An in-depth look at the Marshall Foundation’s ambitious initiative
2024 has been a remarkable year for the Marshall Foundation, and chief among its achievements has been progress in digitizing the George C. Marshall Papers—an initiative unprecedented for an archive of our size. To commemorate the completion of the first phase of this important effort, this issue of Marshall takes a soup-to-nuts look at how the library is getting it all done. Melissa Davis, director of Library and Archives, will walk you through best practices and the preparation for digitization. Next, Alex Parran from Backstage Library Works discusses the technical process of document scanning. Two Marshall Foundation stalwarts, Dr. Ashley Vance and Matthew Turner, present their experiences as metadata technicians once scanning is complete. The exploration ends with a show-and-tell featuring seven newly-digitized documents—and an opportunity to win a book of Marshall’s wisdom.