, which I am happy to say is rolling along beautifully now, thanks to you. You’ve put some beautiful touches on it, and it’s very impressive what you’ve done.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, I brought a real focus on use to a much wider audience, because in the typical audiences that one thinks of for an oral history project—because that word “history” really gets in people’s heads, unfortunately. And so when people hear “oral history project,” they think, oh yeah, biographers, historians. They don’t think any further. But one of my very first conversations with Stephanie Fulton and Javier Garza was to say, “You’re going to get great stories about discoveries and leadership, (laughs) and think of all the other people who would be interested: people from the Development Office for fundraising; people who need leadership training materials. All of this can be made to happen.” And the fact is there’s a beautiful exhibition of the history of philanthropy at MD Anderson now in The Park. I don’t know if you’re aware of it.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

No.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

It’s beautiful. It’s worth going over to see. It was spearheaded by Fernando Yarrito, and he did a beautiful job, hired a phenomenal design agency to create it. It’s called “Faces of Philanthropy.” And so one of the things they wanted us to do—I mean, Javier provided a lot of historical photos—they wanted quotations from the collection of oral history interviews.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Oh, wonderful.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

And they’re going to want more on an ongoing basis. So that’s, like, a really great example of how history can serve the ongoing needs of an organization. And I was always very committed in making that happen here. Organizations like Disney have in-house heritage factories, if you will, and I kind of saw the possibility that MD Anderson could have that here, based on objects, the photos, the archives, the oral history project. So, yeah.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah. It’s interesting: as I’m sitting here listening to you, you started with my early education and my interests. I majored in history in college, and I guess there was a reason. I mean, it’s something that excites me. I had one professor—I’ll just do this little sideline—who was much like Dr. Olson in that he could tell a story, and he would come in with a little three-by-five card. He’d look at it, put it in his pocket, and then for the next hour just tell stories. And it was the most fabulous class. It just... It’s wonderful. I mean...

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, stories are such an effective way of communicating information, because it’s multilayered. It carries a lot of different types of information at the same time. It’s very efficient. Yeah.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

So back to where we were, (laughs) because I tended to go on another tangent.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

No, that’s fine. I mean, I did... I had a question: at the time, what did you and the task force envision as the result of instituting the place to collect, the book, and also the oral history program? How were you thinking about that at the time as a contribution to the institution?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I’m not sure I was thinking about that. I just knew this was something that was important that needed to be established, and we needed to provide a proper space. I know I always keep going back to space, but we carved out some additional space outside the library proper that created office space, but also a controlled physical environment, special air conditioning, compact shelving, to put the collection in. And we got a grant, a very large grant, to hire a second archivist. We got the first archivist as an added position, as a result of this proposal we made to the president. But we hired a second archivist and processing assistant to work on the grant, to process the records of the Office of the President. I think it took well over two years to do that entire project. So it was a very large sum of money—it was just under $400,000, I think—that really helped us get a jumpstart and get the collections where we could make them available on the webpage, in our catalog, and really show the institution that we had something unique and very special to offer.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

People don’t realize that most of the work with any collection takes place after it’s been acquired.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Oh, yes. And it’s a very, very time-consuming process, but fascinating.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

It’s very fascinating. Very fascinating.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah. So anyway, that was established in around about early 2000, so it was after I’d been here about five years. That was a big piece. It moved the library into a whole different area for what we were doing for the institution.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Was there a general understanding that the library was doing this? How well-known was it?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

No, I don’t think so.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah. I mean, often people don’t realize.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah, yeah. No, I don’t think so. But I think they know now.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Or they’re beginning to know, I think. Yeah. I had an interesting conversation with Bob Brigham when he was here. I’m ashamed to say I don’t remember his exact title. But I overheard him talking in the elevator about something, and I’m like, “I can help you with that.” (laughter) And then I happened to run into him. He looked at me like, wow, this is a weird person. And then I ran into him, because we both come in really early, and we were on the elevator. And I said, “Listen, I’m really sorry I interrupted your conversation the other morning,” I said, “but I’m serious. People don’t realize that we do have historical records here.” And he was interested. He said, “I come from Mayo Clinic. They have that there. I had no idea where to look for it here. I kept asking people in Communications.” So there wasn’t general information about what the service is. My hope is that with the new website and everything we can start. It’s always an education process, isn’t it?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Oh, it is. It is.

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