(AP) — The Missouri secretary of state’s office is getting some help from Missouri State University students preserving historic records.

State archivists and university students will clean, repair, arrange and index 19th century local government records. Through the program, students also will also gain an understanding of archival theory.

Students will get started this spring with Barry County Circuit Court records. Once those records are studied and processed, the archival work will shift to other southwest Missouri counties. Completed records will be transported to the Missouri State Archives for preservation imaging.

The program replicates one between the secretary of state’s office and Truman State University. That program started in 2012 with historic county records in northeast Missouri.