Acadian Archives donates books to NMCC

    PRESQUE ISLE – An effort by the Edmunds Library at Northern Maine Community College to expand its collection – specifically publications significant to the local region – received a boost recently with a donation of books from the Acadian Archives at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.
    The gift of 16 titles is comprised of publications which detail the Franco-American and Acadian experience in northern Maine and beyond. Included are some locally produced materials that highlight the St. John Valley’s unique culture and history.
    The collection was presented by Lise Pelletier, director of the Acadian Archives, to Jason Parent, NMCC’s director of development and college relations, at a recent meeting of the Maine Regional Coordinating Committee for the 2014 World Acadian Congress held at the Acadian Village in Van Buren. Pelletier and Parent serve together as directors on the official international organizing committee for the 2014 event.
    “Among the goals of the various committees working to prepare the region to host one of the largest events ever to come to northern Maine is to educate and inform the people in the greater area about who the Acadians in Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec really are. The addition of these books to the library at NMCC will make them available to a wider audience,” said Parent.
    The publications include those written by local authors such as St. John Valley Historian Guy Dubay’s “Light on the Past: Documentation on our Acadian Heritage,” Fort Kent native Laurel Daigle’s “A Chronological History of Fort Kent’s Saint Louis Catholic Church,” and A.J. Michaud’s “An Acadian Heritage.” Also in the collection are several books written about Franco-Americans including C. Stewart Doty’s “The First Franco-Americans” and Dyke Hendrickson’s “Quite Presence.”