The Archives Thanks Another Great Volunteer!
Ted Penberthy Adds to Our Digital Resources
The Science of Mind Archives and Library is blessed to have volunteers that allow us to share our wealth of old books, magazines, and other media by scanning and digitizing these resources and making them available worldwide through the Internet. One of our volunteers has been with us for the past two years; he is making available all the past issues of Science of Mind magazine. This outstanding volunteer is Ted Penberthy.
Ted was exposed to New Thought and Science of Mind in his late teens. For a while, Ted was even a member of the Divine Science Church in Denver, another New Thought organization.(In fact, Divine Science was founded by Nona Brooks and Ernest Holmes was even ordained as a Divine Science Minister). Ted moved to Lakewood, Colorado and eventually, found his way to Mile Hi Church of Religious Science; lured there by the wonderful music and the uplifting message. Ted hit a rough patch in his personal life; he found that going to classes and getting more deeply involved in Centers for Spiritual Living made a big difference in his life. “Without church and my classes I am not sure I would have made it through,” said Ted.
Ted had become a big fan of Science of Mind magazine—particularly Rev. David Alexander’s monthly column. In one issue of the magazine about two years ago, he saw an advertisement for the Science of Mind Archives and Library. He enjoyed exploring the website and Ted noticed on the website that there was a call for volunteers. It seemed like a natural fit for Ted—he had just finished a history degree, and he thought he would combine his love of history with his love for Science of Mind and the teachings of Ernest Holmes.
Ted’s big contribution to the Archives has been digitizing and uploading the earliest issues of Science of Mind magazine. When he first started at the Archives, the issues of the magazine from 1950 to 2007 had already been digitized. Now, Ted began on the earliest issues starting in 1927—the first year of the magazine’s publication. Ted volunteers four hours a week and has scanned over 90 issues! Ted is currently working on Science of Mind issues from the 1930’s—soon, all the issues of Science of Mind magazine will be available on the Internet for generations to come!
I asked Ted to share what he finds most impressive about the Archives. “For me, I guess the first thing that I really noticed is as you enter the Archives, you walk down a long hallway. On the walls of the hallway are all the honorary doctoral degrees that Ernest Holmes earned in his lifetime framed on the walls. And there are lots of furnishings and artwork from Ernest Holmes’ home in the Archives. If you come here, James Abbott, the manager of the Archives and Library gives you a guided tour through the rare books, the audiotapes, the videotapes that is really great. I think a lot people are surprised to find that the Archives and Library isn’t just books and papers….” Ted enthused.
Ted estimates that of all the books contained in the Archives—only 1 – 5% have actually been digitized and uploaded to the website. There is still an enormous amount of work to be done to make all of the resources available to readers through the Internet. When asked about any new projects that Ted has been working on, he replied, “Well, there is a 48-lesson mail order course that Ernest Holmes and Reginald Armor created for practitioners in the 1930’s, and that was revised in the 1950’s called the Extension Study Course in the Science of Mind. I just turned the first draft of that course into a digitized version that will be for sale as an eBook. Hopefully, it will be available online by September, and I’m pretty excited about that.”
Also, another future program is getting all the audio tapes digitized and uploaded to the website. “There is definitely a need for volunteers—here in Colorado, but there are also projects for remote volunteers for people located far away from the actual Archives,” Ted shared.
Ted continues his weekly shifts as he finishes a graduate degree in E-Learning and Instructional Design through the University of Colorado. He is hoping to eventually work on, perhaps, designing and making available self-paced home courses for people interested in Ernest Holmes and his teachings on material that is found in the Science of Mind Archives and Library.
The Archives is very fortunate to have the dedication of volunteers like Ted Penberthy. If you are interested in assisting Ted in his efforts in preserving and sharing Ernest Holmes teachings for readers and listeners around the world—please contact James Abbott, the Archives and Library Manager, at info@somarchives.org.