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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.

In the fall of 1897, the Library of Congress opened the Thomas Jefferson Building and left behind an unfortunate chapter in its history. During the spring of that year two employees were brought to trial and lightly punished for stealing rare materials from the Library, then located in the United States Capitol. Fred Shelley's 1948 American Archivist article discusses this incident, but is incomplete in both content and sources. This essay fully describes the events surrounding the Library of Congress's first major recorded theft of materials and reviews the present status of security at the Library. In the process, this article also discusses general security concerns for modern libraries and archives.

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