A cartoon commentary from the 1930s on the coal industry and coal commission, from the Rush Dew Holt Collection at the West Virginia and Regional Center.
Digital Virginias, consisting of institutions from both
Virginia and West Virginia, offers more than 58,000 items from historical and
cultural collections for research and exploration. Read more about the service
hub, including how to get involved, at digitalvirginias.org.
“We are thrilled to be part of DPLA’s tremendous
initiative,” WVU Libraries Dean Karen Diaz said. “Digital Virginias will be a valuable
resource to people living in Virginia and West Virginia and anyone who wants to
delve into the history of both states.”
The cost of textbooks is rising at a rate of
four times inflation.
Sixty percent of students have delayed
purchasing textbooks until they’ve received their financial aid.
Seventy percent don’t purchase a required
textbook during their academic career because of cost.
Are you an instructor who is concerned about the impact of
high textbook costs for your students’ academic success?
You can help by attending the Open Textbook Workshop and
Textbook Review where you can discover open textbooks in your field. After the
workshop, you will be asked to write a short review of an open textbook. Your
review will benefit other faculty considering open textbooks. You’ll receive a
$200 stipend for your participation and a written review. The workshop will be
held March 7 at 10 a.m. in Downtown Campus Library, Room 104. Librarians Hilary
Fredette and Martha Yancey will lead the workshop.
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
January 7th, 2019
Blog post by Stewart Plein, Assistant Curator for WV Books & Printed Resources & Rare Book Librarian
“Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.”
The first few
lines of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening, by poet Robert Frost, pictured below. One of the great masterworks now entered into
the public domain.
West Virginia University
Libraries has reinstated its subscription to Scopus, a popular scholarly search tool. Currently the
largest curated abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, it
includes the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts
and humanities. It can be accessed on the Libraries website.
Additionally, Interlibrary Loan continues to be a tremendous service for
acquiring content necessary for research at WVU. In many cases, journal
articles can be supplied within hours of the request. There is never a cost to
the researcher or the department for obtaining materials through ILL. Liaison librarians are happy to meet with individuals or
departments to discuss library resources and research needs.
Margaret by Jacqueline Circkirillo Dolma by Cancan Huang
In November, the Art in the Libraries Committee awarded College of Creative Arts students Jacqueline Circkirillo and Cancan Huang with the Dean of the Libraries’ arts awards. Huang’s work, Dolma, an oil painting, will be on display in the Downtown Campus Library lobby for the spring semester. Circkirillo’s work, Margaret, an oil painting, will go on display at Evansdale Library for the spring semester.
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
December 17th, 2018
Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.
Family papers are a relatively common sight in archives like the WVRHC. We collect them because they tell the stories of the people of our state and region, and because they can be great genealogical resources. The WVRHC has hundreds of collections of family papers, ranging from collections with just a few items to collections like the Siler Family Papers, which contain over 150 boxes of material. I’m currently processing the Orum, Eskey, and McCaffery Family Papers, detailing intersecting family lines from Sherrard, WV, and I wanted to share a few items from the collection that I found particularly special.
Do you know about the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Star City?
Did you know the large Coca-Cola mural on a High Street building is a
restoration originally painted in 1953?
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
December 10th, 2018
Blog post by Anna Schein, Associate Curator for Printed Ephemera, WVRHC.
McLoughlin Brothers, Inc. was a New York publishing firm which pioneered the use of color printing technologies in children’s books. Actively publishing between 1858 and 1920, the company was particularly well known for its early use of hand-stenciled colored illustrations and its later printing techniques using chromolithographs and photo engravings.
The company flourished under the leadership of John McLoughlin, Jr., who learned wood engraving and printing while working for Elton & Co., a publishing company owned by his father, John McLoughlin, Sr., and engraver/printer, Robert H. Elton. After McLoughlin, Sr. and Elton retired, John, Jr. had control of the business. He started to publish picture books under his own name and made his younger brother, Edmund McLoughlin, a partner in 1855.
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
December 5th, 2018
Blog post by Stewart Plein, Assistant Curator for WV Books & Printed Resources & Rare Book Librarian
Recently the West Virginia and Regional History Center received the gift of hundreds of cookbooks that are part of the Lucinda Ebersole Collection. Ms. Ebersole was bookstore co-owner, cookbook enthusiast, editor, and book collector. Her collection of cookbooks spans the late nineteenth century up to 2016. The much beloved cookbook pictured here arrived as part of the larger Ebersole collection.
Beneath the hand sewn plaid cover is the Rumford Complete Cook Book printed in 1918. Nearly every page is covered with handwritten recipes, cooking spills and splashes marking favorite recipes, clippings pasted on pages that completely cover the text and recipes attached by paperclips.
For two years now, West Virginia UniversityLibraries has been working toward bringing our materials spending in line with the new budget realities that we have faced since 2016. One of the biggest challenges in our reduction in funds is managing “bundled” journals subscriptions that historically provided us with more journal title subscriptions at less cost. Unfortunately, over time the inflationary costs of these bundle subscriptions have outpaced the size of our budget.
In 2016, when we were first presented with the need to reduce our spending, bundled journal packages accounted for 30 percent of our materials budget but only provided 6.2 percent of our titles. We recognized at the time that we would have to address this significant portion of our budget to achieve the necessary savings. We did so immediately by unbundling our Wiley subscription package which provided us with about $400,000 in savings at that time. Now we are moving to unbundle the remaining packages.
Remedies, Consequences and Negotiations
Our librarians have spent the last year and a half doing a tremendous amount of analysis on our bundled packages. We have looked at where there is title overlap between different packages we purchase. We have purchased a detailed report that helps us understand which journals our campus researchers are downloading from, publishing in, and citing in their published research. Based on that we have been able to rank in importance the journals for our community in a data driven manner. Our internal collections advisory committee has reviewed and adjusted this work based on extra knowledge gleaned from relationships they have developed with colleges across campus.
The WVU Libraries’ Arts in the Libraries Committee is seeking content from scholars, artists, community groups and practitioners from a range of fields to integrate into a curated exhibition that will be designed and installed in WVU’s Downtown Campus Library in the spring and summer of 2019, and potentially travel throughout the state.
“This collaborative, multidisciplinary exhibit and programming will address 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,” said Sally Deskins, exhibits and programs coordinator for WVU Libraries.
“Avatars and their Players: From Object to Other,” an exhibit by 2018 award winner Dr. Jaime Banks.
The West Virginia UniversityLibraries’ Art in the Libraries committee seeks submissions for the Libraries’ Annual Faculty/Staff Exhibits Award. The committee invites current WVU faculty and staff to submit ideas for consideration for an exhibit to visually showcase their scholarship in new and experimental ways, providing a visual evolution of their work, visualizing their research and influences, or answering a research question.
The winner will receive a $1,000 professional development funds award and an exhibition in Downtown Campus Library, Room 1020. The winner will give a public lecture, program, or demonstration. Non-art faculty or staff may submit a proposal based on their academic research that could become visualized with Library consultation and limited resources. Applicants must submit an outline of their proposal on the Propose an Exhibit online form, with “Annual Faculty/Staff Exhibits Award Submission” in the Proposed Exhibit Location section, by midnight Feb. 28, 2019. More information is available at exhibits.lib.wvu.edu.
The 2018 winner was Dr. Jaime Banks, who worked with Dr. Nick Bowman to create the exhibit “Avatars and their Players: From Object to Other,” which visualizes their scholarly research on the experiences and effects of video gamers’ connections with their avatars. It will remain on display in the Downtown Campus Library, Room 1020, through Dec. 30.
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
November 19th, 2018
Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.
Sometimes, when processing a new collection of archival materials, you get an interesting snapshot of someone’s life. Occasionally, if you want to know how that person’s story continues, you will have to do some research outside the collection. While processing a new collection, I came across clippings and a few photos of Esther Benford. According to one of the clippings, from a city newspaper, she was a WVU student on track to receive in 1937 the “first degree in civil engineering ever granted to a woman” (probably “at WVU” and not the first in the world, but the article didn’t specify).
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.
“Karen has been successful in various roles in our libraries because she is a great leader and consensus-builder who has truly earned the trust and support of her talented faculty and staff,” McConnell said. “I know that she will continue to lead in this thoughtful, positive way as the dean, ensuring that the WVU libraries continue to be among our most valuable campus resources.”
Diaz first joined the WVU Libraries as associate dean in January of 2016. She worked extensively with academic department heads and initiated efforts to meet the challenges of a contemporary research library through Open Access initiatives, “engaged librarian” models and cross-functional teams.
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
November 9th, 2018
Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.
On the 11th of this month of November, at 11:00 AM Paris time, will occur the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. America suffered casualties of over 115,000 in this conflict, making it the third costliest war in American history, following World War II (over 400,000) and the Civil War (750,000). This sacrifice inspired President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 to ask Americans to recognize “those who had died in the country’s service.” In time, his moral injunction led to Congressional actions that ultimately established in 1957 Veterans Day as we know it today.
In times of relative peace, we of course recognize the service of those in the armed forces. In times of war we aspire to more. These aspirations often take the form of serving in hospitals, working in the arms industry, etc. In addition to these activities of material support, however, are ones of moral support to the troops. In the Second World War the United Service Organizations (USO), a nonprofit organization established by request of President Roosevelt in 1941, provided such support. Although many entertainers answered the call, the comedian Bob Hope has become most identified with the USO, so much so that the organization is currently known as the “Bob Hope USO.” He not only entertained during World War II, but also during the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. Lesser known and even forgotten, however, is Elsie Janis, a vaudeville star who also entertained troops, albeit during World War I. Her rapport and connection to audiences of soldiers was so great that she was immortalized as “the sweetheart of the AEF” (American Expeditionary Force). The History Center has recently acquired memorabilia regarding Elsie Janis, including photographs, clippings, and other material documenting both her vaudeville years and World War I service. Read the rest of this entry »
Do gamers have a special connection with their avatars? Drs. Jaime Banks and Nick Bowman will explore that and other questions in their presentation Nov. 13, at 2 p.m. in the Downtown Campus Library, Room 1020.
The “Avatars and their Players: From Object to Other” exhibit, on display at the DCL through Dec. 30, visualizes Banks and Bowman’s scholarly research on the experiences and effects of video gamers’ connections with their avatars. The exhibit features a curated collection of submitted images and narratives avatar stories that recounts users’ favorite memories with favorite videogame avatars.
“These stories illustrate the impact avatars have had on their lives—dispelling assumptions and myths about gamers and highlighting the ways that avatars can be meaningful in contemporary life,” Banks said.
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
November 7th, 2018
Blog post by Stewart Plein, Assistant Curator for WV Books & Printed Resources & Rare Book Librarian
Wednesday, October 31, the Rare Book Room, part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center at the WVU Libraries, hosted an event to highlight one of our extraordinary collections: the works of Isaac Asimov. This event was designed to recognize our extensive Asimov collection and to celebrate our donors.
The event included an exhibit, shown below, that was on display in the Downtown Campus Library Atrium, and a talk by Nebula award winning author Andy Duncan, Professor of Writing at Frostburg State University.
“The Research Repository @ WVU provides the University community with a library-supported platform for sharing their work with the worldwide scholarly community,” said Ian Harmon, scholarly communications librarian.
Harmon said the Research Repository, available at researchrepository.wvu.edu, can increase a work’s impact, provide free access to federally funded research and share findings with researchers and others within West Virginia and around the world who may not be able to afford high journal subscription fees. The Repository is a collaboration between the Libraries and the WVU Office of Research.
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
October 23rd, 2018
Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.
Beans mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Growing up outside Appalachia, I remember seven-bean soups being prepared, glass jars full of artfully layered dry ingredients, and sold by church ladies for charity purposes, frequently around the holidays. When my family bought a jar, it always felt like a treat. The other bean-treat of my youth was our neighbor’s chili. I’m fairly certain that it contained multiple kinds of beans, plus a few green veggie bits, and such a good flavor. (I invite you to imagine my dismay when we moved to Texas and I was told that “real” chili contained no beans at all.)
For people across the country and across the globe, beans are a staple food. You can have baked beans, beans on toast, falafel, hummus, refried beans, red bean paste, red beans and rice, succotash, lentil soup, shiro, etc. As I grew up, I learned about and tried a variety of bean-related dishes. Then I moved to West Virginia and I heard about soup beans. Not bean soup—soup beans. Like many modern-day armchair researchers, I started my research into soup beans on the internet, but I was not satisfied. My next step was to take a look at what library resources we had on soup beans.
Two Women Demonstrate How to Can Beans at State 4-H Camp in Jackson’s Mill, Lewis County, W. Va.
