Blog post by Stewart Plein, Rare Book Librarian.
The serendipitous convergence of Pope Francis’ visit to the United States and this year’s Banned Books Week has me thinking of an earlier collision between a pope and a book. Read the rest of this entry »
The West Virginia University Libraries’ West Virginia and Regional History Center has received a $155,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue digitizing historic newspapers published in West Virginia from 1836 to 1922.
“This new grant will enable us to increase our digital newspaper database to over 300,000 pages and extend our reach to communities across the state,” WVRHC Curator John Cuthbert said.
The award is the Libraries’ third grant from the endowment as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program. This collaborative effort between the endowment and the Library of Congress enlists libraries and institutions from around the country to provide enhanced access to historical United States newspapers. As part of this project, the NEHawarded the West Virginia and Regional History Center a $266,000 grant in 2011 and a $135,000 grant in 2013.
Blog post by Beth Toren, Research and Media Services Librarian, Downtown Campus Library.
In observance of the season, we offer three poems about witches and witchery written and performed by Morgantown poet G. Sutton Breiding, whose books of poetry and archives are available in the West Virginia and Regional History Center. Beneath each video is an image of the poem produced in a font created from G. Sutton Breiding’s handwriting.
In these videos, he reads three witch poems accompanied by the music from the band SAY provided by Larry McClurg, a WVU alumnus and founding member of Mind Garage. Mind Garage was a WVU student psychedelic rock band who pioneered Christian rock music in the late 1960s. SAY included members of Mind Garage and another 1960s West Virginia band, Glass Menagerie. Mind Garage posters, CDs, and more are archived in the WVRHC.
Gather the children in a circle, turn off the lights, and enjoy the witchy weirdness. Read the rest of this entry »
Blog post by Lori Hostuttler, Digital Projects and Outreach Archivist, WVRHC.
Over the summer, staff at the WVRHC and WVU Libraries completed work on the Clarysville Civil War Hospital Digital Collection. The online collection features over 750 hospital bed cards from the U.S. General Hospital located at Clarysville, Maryland during the American Civil War. Read the rest of this entry »
WVU Today, September 21
Congressman Nick J. Rahall
Scholars and historians will have access to a treasure trove of information about some of the most significant events in West Virginia during the last half of the 20th century, thanks to former Congressman Nick J. Rahall’s decision to donate the papers from his 38-year career to West Virginia University.
The Rahall Congressional Collection consists of 2,000 boxes of testimony, speeches, news releases and other documents generated during the years Rahall, a Democrat, served in Congress and showcases the impact his service has made on the nation, state and the region.
To commemorate the occasion, a ribbon cutting/celebration will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at 410 Neville Street – future home of the WVU Beckley Book Store. A reception will follow.
“My grandfathers came to America from the hills and hollows of southern Lebanon to the hills and hollows of southern West Virginia,” Rahall said. “They dedicated their lives to the American dream through faith in God, hard work and a better life for their families’ future.”
WVU Today, September 18
Student veterans at West Virginia University will soon have more resources available right at their fingertips with a new grant from The Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The nearly $25,000 Sparks! Ignition Grant for Libraries will provide funding to help address the unique challenges student veterans face daily. WVU Libraries is just one of 20 projects selected to receive the funding and was chosen based on its potential for a broad impact through its community.
“Veterans have unique academic needs and libraries are in a position to support student veterans through a collection of developmental initiatives,” said Jerry McCarthy, Director of WVU Veterans Affairs. “This grant will foster the development of 21st century skills to veterans by customizing information literacy services and providing development initiatives for collaborative instruction to veterans that will lead to student success.”
WVU Libraries has been improving service to student veterans in recent years, as Dean of Libraries Jon E. Cawthorne, the spouse of a veteran, made it a priority on his list of initiatives. Read the rest of this entry »
By Cameron Gleason, The Daily Athenaeum
Students are now able to take advantage of free access to NYTimes.com and all stories, editorials and extras that come with it through a partnership between West Virginia University and The New York Times.
Laura Reino of The New York Times will present an informational workshop at 11:30 a.m. Friday in room 104 of the Downtown Library to teach students the ins and outs of the New York Times website, the smartphone app and how the paper can benefit them as students.
“The access is important because of the important journalism—and the good writing—that the Times is known for,” said Tom Stewart, a professor in the Reed College of Media and a former newspaper editor. “The fact that it’s free is important because most college students really have to watch their spending.”
Blog post by Stewart Plein, Rare Book Librarian.
Although Pauline Gertrude Wiggin Leonard was a librarian at West Virginia University for a short time, 1902 – 1907, she made an impact in the world of academic scholarship.
The photographer who captured the images comprising an upcoming exhibit in West Virginia University’s Downtown Campus Library hopes the viewers will feel a bond with the people in her pictures.
“These photographs are visual narratives, split-second windows opening up to someone else’s world. Individually, they introduce strangers. Collectively, I hope they allow viewers to recognize some piece of themselves within that human story,” said Lois Raimondo, the Shott Chair of Journalism at WVU’s Reed College of Media.
The opening for Fractured spaces: stories of resistance & resilience, sponsored by the WVU Libraries, will be held 4:30-6 p.m. Sept. 17, with remarks at 5 p.m.
Do you spend 20 minutes walking around the Library looking for an available study room? Can’t find enough sources to write a paper? Wish you could text a librarian when you get stuck on an assignment?
The West Virginia University Libraries can help. Library 101 is an hour-long workshop that covers a variety of library resources and services, from printing a poster for a project to reserving a study room, from finding the latest research on your topic to texting questions to a librarian.
Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.
To start us off right on the first day of the month, I bring you a selection of toys from the past, all found in the WVRHC’s collections.
Unidentified toy, ca. 1850-1860?, probably belonging to Aretas Brooks Fleming (1839-1923; 8th Governor of West Virginia)
What do you get when you mix mountaintop removal activism with sex education? The answer can be found in the Here Come the Ecosexuals! Tour, which visits the West Virginia University campus on September 1 and 2.
Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, activists, artists, educators and filmmakers, are touring with their film about mountaintop removal coal mining destruction in Appalachia titled Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story.
Over their two-day visit, they will hold four events to educate and have public dialogs that advance diversity initiatives, cultural awareness and responsibility, and provide outreach and awareness to students and the public about women’s issues, sexual orientation and health, and the environment.
Blog post by Lori Hostuttler, Digital Projects and Outreach Archivist, WVRHC.
Bishop George W. Peterkin established Episcopal Hall to serve as a dormitory for future ministers as well as other male WVU students who needed living quarters. The residence hall stood at the corner of Willey and Spruce Streets, the current site of Trinity Episcopal Church. When the building was completed in 1895, it could house about 16 students, but an addition was built soon after that increased this capacity to 40.
The West Virginia University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and WVU Libraries are teaming up again for the Mountaineer Touchdown Challenge, a fundraising campaign to benefit the Libraries.
The initiative, in its fifth year, enables participants to pledge a dollar amount per touchdown the Mountaineers score during the 2015 season and a subsequent bowl game. The proceeds will support a project within the Libraries.
“I am thrilled to continue the Mountaineer Touchdown Challenge and support WVU Libraries,” Director of Athletics Shane Lyons said. “It’s exciting to know that our success on the field translates into needed library resources to benefit all students.”
Dr. Bruce Herbert, Director of Digital services and Scholarly Communications at Texas A&M Libraries, will deliver a presentation titled “Advancing Scholarship in a 21st Century Library” Monday, August 24, from 10:30 a.m.-noon in the Downtown Campus Library Room 104. He’ll address open research practices, changes in academic publishing, data-driven research and implications for academic libraries, the rising interdisciplinary of research, and more. He’ll also share how TAMU Libraries have adapted to create a 21st century library space. Refreshments will be served and the talk is open to all interested parties.
Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.
The West Virginia and Regional History Center was recently loaned the glass plates of Bruce Washburn, a photographer who lived and worked in Harrison County, West Virginia, at the turn of the last century (ca. 1900). Discovered in the 1980s within a wall of Washburn’s former home, the plates were then preserved over the years by Robert Nichols, eventually finding their way to the History Center as a loan for copying. Particularly significant in the collection is a plate documenting the late 18th century frontier home of Colonel William Lowther as it appeared in 1908:
Home of Colonel William Lowther (1742-1814) of Harrison County
from a photograph in the Washburn glass plate collection Read the rest of this entry »
Blog post by Stewart Plein, Rare Book Librarian.
“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”
Carter G. Woodson spent a lifetime researching, collecting, recording, and writing about African American History. Woodson’s tireless scholarship as well as his insistence that African Americans had a place in history led him to publish more than twenty books and articles on the historic role of African Americans. Founder of the Black History Month we know today, Woodson’s initial effort was called Black History Week and it was designated by Woodson to be held in the second week of February. Read the rest of this entry »
The West Virginia & Regional History Center will be closed to the public from Friday, July 31, through Monday, Aug. 3, for renovations. The WVRHC will reopen Tuesday, Aug. 4, with new hours: Tuesdays 9:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.; Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.; and closed on Sundays.
Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.
I was searching for a fun old recipe to test for this week’s blog post, and I stumbled on a surprising amount of food history. To start this story, we’ll have to begin with scrapbooks. Read the rest of this entry »
