Billy Graham Center
Archives
A Heritage at Risk - APPENDIX III: EVANGELICAL ARCHIVES PROJECTS
[Note: The EDIG, described below, no longer exists.]
The Evangelical Documentation Information Group (EDIG) is an informal group of leaders of
Christian agencies, researchers, librarians, and archivists who are working together to help
preserve and make available to all interested users the documents of the evangelical tradition.
(And we define "evangelical" in the broadest possible sense to include a wide range of conservative Protestant denominations and movements committed to the authority of Scripture and
the preaching of the Gospel.) To belong to the group, you do not have to be a president of a
denomination, a scholar, an archivist, or even an evangelical. You merely have to feel that this
work is important and be willing to contribute time and effort to working on one or more of the
following projects. At the end of the list is a form for you to indicate the numbers of the projects you would like to work on during the coming year. After you send back the form, the
leader(s) of the projects you indicated an interest in will contact you to involve you in the work.
Thanks for your time and effort. Together, we can preserve these valuable resources.
1.Publish proceedings of conference, including an introduction giving the background of
meeting, list of attendees, reports of the four small groups, list of projects of the ad hoc
committee.
2.Plan a meeting for 1989 at which progress on projects can be discussed, the desirability of
some kind of permanent organization decided on, and archivists, librarians, Christian workers,
and users can interact.
3.Establish an ongoing group to oversee the continuation of the coordination of the effort to
identify and preserve an adequate record of the evangelical movement and to provide full
access to this information. This would include working with experts in various areas to
develop an overarching description of the desired documentation and probable documentation
problems. Such a group can serve as the core, additional specialists (historians, administrators,
curators, etc.) can be added to meet the needs of each particular activity.
4.Create a list of dates of the annual meetings of evangelical umbrella organizations, that is,
organizations that have a large membership of evangelical agencies, such as the National
Association of Evangelicals, the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, etc.
5.Contact various evangelical umbrella groups, offering to provide speakers to talk about
archives. A sample talk would describe what an archives is, why it is desirable, how it can
benefit an organization and various types of individuals, the sorry general state of evangelical
archives (the outstanding programs of several individual archives notwithstanding), how to start
the process of beginning an archives, a description of the ad hoc group as one source to contact
for help. Speakers need to motivate their listeners.
6.Study the foundations/funding situation and prepare suggestions as to a possible funding
coalition and analyze projects that have been funded to determine fundable projects from the
point of view of the NHPRC as well as other agencies and foundations. Suggest possible
projects for funding.
7.Contact all possible relevant agencies and foundations with copies of the proceedings of the
conference, suggesting that the proceedings could be used as one criteria for evaluating any
grant proposal that relates in any way to evangelical archives or research.
8.Produce an educational video, explaining what an archives is, why it is important, how you
go about starting one. This video would be aimed at those who are thinking of starting an
archives or who should be thinking of starting an archives.
9.Create a list of publications which have shown or might show a willingness to publish news
releases or articles about evangelical archives. Archives could use such a list as the nucleus of
a mailing list for their press releases.
10.Produce a booklet aimed at a popular audience on archives, including what an archives is,
how all kinds of people can use archives, the very poor current state of evangelical archives,
and what can be done.
11.Create a directory of equipment and/or services available to evangelical archives (for free or
low cost) from evangelical archives or friends of evangelical archives.
12.Create a directory of evangelical archives, an "evangelical archives" being defined as a
repository with a significant amount of material on the evangelical movement. Thus the Library
of Congress, with the papers of William Jennings Bryan and Ethel Waters, among others,
would be an evangelical archives.
13.Develop liaisons with archival, librarian, and user associations, such as the Society of
American Archivists, Christian Librarians Association, the Society for Pentecostal Studies, the
Conference of Faith and History, etc.
14.Explore ways to provide consultants (paid and volunteer) to organizations who could
benefit from their services. Compile a list of individuals willing to act as consultants for no fee
or for expenses.
15.Edit and distribute a simple newsletter to members of the ad hoc group, attendees of the
conference, and other interested parties, describing what is happening on the various projects.
16.Prepare guidelines on how to contact and encourage potential groups of users such as high
school students, Christian workers, pastors, etc.
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Last Revised: 2/4/00
Expiration: indefinite
© Wheaton College 2005