About the Collection

Acknowledgments

Through the generous support of Angel Partners, Inc. and the Harold B. Lee Library, the Mormon Missionary Diaries project was completed through the efforts of many people. Their work is clearly evident in this digital publication of 107 diarists, in 376 diary volumes, representing over 61,000 diary pages.

Any rational person who understood all the pieces of this extremely large project would never have ventured into it. But the words of these missionary diarists at times almost leaped off the page. The project idea came from one person, but its fulfillment was only possible because of the love and the commitment to the missionaries and their service, demonstrated by all who worked on it. A special thanks goes to Kayla Willey for her metadata expertise and depth of interest and knowledge; to Diane Coffman and Jeri Jump who led us through and kept us going in all the phases of the development of the iTranscribe software and to the earliest stages of transcription and encoding; to Brandon McArthur and Don Campbell who directed a corps of able students in scanning all of the pages of these diaries, when at times the mold on some of the diaries proved unhealthy; to Rinna Harris who applied programming skills and great organizational and leadership ability to the transcription and encoding process and brought this project in before its deadline; and above all to Scott Eldredge who provided much needed support and thoughtful problem solving throughout the entire five years of this project, including the basic idea of developing software to help transcribe and encode each diary.

The various steps and processes in this project are outlined in the essay “About the Collection,” which further demonstrates the dedication and effort of the people listed below.

Mormon Missionary Diary Project Team, which consists of the full-time employees working on this project:

Susan L. Fales, Project Manager and Content Specialist
Kayla Willey, Metadata
Diane Coffman, Head of Transcription and Encoding, phase 1
Rinna Harris, Head of Transcription and Encoding, phase 2
Brandon McArthur, Digital Lab Manager, phase 1
Don Campbell, Digital Lab Manager, phase 2
Scott Eldredge, Digital Program Manager and Advisor

The Extended Team (Web Design People all worked at different times on the Project):

Laura Clark, Web Design
Thomas Earl DeForest, Web Design
Tiffany Harrison, Metadata Assistant
Jerri Jump, Project Manager for development of iTranscribe
David Lesue, Web Design

The vast majority of the work on this project was handled by a talented group of students. The students are listed alphabetically within each of the project work areas. The project work areas are listed in order of the project work flow, with the earliest step, Selection and Evaluation of Original Diaries, appearing first and the last step in the process, Web Design, listed last.

Selection and Evaluation of Original Diaries for Inclusion in the Digital Publication, under the direction of Susan L. Fales:

Dan Coombs
Jeffrey S. Hardy
Amy Nuffer
Brian A. Warburton

Research and Writing of Biographical Sketches, under the direction of Susan L. Fales:

Jeffrey S. Hardy
Brian A. Warburton

Digitizing and Post Processing under the direction of Brandon McArthur and later Don Campbell:

Kara Busath
Teresa Ewell, Student Lead
Michelle Farnsworth
Tianna Lovell
Mason D. McGinn
Dan Phelan
Courtney Walker
Shanna Waye

iArchives the Developer of iTranscribe the software program used for Transcription and Encoding:

Russell Black, Programmer
Jared Dearth
Lee Drew
Scott Pead
Kyle Shoop
Wendi Woolf
Frederick Zarndt

Transcription and Encoding, under the direction of Diane Coffman and later Rinna Harris:

Megan Benson
Suzy Boyce
Jesse Brown
Monica Cabrera
Michael Chipman
Diane Tenney Christensen
Michelle “Mimi” Boling Collett, Student Lead
Kimberly Crowther
Nathan Dunford
Tracy Ebberts
Michelle Egbert
Adam Favero
Cathryn Fordham
Christy Gordon
Heather Kimball
Lisa Leishman
Daniel Lemmon
Luz Mallea de Yujra
Joel Matthews
Peter McClanahan
Kleresa Miller
Eli Morey
Jeremy Neely
Maryann Okabe
Catherine Papworth
Sarita Shuster Rich
Brienne Hales Shumway, Student Lead
Penny Smith
Todd Smith
Patrick Solomon
Jesse Stricklan
Brian Warburton
Hilary Watkins, Student Lead

Metadata, under the direction of Kayla Willey:

Laura Christensen
Rebecca Christensen
Michelle Clawson
Eric Davies
William Day
Brie Greenhalgh
Trevor Hawkes
Sean Holder
Karren Leishman
James Mayo
Lorianne Ouderkirk
Arpit (A.D.) Pandey
Kevin Rieske
Emily Robinson
Brienne Shumway
Leland Spindler
Tawna Summerhays
Sariah Burdge

Web Page Design and Maintenance, under the direction of Thomas Earl DeForest

Ashley Avarell
Jared Havican