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More Than Flowers Left Behind: Building an Archival Collection and Remembering April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech

In the past 15 years a number of school shootings have captured international attention and sparked heated debates. In the aftermath of such tragedies, those directly affected and people from all walks of life expressed their condolences in a variety of ways. Following the tragic events of April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech received tens of thousands of condolence items. The special collections department of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech took responsibility for the selection, organization, and processing of this unique collection of condolence artifacts. This article reviews how that collection evolved, some of the administrative challenges of managing collections of tragedy, and the important role that archivists play in documenting tragic events.