Preserving CSU's Story: Mark Shelstad and Clarissa Trapp on 50 Years of Archives and Special Collections, CSU's Land-Grant Legacy and the Future of Digital Preservation

The Next 150 podcast is about what's ahead — but this episode starts by looking back.

As Colorado marks 150 years of statehood, the nation approaches its 250th birthday, and CSU's Archives and Special Collections celebrates 50 years of preserving the university's history, we sat down with two people who know how CSU's history fits into that shared story better than anyone — Mark Shelstad, Head of Digital and Archive Services, and Clarissa Trapp, Instruction and Outreach Archivist, at CSU Libraries.

They provide an inside look at a collection spanning 550 archival collections, 24,000 rare books and over 150 terabytes of digital files — from a piece of cuneiform dating back to 2350 BCE, to born-digital content captured today. They share how the archives narrowly escaped the 1997 Spring Creek flood, what makes documenting a land-grant university unique, why today's students are active creators of CSU's history, and what the future of preservation looks like in an increasingly digital world.

More about our guests:

Mark Shelstad is the Head of Digital and Archive Services at CSU Libraries and an associate professor. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Minnesota-Morris and an M.A. in Public History with a specialization in archival administration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Mark got his start through a graduate internship at the Minnesota Historical Society and went on to work at the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center, the University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries as Head of Special Collections, and the Wyoming State Archives as Deputy State Archivist before joining CSU 11 years ago. He and his team manage CSU's institutional memory, collections relating to Colorado agriculture and water, special collections and born-digital content from across campus.

Clarissa Trapp is CSU Libraries' Instruction and Outreach Archivist and an assistant professor. She holds a B.A. from Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, and a M.L.I.S. from San Jose State University. Clarissa started her career at Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa, where she spent six years working at a living history museum before arriving at CSU as a graduate student in 2009 to study history. A summer job in the archives shifted her path — she joined the staff as a Digital Collections Technician in 2016, earned her library science degree during the pandemic and stepped into her current faculty role in 2024. She specializes in connecting campus and community members with archival materials and is a go-to expert on Colorado and CSU history.