WVU Libraries

Written by Elizabeth James, the Digital Archivist at the West Virginia & Regional History Center.  

What kind of items come to mind when you think of archives or archival materials? What about digital archives? When it comes to digital archival materials, many people will think about scanned copies of physical materials like books or maybe even web pages saved to a platform like the Internet Archive. But there are many more formats in WVU’s archives: from 3.5 inch floppy disks to Zip disks to CDs, contemporary archives contain all of these material types and more. These media formats contain what are known as born-digital materials, or materials that were originally created digitally.  

In this post, I’ll take you through the journey of one seemingly familiar format through the typical procedures used in the WVRHC to remove content from the original media and make born-digital archival materials accessible.  

Let’s meet our protagonist for the day: the compact disc, or CD, a format first introduced to the commercial market for music in 1982. Though CDs are still common, when it comes to any media formats you need the following two things in order to access the content:  

1. Have equipment to read the item—for instance, if you have a 3.5 inch floppy disk, you need a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive.  

2. Have software to read the files saved on the item—if you have a Word Perfect file from 1992, that file is designed to display correctly using the 1992 Word Perfect program. 

For CDs, external USB drives and internal disc drives are still accessible. I have an internal and external disc drive I like to use with CDs and DVDs I’m processing. Since we have the equipment to read the item, let’s get started! This example uses a CD found in the International Association for Identification Collection at the West Virginia & Regional History Center. 

Though I couldn’t tell until I inserted the disc, this CD is a data CD which means that the CD contains non-audio content. To access the files, I need to open the CD on my computer using Windows Explorer rather than having any audio or music files play automatically. On the left you can see the view if you use this approach. However, CDs can have multiple file systems underneath what you see in this basic view. On the right is the view you see when using IsoBuster, a software that supports a more digital forensics style approach to examining files. In this view, you can see multiple file systems that each tell your computer’s operating system how to access the files on the CD. Multiple file systems may contain different files, so we want to make sure we check to see that we grab all of the unique files.  

Luckily, these two file systems contain the same files, so we’re safe to use a software like Teracopy that will copy these materials off the CD without modifying any of the files or file metadata, a term archives and libraries use to talk about information that describes the files. After all, we can’t party like it’s 1999 if we unintentionally edit the files and change the “Date Modified” to 2023. By using Teracopy, which retains the original file metadata and ensures that we don’t accidentally edit the file along the way, we can assure researchers that what they’re accessing in the archive is as close to what the original creator saved to the CD as possible. 

Now we can move on to step two: determining if we have the software to access the files. Upon looking at this content, I discovered the CD was a front for something unexpected: a floppy disk! The files on the CD were a copy of materials found on a floppy disk in the collection. All of the files on the CD are dated to 1999, which is conveniently the title of a catchy Prince song and the inspiration for this article title. We can see that the files are Microsoft Word-based, albeit Word 97, which means that opening the files in a modern version of Word should be fine.  

But what’s on the disc? Well, it’s an unpublished history of identification and the International Association of Identification by Carey Chapman. We have several versions of this manuscript across both printed materials and floppy disks, which means that any researcher can examine these versions to gain a sense of what Chapman’s writing process was like. You can see some of the floppy disks where this content came from below. If the number of disks seems like a lot, remember that floppy disks can only hold 1.44MB of information. To give you a sense of scale: a 2GB thumb drive holds 1,422 times as much content as a single floppy disk. 

Let’s up the difficulty level and go to :

Time taken: 20~ minutes 

If I wanted to conclusively say I had tried every avenue, I would use something like a Kryoflux that reads every available bit, even floppy disks with issues. While I might use this approach in the future, this floppy disk seemingly contains a translation of a document and the content of the disk isn’t vital to understanding the collection.  

Getting content off this CD was comparatively easy. For other materials, I’ve had to do everything from emulate MS-DOS to see the contents of a program, trawl the internet for 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, to doing research on what type of computers and operating systems the United States Senate was using in the 1990s. Suffice to say, digital archives work takes many forms. Though the digital materials in this collection are still being processed, you can reach out to Elizabeth James, Digital Archivist, at elizabeth.james1@mail.wvu.edu if you have any questions about accessing this item or anything I’ve written about here. 

The West Virginia University Humanities Center and the West Virginia and Regional History Center will present an evening with author and WVU alumna Valerie Nieman March 7 from 7:30-9 p.m. in the Downtown Library’s Milano Room.

Nieman will return to campus to read from her latest novel, “In the Lonely Backwater,” recipient of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award, North Carolina’s top prize for fiction, and other of her works of prose and poetry.

“Valerie Nieman is a dynamic figure in the vibrant literary history and landscape of West Virginia,” Humanities Center Director Renee Nicholson said. “It’s really an honor to be part of the celebration of her archive.”

Written by Catherine Rakowski

Louise McNeill was the Poet Laureate for West Virginia, 1979-1993 and was once told by renowned poet and writer Jesse Stuart, regarding her writing talent, “… you have genius in you.” Most, if not all, who have enjoyed her prose agree. 

McNeill was born and raised in Buckeye, Pocahontas County, West Virginia on a farm situated above Swago Crick. “This patch of earth” had been in the McNeill family since 1769 and was all Louise knew until she went out into the world. However, her passion for family and the history of her people’s mountain land, always flows through her lyrical works linking the “long tides of the past” with the love of home, known as “a place called solid.” 

Louise believed her poetic gift came from her grandfather, “Capt. Jim.”  She grew up hearing the stories of Capt. Jim, describing him as a verse-writing, hard-set, rebel soldier. James McNeill was a Confederate officer during the Civil War and was captured at the Battle of Droop Mt. in Pocahontas County, November 1863. He spent the rest of the war as a POW at Fort Delaware.  

While in prison, Capt. Jim promised himself if he got out alive he would go home to Swago Crick, clear the fields, and build a new house under Bridger’s gap. He also wrote in a little brown notebook several love poems, death poems and a lengthy pose called “Virginia Land.” Released at war’s end, Capt. Jim walked back to Swago and set to. 

Long after Capt. Jim died, Louise’s father gave the notebook to her which she never knew  existed. Later Louise would publish the poems adding biographical information about the captain, drawing from the stories she heard as a child. She never personally knew her grandfather, he died two months after her birth. But then there was the passing. As Louise tells it, “When he was going out the door of life, I was coming in, as we passed each other he gave me his pencil stub.” 

From A&M 3201- Louise McNeill Papers, West Virginia & Regional History Center, WVU Libraries. 

The WVU Libraries’ Arts in the Libraries committee will host a program with Colleen Moretz, curator of the “Sustainable Fashion Design Exploration: Transformation to Zero-Waste” exhibit,  and her students at 4 p.m. March 1 in Room 1020 of the Downtown Library.

The exhibit includes Moretz’s work alongside zero-waste designs by students in her fashion design management course. Moretz, associate professor of Fashion, Dress & Merchandising in the Davis College, won the 2022 Art in the Libraries Faculty Exhibit Award.

WVU Libraries’ third annual “Amplifying Appalachia” Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon will take place throughout the entire month of March.

Instead of one organized gathering for volunteers to revise content on Wikipedia posts, participants are encouraged to set their own schedules to edit pages over the 31-day span. To cap off the month-long initiative, the Downtown Library will host an in-person editing event on Thursday, March 30, from 1-5 p.m.

The West Virginia University Libraries’ Art in the Libraries committee is seeking submissions for the 2023 Graduate Student Exhibit Award.

As part of its mission, the Art in the Libraries Committee wants to highlight the art and scholarship of WVU graduate students. The Committee invites current graduate students to submit ideas for consideration for an exhibit to visually showcase their scholarship in new and experimental ways.

These can present a visual evolution of their work, visualize their research and influences, or answer a research question. Proposals should be based on their academic or creative research and lend themselves to visual interpretation with Library consultation.

“The goals of these awards are to provide a multidisciplinary platform for deeper learning, foster intellectual discourse and discussion and demonstrate the breadth of WVU’s creative and innovative activity,” Libraries Exhibit Coordinator Sally Brown said.

As part of West Virginia University Libraries’ Art in the Libraries series of exhibits of personal collections, Frankie Tack, Clinical Associate Professor in Counseling and Well-Being, shares a selection of the most common tool in the world, the hammer, in a display at Evansdale Library.

Tack’s collection of over 100 hammers ranges from a pre-colonial Native American hammer stone to hammers used by jewelers, cobblers, coopers, clockmakers, blacksmiths, masons, shipwrights, farriers, and even cigar smokers and, of course, an array of standard claw hammers from the 19^th century to present.

The collection began when Tack came into possession of her father-in-law’s tools after his death. He was a farmer and a loom fixer in textiles when we still had those plants in the U.S. The collection, she soon found, also included his father’s tools.

The Art in the Libraries Committee and Dean of Libraries Karen Diaz selected Lilly Adkins, a junior double majoring in painting and sculpture, and Kieah Hamric, a sophomore majoring in graphic design, to receive the 2022 Dean of Libraries’ Student Arts Award.

Adkins won for her work titled “Detroit Fox Theater 1934 to 2022.” This mixed media painting compares the same area, nearly 100 years apart, emerging from times of turmoil.

A Sensory Safe Space opened this semester on the Downtown Library’s first floor. The space is comprised of low-lighting, soft seating, plants, and wall-hangings meant to soften the space. Additionally, users can check out noise-cancelling headphones and personal white noise machines. The space is not reservable and is open to students, faculty and staff.

The project is the result of planning and work by the Downtown Library Access Services Team for the Libraries’ Development Day. A huge thank you goes to team members Hilary Fredette, Andrea McDaniel, Hattie Murphy, Savannah Owens, Sam Rahall, and James Shaver.

In conjunction with its “Indigenous Appalachia” exhibit, WVU Libraries welcomes everyone to attend a virtual panel with five artists featured in the exhibit Friday, Jan. 27, at noon.

“Indigenous Appalachia,” currently on display in the Downtown Library, is designed to increase awareness of the contributions of Indigenous Appalachians to the region’s shared history and present while also recognizing continuing injustices faced by Indigenous people.

The panel will include Nadema Agard (Cherokee/Powhatan), painting; Connor Alexander (Cherokee) game design; Erin Lee Antonak (Oneida), sculpture/drawing; April Branham (Monacan), painting/photography; and Ethan Brown (Pamunkey) gourd design/painting. The event will be moderated by Sally Brown, WVU Libraries exhibits coordinator and the exhibit’s lead curator.

To register, visit wvu.libcal.com/event/9680079.

The WVU Faculty Justice Network has honored Evansdale Library Director Martha Yancey for more than 25 years of outstanding leadership and service to faculty and students.

Yancey has worked for WVU Libraries since 1996. She is also the Access, User Services, and Resource Sharing Librarian, and the subject liaison for African American Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature, Counseling, and Education. She is the Chair of the Open Educational Resources Committee and was instrumental in the creation of the WVU Libraries Diversity Residency Program. She is a former President of the Western Pennsylvania & West Virginia Chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries and the West Virginia Library Association. In 2014, her research was published in the Journal of Information Literacy.

Though Yancey initially planned to become a public librarian, she worked as a school media specialist and teacher before her career as an academic librarian at WVU. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, gardening, and collecting dishware. Her collection has previously been on display at Evansdale Library.

The West Virginia Humanities Council has awarded a nearly $20,000 grant to West Virginia University Libraries to create a digital collection of West Virginia folk music recorded by Louis Watson Chappell between 1937-1947. The project will last from May 2023 to May 2024.

The Chappell Collection at the West Virginia and Regional History Center is the most comprehensive state-wide collection of folk music field recordings in the United States. Between 1937 and 1947, WVU professor Louis Chappell visited every county in the state and made more than two thousand audio recordings of songs and instrumental tunes at a pivotal point near the beginning of the history of the field recording of folk music.

Get into the holiday spirit by exploring WVU Libraries’ two exhibits focused on “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

Tim Burton’s cult classic film, originally premiered in 1993, has grown in popularity with its whimsical style and tribute to Halloween and Christmas. The movie also has a special connection to all Mountaineers through WVU alumnus Chris Sarandon, known for his role as the speaking voice of Jack Skellington.

WVU Libraries graduate assistant Makenzie Hudson has curated two exhibits dedicated to Sarandon and the many film artifacts he donated to the West Virginia and Regional History Center.

“Sustainable Fashion Design Exploration: Transformation to Zero-Waste,” an exhibit curated by Colleen Moretz, associate professor of Fashion, Dress & Merchandising in the Davis College, and the 2022 winner of the Art in the Libraries Faculty Exhibit Award, is on display in the Downtown Library, Room 1020.

The exhibit includes Moretz’s work alongside zero-waste designs by students in her Fashion Design Management 350 course.

“Sustainability has been at the center of my scholarship across the apparel and textile disciplines,” Moretz said. “Focusing my creative design scholarship on sustainability generates awareness of sustainable issues within the apparel industry to hopefully encourage change in fashion practices. This concentration on sustainability has been an evolution of investigating sustainable design processes through the exploration of transformation, aesthetics, zero waste, and up-cycling.”

The Arts in the Libraries Committee will host a program with Moretz and her students on March 1, 2023, at 4 p.m. in Room 1020. The exhibit will remain on display through May 2023.

WVU Libraries is encouraging students to donate their old textbooks to WVU Libraries to help grow the Shining Minds Textbook Loan Program. Started in 2021 with the goal of providing students a no-cost textbook option, the program is supported by donations from students who have finished with their textbooks and want to help other students.

These donated textbooks are listed in the Libraries’ catalog and shelved together on the 2nd floor of the Downtown Library. Books added to the Libraries’ Shining Minds Collection are available for semester loan.

Donations to the Shining Minds Textbooks Loan Program are accepted throughout the year at any Service Desk. Donated textbooks should not be more than 10 years old. Instructor copies are not eligible. Contact Hilary Fredette, hilary.fredette@mail.wvu.edu, to donate.

The WVU Libraries’ Art in the Libraries committee wants to know your library hacks. They have issued a call for submission for an exhibit titled “Hacking the Library,” which will display at the Downtown Library throughout the 2023-2024 academic year.

“The hacker ethos in the positive sense is about the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct information systems. We invite you to highlight the intersecting values that shape our libraries through your own lens reflecting on how you library,” WVU Libraries Exhibits Coordinator Sally Brown said.

Evansdale Library’s new Digital Photography Studio is now open in Room G19. The studio is available for students, faculty and staff to take professional studio-quality photos. Individuals or groups can shoot group, portrait, portfolio documenting photography, product photography, and video.

The photography studio can be reserved through the Libraries’ study room reservation system for sessions of up to four hours. Equipment is available to checkout at the public services desk located on the main floor of the library or you can bring personal equipment to use. Learn more by watching this video.

Written by Luke Masa, WVU History Doctoral student & National Digital Newspaper Grant Assistant

In July 1900, just after the Randolph Enterprise newspaper moved from Beverly to Elkins, its newly minted editor C.P. Darlington got into an argument with a man named Woodward Hutton. Hutton was the son of a Colonel, and nearby Huttonsville was named for his ancestor John. And despite being four years out from William Jennings Bryan’s loss to William McKinley, Darlington and Hutton were said to have been vigorously debating the question of “free silver” – that is, should U.S. currency be backed solely by gold, or should silver be exchangeable as well? Darlington, a Democrat like Bryan, was for free silver, Hutton, a Republican, against. While it is unclear precisely what each said to the other, the argument ended when Darlington shot Hutton, who later died from the wound.

Violent incidents such as this one were far from unheard of among the men who edited and managed West Virginia’s newspapers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In writing title essays for the National Digital Newspaper Program’s website Chronicling America, I have come across numerous examples of scuffles, scrapes, jabs, and barbs which transcended the page and moved into the realm of physical altercation.   For instance, Martinsburg’s F. Vernon Aler, an acerbic corporate lawyer and amateur historian, tried his hand at the printing business twice, once in the late 1880s and again in the early 1890s. His first attempt, the Martinsburg Gazette, folded shortly after he was arrested following a fist fight with another young man on the city’s streets. And he left his other paper, the World, after exchanging blows with the President of the local National Bank.

Some twenty-odd years later, with the martial fervor of World War I in full swing, the associate editor of the Randolph Review, Leslie Harding, was shot at through the window of his home. Though unscathed, he immediately blamed “a socialist or some other German sympathizer”, as apparently, he thought his patriotic invective sufficiently notable to warrant such an attempt.

Earlier that decade, during the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike of 1912-1913, the Pocahontas Times called for anyone caught “tear[ing] down the flag” to be “[shot]…on the spot.” As the above anecdotes attest, rhetoric of this sort was not always merely rhetorical. This was a period of great upheaval throughout the state, and not just for industrial workers. Unfortunately for a certain subsection of the professional class, the pen was not always mightier than the sword. Or gun, for that matter.

The West Virginia University Humanities Center will host a program Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. to launch the “Indigenous Appalachia” exhibit currently on display in the WVU Libraries’ Downtown Library.

“Indigenous Appalachia” is an exhibit designed to increase awareness of the contributions of Indigenous Appalachians to the region’s shared history and present while also recognizing continuing injustices faced by Indigenous people.

“The Humanities Center is excited and humbled to sponsor this event,” Humanities Center Director Renée Nicholson said. “It brings together the Art in the Libraries program, the Native American Studies program, and a tremendous group of artist and scholars, two of which will visit our campus for the opening.”

Remarks by Dean of Libraries Karen Diaz at the Neal Museum of the Health Sciences dedication on October 28.

President Biden recently issued an Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services. In it he articulates this inspiring statement on these institutions: “The arts, the humanities, and museum and library services are essential to the well-being, health, vitality, and democracy of our Nation. They inspire us; provide livelihoods; sustain, anchor, and bring cohesion within diverse communities across our Nation; stimulate creativity and innovation; help us understand and communicate our values as a people; compel us to wrestle with our history and enable us to imagine our future; invigorate and strengthen our democracy; and point the way toward progress.”

I know that here at WVU, our library archivists are the collectors and stewards of the materials that mark our past. Without these touchstones of reality – of life as it truly was – we forget what was, and in fact are left to invent in our minds what never was. But it is through the interaction with these materials that we learn from and are inspired by them.