WKU Libraries blog

WKU Libraries joined the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (ndltd.org) as an additional way to increase access to the University’s research at the graduate level. The NDLTD catalog provides an additional discovery service that supports the international outreach for disseminating scholary research at WKU. Among the member institutions are Yale University, Rice, major state universities (Texas, NC, Tennessee), and institutions in Sweden, Kenya, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, and many more.  The platform that allows our theses to be harvested for additional databases is TopSCHOLAR®.

Through these initiatives, and others, we support a more robust and open scholarly communications system that allows the world to view our intellectual assets.

If you need additional information, contact Connie Foster at 745-6151.

September 16, 2009

Clara Ramsey DeWilde was a pretty typical WKU student in 1945.  Born in Russellville, Kentucky in 1926, she was 19 when she came to Bowling Green.  She lived in West Hall and created a scrapbook of photographs of her time on the Hill.  These include friends on campus, Halloween in the dorm, a trip to Mammoth Cave and family.

This scrapbook was loaned to University Archives for digitization in 2007.  It is now available to researchers via KenCat by searching DeWilde [http://wku.pastperfect-online.com/35749cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks].  This is only one of many examples of Student/Alumni personal papers found in the University Archives.

If you have personal papers documenting life on the Hill please contact the University Archivist at klmref@wku.edu.

Varsity Lettermen 1959

WKU athletic records and photographs are a hot item in University Archives.  We answer many questions related to coaching staff, student athletes and teams throughout the year.  In order to facilitate research several series of records have been processed and detailed finding aids made available online.  These include two sets of photographs: 

• Athletic Media Relations Photograph Collection (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/75/)
• Athletics section of the WKU Archives Photograph Collection (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/29/ ). 

Digitized images are available through KenCat (http://wku.pastperfect-online.com/35749cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks). 

Several athletic department office records have been processed. 

• Athletic Director’s Records (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/78)
• Baseball Office 1947-1959 (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/66/)
• Athletic Media Relations

These last records are especially useful to anyone interested in the Hilltoppers as they consist of Media Guides for every major sport(http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/55/), Student Biographical File 1979-2004 (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/54/) and Clipping File 1962-present (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/53/).

We are currently processing the Basketball Office records which consist of correspondence regarding schedules, tournaments and athletes and hope to have a finding aid posted in the near future. 

The University Archives also houses an extensive film, video and audio collection, the bulk of which is made up of athletic film.  The master list is available online at: http://www.wku.edu/Library/dlsc/ua/film.htm 

If you have Hilltopper documents, photographs or memorabilia that don’t appear in the finding aids, please contact the University Archives at 270-745-4793 or via email at archives@wku.edu. 

Check out KenCat to get information on other University Archives collections:  http://wku.pastperfect-online.com/35749cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks

Thanks to a generous donation from WKU History Professor Dr. Carol Crowe-Carraco in memory of her parents, WKU Libraries has now added a new JSTOR Database: the19th Century British Pamphlets Collection.

This project, conceived by the Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and funded by the JISC Digitisation Programme, preserves and provides online access to more than 20,000 British pamphlets from the 19th century held in UK research libraries. Pamphlets were an important means of public debate in the 19th century, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. They are a valuable primary resource relevant to a wide range of disciplines. They have been underutilized within research and teaching because they are generally quite difficult to access - often bound together in large numbers or otherwise hard to find in the few research libraries that hold them. JSTOR has made these pamphlets searchable alongside current collections to enhance discovery and use across disciplines. Topics in the collection range from Medicine to Colonial Reports to British views of the American Civil War.

The database is integrated into JSTOR and can be searched by itself through the “Advanced Search” or by a general search.

Try it today! JSTOR

In case you could not attend the Southern Kentucky Book Fest or just didn’t have enough disposable cash to purchase all the books you liked, we now have in the circulating collections many titles of authors featured at the 2009 festival by authors who wrote about Kentucky or who are from Kentucky.

For the Ed Center: Penny and the Punctuation Bee, Kentucky’s Boone, and Down Sand Mountain.

For the main collection, check out WKU’s English Professor Elizabeth Oakes’ The Luminescence of All Things Emily; Kentucky Horse Country; A Backward Glance ( by emeritus English Department Head Joseph Millichap); New Growth; Kentucky Clay; Josie Underwood’s Civil War Diary (by Kentucky Special Collections Librarian Nancy Baird); The Narcotic Farm, Society’s Child; Louisville and the Civil War; 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History; Who Killed Art Deco?; Born Amish; Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountain Top Removal; Prehistoric Cavers of Mammoth Cave.

Connie Foster, Head

Library Technical Services

July 21, 2009

Summer campers who participated in the Fine Art Camp built upon their basic drawing, painting, and design skills. By the time this camp ended, they had experimented with using pen & ink, charcoal, watercolor, pastels, and acrylic paint.

Photos

WKU’s Project Muse database has been expanded to include “Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies” and “Western American Literature.”

“The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies” contains original peer-reviewed research and book reviews on the humanities in Asia, focusing at present on of China, Japan, Korea, and Inner Asia. WKU Libraries provides access via Project Muse beginning with volume 69 (2009). The library also provides access to the journal in JSTOR from 1936 to 2003.

“Western American Literature” is a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by the Western Literature Association and Utah State University. Devoted to groundbreaking critical essays on the literature, culture, landscape, and art of the American West, the journal publishes criticism dealing with Western culture and literature (both contemporary and traditional). WKU Libraries provides access to this journal through Project Muse beginning with volume 44 (2009).

To access these journals, use WKU Libraries’ E-Journal Finder (TDnet) available on the Libraries’ Website.

View work from the the senior theses of Interior Design majors. Using the landmark Honeykrust Bakery as their inspiration, 18 students submitted designs for adaptive use of this historic structure.

The exhibit runs through May 17, 2009.

On April 17, WKU’s graduating art students opened their Senior Show in the Kentucky Library and Museum’s third floor gallery. This exhibition features the work of 30 students presenting a representative body of work in the areas of graphic design, painting, ceramics, sculpture, art education, printmaking and weaving.

Under the direction of faculty member Kristina Arnold, the students arranged and installed the exhibition of their work. The show will run through May 17th.

Photo album

Authors and creators want to tell, to see through words, and to be seen and heard. A new exhibit “Pages from the Past to the Present” focuses on the tools used to create those symbols, and offers some rare examples of papyrus and cuneiform, and other very early illustration and printing examples. The exhibit features the work of noted Kentucky authors Robert Penn Warren, Jesse Stuart, and Janice Holt Giles and includes antique typewriters and writing instruments.

More information.