Announcing Availability of the Browder Collection and Online Analytic Guidebook
THE BROWDER COLLECTION

INTRODUCTION

Jacksonville State University Eminent Scholar Glen Browder — who previously served as a U.S. Congressman, Alabama Secretary of State, and Alabama State Legislator has donated his public and private records to the JSU library. In this project, Jacksonville State University is attempting to inventory, organize, analyze, and make publicly available the Browder Collection, which consists of information, documents, manuscripts, and scrapbooks pertaining to the life and career of Glen Browder.

GLEN BROWDER

Glen Browder’s experience and expertise as a participant/observer in Alabama politics and American democracy have spanned the latter third of the Twentieth Century and the early years of the Twenty-First Century. A long-time political scientist and Eminent Scholar in American Democracy at JSU, Dr. Browder also has served as an Alabama State Legislator, Alabama Secretary of State, and U.S. Congressman. While his service in each elective office was relatively brief, he exercised leadership and compiled useful notes and records regarding important issues and developments at each level. Throughout his public career, Browder tried to merge positive aspects of theory, politics, and reform; and he has been recognized as a practical, progressive leader in dealing with the challenges of a changing world.

THE COLLECTION

The Browder Collection is being prepared as a resource for interested citizens, news journalists, and academic researchers. Over 300 boxes (450 linear feet) of material are being processed for housing at JSU’s Houston Cole Library and the JSU McClellan Center in Anniston. This task is an ambitious undertaking, and it promises a uniquely valuable collection for several reasons: (a) Browder’s broad combination of academic, political, and governmental activism at local, state, and national levels, (b) his realistic yet positive and effective style of civic service and democratic leadership, and (c) his assistance in compiling and structuring the material for open, objective analysis as well as his own approach to government, politics, and political science.

AN ANALYTIC GUIDEBOOK

To maintain the historical reality of the material as much as possible, the actual boxed files will remain for the most part in their original physical condition and order; however, the primary objective is to provide an analytic guidebook that enhances, in printed and electronic manner, the collection’s value as an historiographic record of Browder’s career and as useful insight into important aspects of Alabama politics and American democracy. Initially, we simply inventoried boxes of documents; now we are organizing a more comprehensive, coherent guidebook within a political and philosophical framework reflecting the nature of Browder’s public service. Most of the material has already been reconfigured in thematic format; and various aspects of Browder’s work are being analyzed and incorporated for easy access and usage.

This analytic guidebook is available online at: www.jsu.edu/depart/library/browdercollection/.

For additional information, contact: JSU University Librarian Bill Hubbard (256-782-5248, bhubbard@jsu.edu) or Glen Browder (256-782-5356, browder@jsu.edu).

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