Monthly Archives: October 2009

by | October 8, 2009 · 4:22 pm

WKU Construction

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Cherry Hall Elevation

Construction on a college campus is an ongoing occurrence and that certainly seems to be true of WKU. Current renovation and construction projects include the Chapel, Van Meter Hall, Snell Hall and the College of Education. University Archives holds records of construction projects dating back to 1906. These are found in a variety of collections such as the president’s papers, photograph collection and the Building File created by the Planning, Design & Construction Office.

University Archives staff are processing the building file as it is being used by patrons. During processing, folder level descriptions are added to the finding aid. Updates are posted on TopScholar. There you will see the type of records in each folder: correspondence, construction meeting minutes and inspection reports. Correspondents are listed by name or company. Researchers can see the process of how a building has gone from the drawing board to final inspection and opening.

Student volunteers and workers have been researching building histories.  These are posted online as a part of Hilltopper Heritage.

Check out these and other records in University Archives via KenCat.

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by | · 4:27 am

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

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Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

September 26 – October 3, 2009

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. This year WKU Libraries hosted exhibits on the Cravens 4th Floor and at the ERC. The ERC display included quotations from students in Children’s and Young Adult Literature classes about how their lives had been impacted by reading some of these “challenged” books. The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections.

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by | October 7, 2009 · 6:35 pm

Charles H. Smith at the Darwin Conference in Brazil

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Science Librarian Charles H. Smith recently spent several days at a Darwin conference in Brazil. He was invited by the conveners of the international ‘Echoes of Darwin’ symposium, the Institutos Humanitas UNISINOS (IHU), to present an evening session on the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, another evolutionist and colleague of Darwin’s. The IHU is a division of UNISINOS, a large Jesuit-founded university situated near the southern city of Porto Alegre in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Smith’s topic for the day was ‘Alfred Russel Wallace and the Notion of Final Causes in Evolution,’ and featured discussions of his research on both history of science and systems theory subjects. An interview of Smith conducted online prior to his arrival appeared in a UNISINOS magazine just before the conference, and while there he was interviewed again for another publication.


Click here to see more photos of this event.

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by | · 5:48 pm

“Appalachian Power Shift” on “True Cost of Coal” in Java City

Beehive Design Collective, an ecology oriented group, gave a presentation at the Jave City on the patio of Helm LibraryThe Beehive Design Collective’s ecology oriented group called the “Appalachian Power Shift” gave a stirring presentation on the “True Cost of Coal” to a crowd on the Java City patio today. The Beehive Design Collective- a non-profit, volunteer driven, political arts organization based in eastern Maine who’s mission is to “cross pollinate the grassroots” through the creation of images as an effective medium for deconstructing and educating the public about complex geopolitical issues. The Bees also presented art that illustrated the need for clean-alternatives to coal and focused on the problems surrounding Mountain-top removal in Appalachia. This event was sponsored by the Art Department, the Institute for

Citizenship & Social Responsibility, the Political Engagement Project, the Philosophy & Religion Department, the Biology Department, WKU Libraries, and a number of individual donors.

More photos

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by | · 2:07 pm

Archives Month

Holy Cross archivist Sarah Campbell stated that “archives aren’t lending libraries.”  Special collections serve a different mission than lending libraries.  They hold unique, one of a kind items that need special care and handling in order to preserve them for as long as possible. 

Think about the different conditions that you subject a library book to while you have it checked out.  How many other items are in your back pack with it jostling around?  Is it raining outside as you cross campus without an umbrella?  Do you read at the dining table while eating?  Do you take notes with a sheet of paper laid over the pages?

These are things that would destroy most archival materials in a relatively short time.  Special collection books and documents don’t circulate and we have rules about how they can be handled in order to ensure that you can use them as well as the person who comes in after you.

Check out the Kentucky Library & Museum collections on KenCat.

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by | October 6, 2009 · 9:14 pm

Debate Team in WKU Archives

Debate Team at Harvard, 1959

Debate Team at Harvard, 1959

The debate team, now known as the WKU Forensics Team, has been around nearly as long as WKU.  And they’ve been winning awards all through the years.  The WKU Archives holds some documents regarding the team.  These include programs for oratorical contests dating back to 1910, group photos and photos of individuals in debates.  These records are part of record group UA68/6/2  English Department Student Organizations.  This picture includes Mary Grise and Lerond Curry, but the remaining team members have not been identified.  Please contact the University Archivies at archives@wku.edu if you recognize it.  Members of the team from any era are invited to share memories of great debates for inclusion on Shared Memories.

The University Archives is a great resource for research on student organizations.  Check out Hilltopper Heritage and KenCat for more information.

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by | October 5, 2009 · 5:10 pm

Archives Month – No Food & Drink in Archives

Black Carpet Beetle, Louis Sorkin

Black Carpet Beetle, Louis Sorkin

Shari Theroux contributed “Archives are not a good place to eat,” to the list of what an archives is not.

Archivists, like conservators generally follow the rule of “do no harm” to the collections in their care. One easy way to do this is to prohibit food and drink in rooms where records are stored, processed and used by patrons.

The obvious damage comes from spillage onto documents that at worst would make them completely unreadable and at least deface them irreversibly. Mold can set up in wet documents rather quickly and spread to other documents. It is difficult and expensive to erradicate once it takes hold.

Food is prohibited because it can attract rodents and insects. Once insects have found their way into books, they can be removed through fumigation or freezing. Insects can eat their way through a collection rather quickly leaving only fragments behind.

Removing human food and drink from the archives prevents them  from becoming the insects’ and rodents’ favorite snack bar.

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by | · 4:48 pm

Far Away Places: Namibia

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David Keeling, head of WKU’s Geography and Geology Dept. spoke to a large enthusiastic crowd on Namibia at this month’s Far Away Places series at Barnes & Noble this past Thursday, October 1.  Keeling most recently visited Namibia in November, 2007 as expedition lecturer for the American Geographical Society sponsored “Casablanca to the Cape” educational expedition.  His prior visits included trips to the Skeleton Coast, Windhoek, and the Fish river canyons.  David is WKU’s most well traveled faculty member.  In 2008 alone his travels covered 133,840 miles.

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Click here for more photos of this event.

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by | October 2, 2009 · 12:19 pm

WKU’s Red Towel

Oldham's Red Towel Sketch

Oldham's Red Towel Sketch

The red towel tradition began in the 1940’s.  According to Chip Royal, an AP feature writer “A towel came flying down out of the air at Madison Square Garden and landed on a spectator’s head  — and another basketball fan met Ed Diddle, the colorful Western Kentucky State coach.”  Royal’s article was printed in the Daily News on February 14, 1943.  The towels continued to appear and disappear as the athletics and physical education departments swiped towels back and forth.  Diddle decided to dye the athletic department towels red to differentiate from the physical education supply. 

Crume's Red Towel Sketch

Crume's Red Towel

Through the years the towel tradition has grown.  Now few fans appear at a game without a red  towel.  In 1970, athletics director John Oldham drew a sketch of an arm waving a towel on the back of an envelope which he gave to Dr. Chuck Crume to develop into a logo.  These original drawings are now housed in the University Archives along with personal papers of Ed Diddle, John Oldham, Chuck Crume and others involved with the athletic program.

Check out Hilltopper Heritage and KenCat for additional information on these and other University Archives collections.

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by | October 1, 2009 · 3:57 pm

October is Archives Month

Kentucky Archives Month Poster

Barbara Niss, archivist at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York responded:  “Archives are not where information comes all neatly wrapped in a package; they are a place for searching and thinking and piecing together bits and pieces of fact, near-fact and outright lies.  Which leads to:  Archives are NOT boring!”
While we archivists do work to make the collections we care for more accessible through arrangement, research, digitization and the creation of finding aids, we cannot do the work for our users.  The materials are here, cared for and ready to be read or looked at and they are certainly NOT boring!
WKU is fortunate to have an excellent Special Collections Department in WKU Libraries.  There are manuscript collections representing individuals, families, religions, corporate entities, towns and counties across the state.  There are photographs documenting life in Kentucky from the beginning of the medium.  There are rare books, maps, oral histories, film and video.  There are university records for WKU and its founding institutions.  There is a museum full of exhibits highlighting the artifacts, costumes and artwork collected through the years.
In honor of Archives Month, try to visit an archives near you.  (Hint:  We’re located in the Kentucky Building). Check out the Kentucky Archives Month website to learn about other archives and activities throughout the state.  Take a look at KenCat to see some of what is available here in the Department of Special Collections. 

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