1/3/07

Archives maintains high standards under new leadership
By Eric Goold

ERIC GOOLD/Manning Times

New head archivist Nancy Cave looks at a map at the Clarendon County Archives last Thursday. Cave assumed her new job at the Archives on Dec. 1.

Nancy Cave experienced a change of venue in December.

Cave, formerly the Executive Director of the Clarendon County Animal Shelter, took over a new job on Dec. 1 when she became the head archivist at the Clarendon County Archives.

“I’m really pumped up,” said Cave Dec. 13 at the Archives. “I’m excited about all of the possibilities this job presents. It’s so interesting. There’s something new every day. I love my job!”

Cave takes over the head archivist job from Johnette Brewer, who left the position to take a new job as a librarian at the Central Carolina Technical College.

Cave worked for a little bit with Brewer and eased into the job, then took over fulltime on Dec. 10.

“I heard about the job from a friend, and the more I looked into it, the more interested I became,” said Cave. “Clarendon County is home for me, I’ve been here for more than 20 years. It just seemed like a natural progression for me to come here. I am loving every minute of it.”

Cave said that her experience working in public relations and management with the Navy will help her in her new post.

“You really have to be able to use critical thinking skills,” she said. “You have to follow your intuition and develop leads, and do a lot of research.”

Cave has already begun fielding the calls and emails that come in to the Archives on a daily basis.
Residents of Clarendon County as well as visitors often look for information about relatives, or they want to find old yearbooks or newspapers, or they want to research family names and street names. Those are all the kinds of tasks she’ll be handling.

“There’s a ton of information here,” said Cave. “I had no idea how much information is stored in this place.”

Cave inherits an Archives that is well organized, well run and well supported by the community.

“Already, it is established as a tool for the community,” she said. “I want to continue that. I want to make the community aware of all of the assets we can offer. There’s so much available, with books, maps, information, artifacts, microfilm.

“I hope to maintain a high level of public awareness about what a tool we have here,” she said.

Reaching out to schools is also one of her goals.

“I hope we can conduct field trips and have classes come here,” said Cave. “This is a valuable educational tool.”

Helping the Clarendon County Historical Society conduct their survey and mapping of downtown Manning is a priority, and Cave said she will continue investigating the possibility of opening a museum in Clarendon County.

“There’s such a great level of interest in the history of this county,” said Cave. “It’s exciting that so many people are interested in it and so many people are willing to share their interest.”

As part of the Historical Society’s application to designate downtown as an official Historic District, the Archives is collecting pictures of downtown buildings.

Anyone who has a photo of the buildings downtown taken prior to 1980 are encouraged to drop them by the Archives.

“We won’t keep the pictures, we just want to scan them into our records,” said Cave. “This can help us build the case for a Historical District downtown.”