Gannon Knight Features

     Even the most experienced of Nash Library wanderers or study room dwellers may not know of the history contained on the third floor. Hidden behind the ever-changing Schuster Art Gallery displays and brightly colored couches is the Archivist's office.
     To the unsuspecting student, it is just another office full of boxes and files. However, to Bob Dobiesz, who oversees the university's archives collection and acts as assistant director of the library, the office holds a great deal of history.
     Dobiesz's current project involves collecting pictures and news articles relating to Erie's boxing history. He has been able to go back into the 1930s to find information from both Gannon's and Erie’s history.
     “I work in a partnership with the city, public library and diocese to get our patrons the information they want,” he said. “We have over 190,000 pictures here, so we're at good starting point.”
     But Gannon's archive collection includes more than photographs – the office has every issue of the Gannon Knight, Gannon yearbooks and course catalogs.
     The issues of The Knight were gathered as a project in which Dobiesz took personal interest. When he was a history major at Gannon, he worked on the Knight's layout. He said that that connection is one that makes him happy to have this job.
     Dobiesz said looking through past issues of The Knight is always interesting. Old advertisements and fashions help give ideas as to what Gannon used to be.
     The office also holds a large collection of archival documents and photographs of archbishop John Mark Gannon, who founded the university.
     Gannon history is not the only thing on which Dobiesz spends his energy. Most of his patrons are community members who want to delve into some area of Erie's history – like the boxing project. These requests are not easy, he said, but there are several other resources available.
     “We can help someone start out on a historical search, and then refer them to other places,” Dobiesz said. “The Erie Historical Society has a lot of archival material in the public library, and the diocese has its own archive collection.”
     Since these collections seem daunting, he said starting at Gannon is an easy alternative.
     Although the office is in a rarely visited area of the library, Dobiesz said that he sees many people from the community. As far as students go, however, the collection is a virtual unknown to them.
     “You don't really think about that stuff,” Kelly Moreland, a secondary education and English major, said. “I realize that it must get done somehow, but I've never really thought about who actually does it.”
     Dani Wagner, a junior theology major, said that she figured the archivist organizes boxes of things like yearbooks, but did not think about much else that went into the job.
     As Dobiesz explained, the projects that people come to him with give him a constant workload that can be daunting, but is always exciting. He also said that his door is always open to current students or alumni who are curious about history. Even if a person is not interested in delving too far into a historical search, Dobiesz and the archives office can provide a laugh at old fashion around campus or a look at historical Erie.