Library and Information Science Commons^™

The Walter White Project, Jackson Stakeman, Randolph Stakeman

The Primary Source

The Walter White project began with a few vague notions about creating a website that served as a resource on the late civil rights leader, who led the NAACP for seventeen years. As a figure in the Civil Rights Movement his role is pivotal. In addition his life and work makes him a sort of an intersection connecting the lives of people from the humblest African Americans to those in the highest seats of power. The range of his activities is so diverse and complex that it was challenging to envision how we could, in a non-linear way, best display …

Access The Copyrighted: Integration Correspondence From The James H. Meredith Collection, Jason Kovari

The Primary Source

The violence surrounding the 1962 desegregation of Ole Miss inherently links the University of Mississippi (UM) with the history of the Civil Rights Movement. Thus, the Department of Archives & Special Collections at UM holds extensive civil rights related collections, ranking amongst our more frequently researched topics. Aside from contributing to a statewide grant-funded initiative in 2003, the UM Archives & Special Collections has shied away from prioritizing Civil Rights materials in our digital collections; however, this decision does not stem from emotion. Historically, we have focused on 19th century materials, clearly in the public realm, in an attempt to …

Digitizing The Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, Courtney Chartier

The Primary Source

In June 2006, the papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. were being prepared for auction at Sotheby’s. A group of prominent Atlantans learned of the sale, and pooled their resources in an effort to buy the documents as one collection, and return them to Atlanta. The collection was then transferred to Dr. King’s alma mater, Morehouse College. As the official library of Morehouse, the Robert W. Woodruff Library was granted custodianship of the collection.

The Civil Rights In Mississippi Digital Archive, Diane Decesare Ross

The Primary Source

Mississippi was a focal point in the struggle for civil rights in America, and Hattiesburg, home of The University of Southern Mississippi, had the largest and most successful Freedom Summer project in 1964. Through the use of digital imaging and other information technologies, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries is providing a worldwide audience of researchers with a firsthand perspective on the Civil Rights Movement that otherwise would be restricted to local users and only the most dedicated of historical researchers.

Editor's Note: Civil Rights Collections In The Digital Realm, Ryan P. Semmes

The Primary Source

Editor's introduction to The Primary Source, Vol. 29.

Entire Issue Volume 28, Number 2

The Primary Source

Complete issue of Vol. 28, No. 2 of The Primary Source.

Putting Out The Welcome Mat: Archival Outreach In The Public Library Environment, Amy Zeigler

The Primary Source

Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs, Colorado, boasts two main libraries, ten branches, three bookmobiles, and did I mention a fantastic archives collection? The archives is a surprise and a hidden gem for most individuals visiting the public library. Special Collections is located in a beautifully restored 1905 Carnegie Library, which is attached to the Penrose Library built in 1969. By having Special Collections located near several other library services, it provides ample opportunities for outreach. The children's department is located above the archives and the computer lab and law library are located below. As a result we have …

Politics And Advocacy: A Dilettante's View Of Archival Activism, Bradley J. Wiles

The Primary Source

In June of this year I had the dubious honor of testifying in front of a congressional committee during the Louisiana State Legislative Session. My testimony was in response to a public records bill that had passed through the State Senate and was under consideration in the House Committee for Governmental Affairs. It was an honor because I was allowed to represent the officers and executive board of the Louisiana Archives and Manuscript Association (LAMA), of which I am an active member. I had been following the progress of the bill in question and had drafted a letter in opposition …

Collaborations For Promotional Success: The Western Writers Series Digital Editions At Boise State University, Erin Passehl

The Primary Source

In the fall of 2008, Boise State University Special Collections published its first online digital collection entitled Western Writers Series Digital Editions, a selection of titles from the Boise State University Western Writers Series. Published at Boise State University since 1972, volumes in the Western Writers Series provide brief, authoritative introductions to writers and classic texts of the American West. The impetus behind digitizing 23 of the 172 titles was to make accessible the out-of-print booklets that the editors still receive purchasing requests for, as well as showcase one of Boise State University's unique publications. With the booklets at …

Expanding Outreach In Lean Times, Jennifer Kinniff

The Primary Source

With the economic downturn forcing archival repositories and special collections departments to pare down budgets and staff, institutions sometimes view outreach, publicity, and marketing as luxuries. At the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) of George Washington University's Gelman Library, we consider these activities part of our core tasks. Our mission statement declares we will "collect, preserve, and make accessible primary resources and rare or unique materials." Fulfilling this third objective requires more than just processing collections and opening the reading room, however. In our view, it requires a sustained and vigorous program of outreach through the Web, events, exhibits, and …

Archival Vaudeville: Rethinking Outreach With Collaborative Programming, Jennie Benford, Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh

The Primary Source

When a group of archivists in Pittsburgh started meeting for happy hours, talk inevitably turned to the great things we were working on and how we wished more people knew about the archives found in our city. Comparing notes quickly turned to making plans for a public program that would allow local archivists to introduce themselves and their repositories to an audience beyond the circled wagons of our profession. In planning for this event, several decisions were made at a theoretical level that had real impact on the structure and success of the program. The loose formula created by the …

Editor's Note: Outreach And Advocacy During Economic Recession, Mona K. Vance

The Primary Source

Editor's introduction for The Primary Source, Vol. 28, No. 2.

Entire Issue Volume 28, Number 1

The Primary Source

Complete issue of Vol. 28, No. 1 of The Primary Source.

Renovating The Atlanta History Center Archives: Moving People, Places And History, Emily Weaver

The Primary Source

The Atlanta Historical Society was founded in 1926 when a group of fourteen civic-minded Atlantans were called together by prominent attorney, Walter McElreath, with a desire to preserve the regional history by collecting manuscripts and photographs. With this storehouse of primary source information, the group was able to provide a rich cache of materials to scholars and general researchers. As the collections continued to grow, so did the scope and vision from those original founding members. The Atlanta History Center officially formed in 1991, encompassing over thirty-three acres of land with a newly constructed state-of- the-art museum, two interpreted historic …

A Comedy Of Errors: Repository Renovation In Reality, Leigh Mcwhite

The Primary Source

The University of Mississippi in July 2004 transferred responsibility for approximately 7,000 linear feet of political and legal collections from the Law School to the Department of Archives & Special Collections. At that time, the department faced a severe shortage of available storage space for new collections. University officials recognized and quickly resolved this dilemma by designating a soon-to-be vacant Physical Plant building for off-site library storage including an entire floor (6,900 square feet) for the newly created Modern Political Archives unit (MPA). In the mean time, two full-time staff and several student workers began processing one of the large …

Green Archives: Applications Of Green Construction To Archival Facilities, Sarah Kim

The Primary Source

The primary mission of archives as cultural and administrative institutions is to preserve and make available society's collective memories captured in archival materials for future generations. The development and long-term operation of archives in a sustainable manner are critical to accomplish this mission. Applying green or sustainable construction to archival facilities is one way to increase the sustainability of archives. Green construction methods provide various environmental, social and economic benefits to improve the serviceability of a building during its lifetime after the construction is completed at the site. The Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) defines sustainable construction as …

Landing On The Right Track: Developing An Hvac System For A New Repository, Forrest W. Galey

The Primary Source

Years ago I sat in a crowded theater and watched the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Indy and his companions escaped from a crashing airplane by inflating a rubber raft and using it to sail out of the plane, slide down a snowy mountainside, and float down a river. The audience reveled in every stunt, save one, throughout the movie. As the main characters make an escape by charging along a roller-coaster of railroad tracks in a mining cart, the cart takes flight over a crevasse, lands on the next set of tracks perfectly, and rolls forth …

Editor's Note, Peggy Price

The Primary Source

Editor's introduction to The Primary Source, Vol. 28, No. 1.

Entire Issue Volume 27, Number 2

The Primary Source

Complete issue of Vol. 27, No. 2 of The Primary Source.

Process And Product: Jump-Starting Archival Cataloging, Chatham Ewing

The Primary Source

Two years ago, the University of Mississippi Department of Archives and Special Collections hired an archivist charged with moving the department's finding-aids onto the Internet. At that time, the information about our collections on the Internet was less comprehensive than the print information in the reading room. Available on the departmental web-site there were a few finding-aids that indexed important collections, subject-based lists of our holdings (designed to allow our patrons to discover brief summaries of many of our most important collections), and general departmental information. Additionally, there were several online exhibits.

Cataloging Community Cookbooks, Hans Rasmussen

The Primary Source

Whether issued by a public grammar school, a clapboard country church, or a starched-tablecloth ladies' volunteer society, a community cookbook belongs to a class wholly different from any other type of book in your library. Its clunky typeface, weak binding, tacky section dividers, and utterly nonsensical title pages plainly give away its proletarian origins. Of course, for the purposes of scholarship, there is nothing at all wrong with such humble beginnings. While once exiled by elitist librarians to the lowly and shameful book sale shelf hidden away in the corner, community cookbooks are now well recognized as rich sources for …

Special Collections Cataloging: Rare Books, Kathleen L. Wells

The Primary Source

What is a rare book? Age may be the first factor to spring to mind, but uniqueness of binding, edition (first or limited), inscriptions or annotations by authors or well-known owners, and size of print runs may cause more contemporary materials to be considered rare. While a standard AACR2 catalog record provides a general description of a book, it may obscure differences between different printings or "manifestations" of that particular work. (Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books), X.1.2) Researchers are generally more interested in the contents of a book than in the container. However, in the case of rare materials, …

Editor's Note, Peggy Price

The Primary Source

Editor's introduction to The Primary Source, Vol. 27, No. 2.

Partnering Library Research With Presentation And Writing Services At Western Michigan University’S Hcob Communication Center, Lumarie Guth, Marty Deming Maytnier

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

The development of the learning commons and embedded librarianship are two of the most recent responses to the downward trend in traditional reference statistics for academic libraries. Reference librarians are rethinking how to demonstrate the added value of their services and reach users at their point of need both online and face‐to‐face. Trends in the building of learning commons and service centers have led to the integration of support services such as tutoring, writing assistance, computer access, collaborative study zones, and research help in order to provide a one‐stop shop for students. For the past two years, business librarians for …

Banging Our Heads To The Music And On The Walls: First Year Ir Adventures, Michele Gibney, Jaime M. Goldman, Keri Baker

Staff Presentations, Proceedings, Lectures, and Symposia

Creating an Institutional Repository from scratch creates a multitude of both opportunities and pitfalls in establishment of workflow, content creation, outreach and marketing policies, and stakeholder support. Nova Southeastern University’s Digital Commons based repository, NSUWorks, completed its first year in February 2015. During this session, the triumphs and tribulations of the first year will be discussed, along with future plans in order to give attendees a glimpse into one particular IR experience. Archival collection digitization, outreach/marketing, journal/book publishing, reporting tools, and collection development will also be covered.

Spotify Playlist.

Wsuls Digital Collections Api, Cole Hudson

Library Scholarly Publications

This presentation details the process by the WSU Digital Collections website retrieves and displays data onto the site...with an API. Code referenced was developed by Cole Hudson and Graham Hukill and can be found on Github.

Librarians Teaching Professors: Reaching Overlooked Adult Learners, Ashley R. Sanders

Library Staff Publications and Research

This presentation was given at the Summer Teaching Retreat for Librarians 2015 at Santa Ana College, California. This session briefly describes the characteristics of adult learners, their unique barriers to learning, potential solutions, and how I used interest in the burgeoning field of Digital Humanities as an avenue to launch a new instructional series that serves faculty members - a population often overlooked when we think about an academic library’s instructional mission.

Law Journal Collections: Accreditation Issues And Imperatives For Law Libraries., Oliver Theophine Onwudinjo Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study investigated the collections and development of law journals in the South East Universities in relation to the Council of Legal Education standards. The scope consisted of 119 titles of local and foreign law journals listed by Council of Legal Education as accreditation bench mark. It involves seven law faculty libraries in the universities South East Geopolitical zone of Nigeria that offer law programme. The standard check list which is the benchmark released by Council of Legal Education serves as the instrument for data collection. This check list was found appropriate and was adopted for this study. Two research …

To England And Beyond!, Elizabeth P. Steinhour

Blogging the Library

As I mentioned before, I am primarily working on transcribing the European travel diary of H. Lewis Baugher. He and his friend have so far arrived in England, and traveled to Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and the 1867 Exhibition in Paris.. He has described in detail all the wonderful sights he has seen including Oxford, beautiful rivers, and talked to several interesting people. My favorite parts of the diary, however, are when he describes the scenes of nature. One particular scene that grabbed my attention was describing Mt. Snowden in Wales and he has also described the scenes in Paris with …

Accessing Library Literature On Your Ipad, Alexandra Sarkozy

Scholars Cooperative Brown Bag Series

Demonstration of Zotero, EndNote, and Browzine on iPads