Preserving Institutional Memory at Fountain Valley School
Ovation preserves a century of school history for future generations
Background
Fountain Valley School is an independent boarding and day school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, founded in 1930. With almost a century of history, the school holds a wealth of archival material, including school newspapers, alumni newsletters, and rare film footage dating back to 1935. It also houses art from Santa Fe and Taos as well as original prints by renowned southwestern photographers Laura Gilpin and Myron Wood. In 2019, the school appointed its first paid archivist to preserve and make accessible this valuable institutional memory.
Fountain Valley School’s archival holdings play an important role in connecting the institution with its history, supporting alumni relations, and informing development activities. The school places a high priority on preserving these materials and ensuring they remain accessible for staff, students (past and present), and future generations.
When the school’s archivist assessed the collection, he identified significant challenges. Fragile media, including Kodak slides, aging DVDs and 8mm film reels from the late 1980s, were deteriorating or had become completely inaccessible. Staff across the institution were relying on digital tools and unlikely to engage with physical archives stored in the basement. With the school’s centenary approaching in 2030 and a 50th anniversary celebration of co-education planned for 2026, there was an urgent need to digitize priority materials.
Solution
The school engaged Ovation to conduct an initial assessment of the archives and develop a digitization plan. Priority was given to the materials most critical for day-to-day institutional use.
The Ovation team received the school’s newspaper archive (The Dane) and the complete run of alumni newsletters (The Bulletin). These publications represent the primary documentary record of school life and are essential resources for the communications and development offices.
All pre-existing digital files plus the newly digitized publications were made available through Ovation’s Showcase platform, providing full search functionality across the collection. The platform provides controlled access to sensitive materials while making everyday research fast and efficient.
Additional work has included digitizing slides, DVDs, film reels, and yearbooks and applying Ovation’s private AI to describe more than 40,000 previously undescribed digital photographs, making them instantly searchable in Showcase.
School Newspaper (The Dane)
Digitization of the complete school newspaper archive with full text searchable in Showcase.
Alumni Newsletters (The Bulletin)
Digitization of the complete alumni newsletter archive. Name search in Showcase enables rapid retrieval of information about specific alumni.
Film and Legacy Media
8mm film, Kodak slides, and inaccessible DVDs recovered and converted to current formats. Fragile materials preserved for the school's centenary celebrations in 2030.
Ovation Showcase
Provides controlled access to sensitive materials while making everyday research fast and efficient.
Results
The digitization project has transformed how Fountain Valley School accesses and uses its historical records. Research that previously required hours of manual searching through physical archives can now be completed in Showcase in minutes.
The development office has used the digitized archives to research building funding histories for a capital campaign, and to quickly retrieve information about prospective donors’ time at the school. The communications office has used the newspaper archive to identify historical events for anniversary projects, including preparations for the 50th anniversary of co-education in 2026.
Staff across departments now reach out to the archivist for help with research and projects. The school can be confident that its valuable historical materials are preserved and accessible, maintaining institutional memory for current staff, alumni and future generations.
“This project with Ovation has been a phenomenal tool for connecting with and strengthening relationships with alumni. It’s remarkable what you learn, and the value you create for your institution when you undertake a project like this. My advice to archivist colleagues in other institutions would be that if you’re not already doing it, you should figure out how to get on it asap.”
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