Category Archives: Events

Fellowship recipient Matthew E. Stanley

Each year, the Kentucky Library & Museum awards up to three $500 fellowships to a faculty member or graduate student to encourage scholarly use of our nationally significant collections.  One of this year’s recipients is Matthew E. Stanley, a doctoral student in American history at the University of Cincinnati.

A native of White County, Illinois, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Louisville respectively, Matt became interested in our collections as part of his research into regional and sectional identity in southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois during the Civil War era.  How did people in the free states of what one historian has termed the “Lower North,” who had political, familial and cultural ties with the South and West, understand their regional and national identities during the war and reframe them afterward?  How did people use the Ohio River as a “physical and metaphorical border” to define the meaning of the war?  These are some of the questions Matt is exploring through the use of manuscript collections, rare books and newspapers in the Kentucky Library.

Invitations to apply for fellowships are distributed at the first of the year; review of applications begins early in April and recipients are notified in mid-April.  For further information, contact Jonathan Jeffrey (jonathan.jeffrey@wku.edu) at the Kentucky Library & Museum.  To learn more about our Civil War collections, search TopScholar and KenCat.

University of Kentucky Anthropologist Erin Koch talked about her research in the Republic of Georgia and its dislocated people at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bowling Green, Kentucky on the evening of September 15, 2011.

Photo Album | Podcast | Audio

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Maggie Green, a seasonal cooking expert who specializes in culinary nutrition from Lexington, Kentucky, spoke at our WKU Libraries Kentucky Live series in Barnes and Noble about her new book The Kentucky Fresh Cookbook on the evening of September 8, 2011.

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Keiko Fujii, Project Manager of Cultural & International Exchanges, for The City of Kawanishi, Japan accompanied a group of Japanese high school students to Bowling Green for a week long stay with host families from South Warren and Bowling Green High Schools.

The people in the photo are: Dean Sam Evans, Keiko Fujii, and Brian Coutts.

As the lunchtime guest of Dean of Libraries, Connie Foster and DLPS Head, Brian Coutts this past Friday, Keiko Fujii toured the new Educational Resources Center in Gary Ransdell Hall with ERC Coordinator, Roxanne Spencer and Ellen Micheletti.  She met with College of Education Dean, Sam Evans.  She also toured the new Confucius Institute and Visual and Performing Arts Library.  The City of Kawanishi and WKU Libraries exchange library materials annually to promote a greater understanding of their respective countries.  This year’s gift from Japan included a 26 volume set on Japanese history, books on Buddhism, Japanese novels, and even language guides like “Japanese for Busy People.”

Helm Façade with New Windows

Rusty Old Windows of Helm Library

All113 windows in the Helm Library were replaced for the first time since the 1960s. Along with new lighting—it’s made this a much brighter space for study.

Shows the Massive Helm Window Project

Work in Progress

The first of the 99 windows were installed during March of this year and the remaining 14 were recently completed.  The contractor responsible for the job was Romac Environmental Co. LLC from Louisville, KY.  They led the way by removing the existing windows.  Five Star Window and Door Systems LLC from Nashville, TN completed the installation of all the new windows from Sun Windows, Inc. from Owensboro, KY.  The Libraries are looking forward to the additional energy saving benefits of the new windows by reducing heating and cooling costs for the University (blog written by Eric Fisher).

Old Window

New Energy Saving Window

On August 24, WKU Libraries kicked off the 2011 fall semester in Helm Library 100. Interim Dean Connie Foster briefed on the Libraries faculty and staff university policies regarding travel and talked about some house-clearing issues before a group photo was taken in the Java City by University Photographer Clinton Lewis. After a luncheon in the Cravens Library, library employees went back to Helm 100, where invited guest speaker Jason Griffey, Head of Library Information Technology of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, gave a presentation named The Future Is Here. He gave an overview of where information technology will be in the future and how that is related to the services of the libraries and their needed changes to adapt to the technological development.

Photo Album | Jason Griffey’s Presentation (Sound File)

Big Red has been exploring different countries in the WKU Libraries. In-coming students were invited to an adventure, as part of WKU’s Masterplan program, to search for Big Red. The countries where Big Red has been to include China, Italy, Mexico, and the United States, respectively in the areas where the Confucius Institute Chinese Learning Center, Periodical Reference, Visual & Performing Art Library, and the Reference Desk are located. The students had great fun including origami, China experience from touch-screen TV’s, Italian masks, Mexican dance, and free samples of food from those countries. Prizes were given at the conclusion of the event.

Photo Album

Faculty and staff from WKU libraries participated in the information fair for new faculty held at DUC.  Attendees had a great time answering questions during the Jeopardy game, designed to help new faculty become familiar with library services.

From left to right: Jenna Ryan, Jonathan Ramseur, Robert Gramling, Brian Coutts (in rear). Photo taken by: Alberto Herrera Jr. Click photo to link to bibliography.

Legal Consequences of Environmental Crises:

What Librarians Need to Know About the Gulf Oil Disaster

This was the topic of the Law and Political Science Library Section (LPSS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) annual program at the meeting of the American Library Association held in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday, June 25. Brian Coutts, a member of the LPSS Board served as moderator and introduced the three speakers: Robert Gramling, a professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Socioeconomic Research at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Jonathan Ramseur, a Specialist in Environmental Policy at the Congressional Research Service (CRS); and Jenna Ryan, Reference Librarian for the School of Coast and Environment at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Continue reading →