Students are encouraged to donate their old textbooks to the WVU Libraries to help grow the Shining Minds Textbook Loan Collection.
This program, developed by a WVU graduate student as a social action project, is intended to build a collection of textbooks to help student acquire textbooks needed for their studies. Textbooks in this collection can be checked out from the Libraries for a semester.
Drop boxes can be found in the front of the Downtown and Evansdale libraries through the end of the semester.
The Shining Minds Textbook Loan Program is dedicated to ending barriers that are an impediment to students pursuing their education.
The Art in the Libraries Committee and Dean of Libraries Karen Diaz selected Payton Brown, a first-year MFA candidate in painting, and Liuqing Ruth Yang, a senior BFA candidate in painting graduating this December, to receive the 2021 Dean of the Libraries’ Student Art Award.
Brown received the award for her work, “The Star Theatre,”an oil canvas painting. Brown describes the subjects of her paintings as, “vintage, seemingly outdated scenes of urban life in America” with the goal of perpetuating a “sense of nostalgia and longing amongst viewers.”
The WVU Libraries Faculty Assembly is seeking nominations for the Outstanding Librarian Award and Distinguished Service Award. These awards are presented once every three years to recognize exceptional contributions toward the delivery, development or expansion of library services or special programs for the constituencies of WVU.
The Outstanding Librarian Award honors WVU Libraries faculty for their significant contributions. It is open to all current and retired Libraries faculty who have been employed by the Libraries for at least two years.
Health Sciences Center Pylons, November 2021-May 2022
Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman, courtesy WVRHC
Healthcare in the Mountain State, like many areas in rural Appalachia has obstacles to overcome such as employing a diverse population of providers and equitable access to quality healthcare. Historically, People of Color in health care navigated their own path through discrimination, segregation, and systemic racism to become practitioners. Today’s practitioners continue the legacy of providing communities quality care and generating People of Color’s increased trust in medical institutions thus increasing the quality of public health and well-being. This exhibit looks at the past, present and future of West Virginia People of Color in Healthcare with historical imagery and text, current perspectives and WVU initiatives and more. View the online exhibit here.
Jay Cole, senior adviser to WVU President E. Gordon Gee, explained the meaning behind to the event’s title. “Pearls of wisdom” is a saying and a metaphor expressing the belief that wisdom is valuable and worthy of admiration. By inverting this saying to “wisdoms of Pearl,” referring to Pearl S. Buck, we have the theme for the 2021 Pearl S. Buck International Symposium.
“This theme allows us to examine the ‘wisdoms’ Buck shared through her writings, speeches, advocacy, and global humanitarian efforts, both during her life and as part of her legacy since her death. This theme also allows us to examine the ‘wisdoms’ many others have gained from Buck’s work, from literary scholars and historians to artists and diplomats,” Cole said.
Caronia, a teaching associate professor in the Eberly College of Arts and SciencesDepartment of English, will discuss her “American Dime Novels: Racialization / Erasure” exhibit now open in the Downtown Library, Room 1020. It includes a series of dime novel covers, showing how stereotypes of these communities followed and / or promoted state and national policies regarding immigration policies including the Chinese Exclusion Act, Indian removal acts, and Jim Crow practices focused on voter suppression.
“These covers reflect not only past US history, but also current practices regarding twenty-first century immigration policies and discourse in both political and popular culture,” Caronia said.
West Virginia University Libraries and the Teaching and Learning Commons (TLC) have selected three faculty members to receive Open Educational Resources (OER) grants. This year’s recipients are Erin Jordan, teaching assistant professor and program coordinator for health and well-being, College of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences; Mandy Weirich, MSW online program coordinator, Gerontology program coordinator and clinical instructor, School of Social Work; and Adrienne Williams, assistant professor, Department of Biology, WVU Institute of Technology.
“We’re so excited to continue our Open Educational Resources grant program and help WVU students spend less money on their books and other materials,” Grants Committee Chair Martha Yancey said. “This cohort of grant recipients will provide good models for other faculty to learn from and consider during next year’s grant process. We hope to continue building momentum toward even bigger savings in the future.”
Long before zombies lumbered through 11 seasons of the popular television series “The Walking Dead,” there was an infamous night when corpses first crawled from their graves to haunt the living. The annual West Virginia University Isaac Asimov Sci-Fi Symposium will celebrate the classic horror film “Night of the Living Dead” on October 28 at the Mountainlair’s Gluck Theater.
Make your way to the student union while it is still light outside. The event, co-sponsored by the President’s Office and WVULibraries, begins at 4 p.m. with a panel discussion with “Night of the Living Dead” co-writer and actor John Russo, BS ‘61, who will talk about the impact of his iconic movie in taking the horror film genre to a new level.
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
October 18th, 2021
John Brown, as he looked a few years before his infamous raid.
On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown and a band of his followers seized control of the Harpers Ferry Armory, a U.S. Army arsenal, in order to distribute the arms there to enslaved people in the surrounding area, to overthrow the South and free the slaves. The raiders easily captured the arsenal, but the mass uprising of enslaved people that they hoped for never came to be.
On the morning of October 18, 1859, United States forces commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee stormed the armory engine-house at Harpers Ferry, where Brown and his fellows made their last stand. There, the soldiers captured Brown and the others who had barricaded themselves in the building. Of the 18-22 men Brown had started with, ten had been killed and Brown himself was wounded. Innocent people in Harpers Ferry were also killed in the initial raid.
Storming of the Engine House at Harper’s Ferry/Capture of John Brown, by David Hunter Strother, from A&M 2894, David Hunter Strother, Artist, Artwork and Papers
David Hunter Strother’s collection includes multiple images of John Brown, his trial, and his execution, as well as facsimiles of “Harper’s Weekly” articles for which Strother provided the illustrations. Known then as “Porte Crayon,” Strother was a famous illustrator for his time.
Copy of one of the Harpers Weekly articles written by David Hunter Strother, along with his illustrations, November 5, 1859
Brown was found guilty of murder, treason, and inciting a slave insurrection and executed December 2, 1859.
Strother also sketched the others involved in Brown’s raid, including “Emperor” Shields Green, an abolitionist freedom-fighter and fugitive from South Carolina.
Green was executed on December 16, 1859. The Untold Story of Shields Green: the Life and Death of a Harper’s Ferry Raider, by Louis A DeCaro, Jr. (2020) is now available to read in the History Center.
Initially, Brown’s insurrection was viewed as fanatical. It is widely reported that Frederick Douglass was invited to join the raid but he declined because he thought the plan was suicidal. During and after his trial, Brown became either a hero or a villain, depending on one’s political sympathies. The event spurred the beginning of the Civil War.
After a year-long process of iterative internal conversations and activities, distillation of hundreds of potential action items and a series of campus stakeholder feedback, WVU Libraries has launched its 2021-2024 Strategic Roadmap.
Based on the University’s Strategic Transformation, which launched in March 2019, and in alignment with the same goals, we have mapped our path toward participation in great achievements at WVU.
“We look forward to partnering across campus to advance our initiatives and meet the goals of our great institution,” Dean of Libraries Karen Diaz said.
WVU Libraries’ “Food Justice in Appalachia” exhibit will open at the Downtown Campus Library with a reception Saturday, Oct. 16, from 4-6 p.m. with a virtual offering of presentations at 5 p.m.
“Food Justice in Appalachia” is a multidisciplinary print and online exhibition featuring multiple themes in the food justice movement and offering suggestions for action to shape a more just, equitable, and sustainable food system.
“This collaboratively curated exhibition brings together artists, storytellers, farmers, activists and scholars to highlight intersecting values that shape our foodways through the lens of regional food activists working to address hunger and build alternative food futures,” Libraries Exhibit Coordinator Sally Brown said.
Charleston residents Ruby Abdulla, an immigrant from southern India, and Nariman Farah, an immigrant from Sudan, prepare traditional southern and northern Indian dishes.
The publicly accessible archive encompasses past, current, and future of West Virginia folklife, traditional arts and cultural heritage. Its new home on the Internet is thanks to a partnership between the West Virginia UniversityLibraries’West Virginia and Regional History Center and the Humanities Council.
“It’s a really wonderful resource that includes new and changing folk traditions. We are thrilled to be the permanent repository for the content,” WVRHC Assistant Director Lori Hostuttler said
West Virginia UniversityLibraries will host the Graduate Student Immersion Program, an intensive three-day workshop designed to assist graduate students through their research, from January 4-6, 2022. The program focuses on addressing participants’ research challenges and aims to build community both within and across disciplines.
The workshop will include hands-on activities and demonstrations on a variety of resources, methods, tools and topics. Subject librarians will be available for individual consultations about participants’ research interests and challenges.
Learn about the women who worked hard to bring positive change to Appalachia in a presentation titled “West Virginia History Makers: Black Women’s Activism in the Archives” on Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the Kanawha City Community Center in Charleston.
Dr. Tamara Bailey, an assistant professor of history and coordinator of Wesleyan Abroad at West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Dr. Sheena Harris, an associate professor of history and coordinator of the Africana Studies Program at West Virginia University, will discuss the lives of Black women activists and educators from West Virginia and their use of women’s archives.
Senator Rockefeller was appointed to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) in January 2001. His tenure coincided with some of the most critical years for the SSCI and the intelligence community. Only eight months after joining the SSCI, terrorists carried out attacks on U.S. soil on September 11. The 9/11 attacks thrust the Intelligence Community, and consequently the SSCI, into the limelight in unprecedented ways and changed the nature of the conduct of intelligence oversight.
View of lower Manhattan’s buildings behind a bridge spanning a calm river. The Twin Towers stand tall above other buildings, reaching up to a clear blue sky. Photo by David Monderer, provided by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
WVU Libraries will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy with “September 11, 2001: The Day that Changed the World,” an exhibit at Evansdale Library that presents the history of 9/11 and its ongoing implications through the personal stories of those who witnessed and survived the attacks.
Told across 14 posters, the exhibition includes archival photographs and images of artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s permanent collection. It explores the consequences of terrorism on individual lives and communities at the local, national, and international levels, and encourages critical thinking about the legacies of 9/11.
“During this 20th anniversary year, it is our privilege to share these lessons with a new generation, teach them about the ongoing repercussions of the 9/11 attacks and inspire them with the idea that, even in the darkest of times, we can come together, support one another and find the strength to renew and rebuild,” said 9/11 Memorial & Museum President and CEO Alice M. Greenwald.
West Virginia University Libraries’ “Appalachian Futures” exhibit has made its second stop on its tour of Appalachia. The exhibition will be on display at Appalachian State University’s Belk Library through December.
“Appalachian Futures” is the Art in the Libraries’ second annual collaborative, multidisciplinary project advancing important conversations in the region. The exhibit addresses the dominant contemporary narratives about Appalachia in a new way — how the people of Appalachia have worked and will work to rewrite their own narrative and transcend limiting definitions of what it means to be Appalachian.
“’Appalachian Futures’ takes us beyond the stereotypes to paint a rich and multi-layered picture of what it means to be Appalachian,” Libraries Exhibits Coordinator Sally Brown said.
“These covers reflect not only past US history, but also current practices regarding twenty-first century immigration policies and discourse in both political and popular culture,” Caronia said.
Farina researched the early conceptualizations of botanic life in the pre-modern medicine world, as well as its effect on philosophy, art, and literature. She will discuss the categorization and naming of plants in ancient and medieval cultures, with a special focus on herbals.
The exhibit should present an evolution of one’s work by visualizing research, influences, and findings. The goals of these awards are to provide a multidisciplinary platform for deeper learning, while fostering intellectual discourse, in order to demonstrate the breadth of WVU’s creative and innovative activities.
