Dennis Frank
By Alexandra Salerno
Editor-in-Chief
Dennis Frank, university archivist, wrote a history of the Civil War and the War of 1812 at age 10. A history buff since childhood, Frank graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a bachelor’s degree in history. It wasn’t until later he stumbled upon his other passion.
“I was helping (my sister) with her homework for library science one night, and I thought to myself, ‘oh this would be cool,’” he said. “It was purely serendipitous.”
Frank, a Penfield, N.Y. native, received his master’s degree in library science from his undergraduate alma mater.
“History and library science – it’s a good match down here,” Frank said.
Frank’s ‘here’ is the archives room, located in the basement of Friedsam Memorial Library, where he spends most of his time documenting the history of the institution. He began working at Bonaventure in the early 1980s as a part-time reference librarian. Following a short stint at Bona’s, he spent a decade at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford as library director. After a brief time off, Frank made his way back to Bonaventure in the fall of 2001 as the library’s serials assistant. He was later offered the archivist position.
“Just as with librarianship, I became an archivist purely accidentally,” Frank said. “It’s kind of the ideal job being a history major and a librarian. The two things overlap enough as an archivist. Also, here at St. Bonaventure, because we’re a smaller institution, you aren’t just an archivist. You’re a manuscript librarian. You’re a curator of artifacts. You’re the university historian. You wear different hats depending on what part of the building it is (you’re in) or what day or hour it may be.”
Frank admits there is no such thing as a typical day as an archivist.
“I’m the university archivist by title, but I have a lot of responsibilities with special collections, particularly with the journalism material,” he said. “We have a lot of stuff or collectables related to the university. I’m also involved in a lot of the historical activities going on around campus. The (150th) anniversary was a big event here in the archives. We’re still catching up from that.”
Most of the Bonaventure history detailed in “The Good Journey: 150 Years of History at St. Bonaventure University” came from the archives room.
“All of the images in the last ten years or so essentially came out of (the archives) room,” Frank said. “We print all press releases and the Notice Board every day. I think we have the only hardcopy (of the Notice Board) on campus. So, if people are looking somewhere down the road for data about the day-to-day life at St. Bonaventure; chances are the archives room and the paper copies we produce are going to be that person’s main resource.”
Frank admits his favorite part of the job is interacting with students. He estimates he’s worked with about 35 interns and 20 work-study students over the course of his tenure at Bonaventure.
“Working with students is my favorite part of the job in every aspect; whether they’re working for me or interning or asking me questions from (campus media),” Frank said. “It’s just a very positive atmosphere around here. We’ve had a few of our interns go on to archival or librarianship I think because they see what we do is interesting and fun. That’s the main reason why I come back every morning — because it’s fun.”
Despite working with an abundance of history and journalism and mass communication interns and work-study students, Frank is determined to make sure even more students are aware of Bonaventure’s archives.
“One of the hardest groups to remind that the archives room exists is students, simply because of the turnover,” he said. “I get a few people educated about the archives room, and then they graduate. That’s not just at St. Bonaventure; that’s everywhere. If you read any of the archival literature related to colleges and universities, that is the constant lament. People ask, ‘How do we preserve a representation of student life at Bonaventure over time?’”
Frank is proud of the sheer volume of archival material available to students on the university archives website.
“Our website largely reflects our interaction with the rest of campus and the world,” he said. “In fact, we have a lot less foot traffic from students who used to visit (frequently) because most of the answers to their questions are right on our website.”
For Frank, working at Bonaventure has always been a delight.
“It’s been very laid back and pleasant,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate in the regard that in the time since I got here the (university presidents) have had a sense of history. Dr. Wickenheiser had a sense of history, and Sister Margaret certainly has a sense of history. Paul Spaeth, the people in the history department and everybody at Bonaventure understands and appreciates what we do down here in archives. They have been very supportive. I’ve never felt like I was paddling up stream in order to get people’s cooperation as we work with more areas around campus.”
