TopSCHOLAR, WKU Libraries’ research and creative activity database, ranks in the top 5% of universities worldwide according to CSIC, a public research body in Spain. Rankings are based on size, visibility and rich files. TopSCHOLAR is ranked 185th out of 3026 among US institutions. According to Library Technical Services Department head, Connie Foster, the ranking indicates the “TopSCHOLAR is not only digitally competitive with other United States universities but with universities from all over the world.
Category Archives: Events
Exhibit Documents Bowling Green’s Theater History
Enjoy the Show
The Kentucky Library & Museum is currently displaying materials that document the history of Bowling Green theater in an exhibit titled “Enjoy the Show,” which ends February 14, 2011. Nineteenth century items are rare, but the exhibit does include an March 1833 hand scribed broadside advertising the Bowling Green Thespian Society’s production of the melodrama, “Luke the Labourer; or, The Lost Son.” Tickets to this amateur production cost twenty-five cents. Other items from the 1800s include illustrations of Bowling Green’s opera house, programs, an elaborate paper puppet stage, as well as photographs of costumed actors.
Theater in Bowling Green blossomed in 1932 with the incorporation of the Bowling Green Players Guild. Items on display from this early amateur group include playbills, programs, the organization’s constitution and a membership card, as well as sketches for set designs and costumes. Items from later theater groups, such as the Alley Theater, Public Theater of Kentucky, Fountain Square Players and Bowling Green Community Players are included.
The exhibit emphasizes dramatic productions at Western Kentucky University. One case features memorabilia from the Western Players and another focuses on longtime WKU theater professor, playwright, and director, Russell H. Miller (1905-1968). Two costumes from the WKU Department of Theater and Dance highlight the exhibit. The more elaborate ensemble is a shepherdess costume from “Bastein and Bastienne,” a Mozart opera performed last spring. The other is a simple, but symbolic, green dress used in “The House of Bernarda Alba” in 2009. The Kentucky Library & Museum thanks Shura Pollatsek, Department of Theater and Dance, for assisting with the costumes.
Kentucky Live! Presents Mark Wetherington
On September 9, 2010, the Executive Director of the Filson Historical Society in Louisville was the opening speaker in WKU Libraries’ eighth annual Kentucky Live Series. The series took place in Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bowling Green, KY. The topic of his talk was “Steamboating on the Western Waters: Bicentennial Reflections.” At the end of the talk he signed his book.
He says he was most influenced by the southern sense of place, southern history and southern literature. His love of history came from reading and hearing older people talk about people and the past. His research has focused on people and their lives in the area he grew up in (Piney Woods, Georgia) from about 1850-1910. In his first book The New South Comes to Wiregrass Georgia, 1860-1910 published by the University of Tennessee Press in 1994, he explored the transformation of an area characterized by pine forests, northern tourists and health seekers to one of cotton production and tenancy. It won the American Historical Association’s Herbert Feis Award. His most recent book plain folk’s fight: The Civil War & Reconstruction in Piney Woods Georgia was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2005 and won an Award of Excellence from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. In it he examines the effects of the Civil War on the rural Southern home front in the wiregrass region of southern Georgia.
A native of Tifton, Georgia Mark grew up in Milan, Georgia where he attended public schools and thought about being an archaeologist or maybe a lawyer. After a stint in the US Navy he enrolled at Georgia Southern College from where he received his BA and MA in history before transferring to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville for his PhD.
Filed under Events, Flickr Photos, General, Kentucky Live, Latest News, People
DLPS Faculty Retreat at State Park Resort
On August 25, the faculty from the WKU Libraries’ Department of Library Public Services had their faculty retreat at the Barren River Lake State Resort Park.
WKU Libraries Kicked Off 2010-11 Academic Year
WKU Libraries’ faculty and staff kicked off the new academic year in the Kentucky Room on August 24, 2010. Mike Binder, Dean of WKU Libraries, reviewed the past achievements made by the Libraries’ faculty and staff and looked into the projects and programs that they would embark on in the near future. As part of the kick-off event, Mr. Marshall Weems from the Weems Consulting Group gave an interactive presentation on public services. Luncheon was served at the event.
Filed under Events
John Grismore, Bowling Green Artist
WKU Libraries has recently acquired “Garden Poetry” a work on paper by Bowling Green artist John Corry Grismore. A WKU graduate (but not in art), John began dabbling in abstract oil painting some eight years ago but soon switched to creating sculptures from driftwood collected on the shores of Barren River Lake. This year his sculpture “Versus” won first place in the 2010 US Bank Celebration of the Arts Show at the Kentucky Library and Museum. “Garden Poetry” involved picking, drying, arranging and pasting flower petals from his garden to paper. He used a technique which he developed himself, after numerous experiments, which allows the flower petals to retain most of their color. The end result allows us to enjoy the beauty of the flowers long after the plants have died. When not creating sculptures or other works of art John manages Western’s Postal Services Department. You can check out this eternal remembrance of a summer garden in Cravens 100.
Filed under Events, Flickr Photos, General, Latest News, New Stuff, People
Athletic Committee
Athletic Committee
Recognized as the most popular faculty committee on campus, the Athletic Committee was formed between 1910 and 1926 and has been meeting monthly ever since.
The earliest extant records for the committee date to 1926. The collection consists of meeting minutes and award lists. Topics routinely discussed were athletic schedules, awards and compliance with NCAA policies. The collection also contains Ohio Valley Conference meeting minutes.
The committee was comprised of L.T. Smith, M.A. Leiper, W.J. Craig and Florence Schneider well into the 1960’s. New members were only allowed onto the committee as these members retired. In 1962 a student member was added to the committee. The committee was admonished by administration in 1971 to set term limits to address the complaints of faculty members wishing to be appointed to the committee.
The finding aid for the series is available online at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/128/ These and other university records are available for researchers to use in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building, Monday-Saturday, 9 to 4.
Filed under Events, University Archives
The Western Minstrel
The Western Minstrel
The Western Minstrel is the official alumni newsletter of the WKU Department of Music. It has been in off and on since 1984. It highlights the activities of students and faculty in the Music Department and helps keep the alumni up to date. The University Archives holds issues from 1984-1987, 1989, 1996, 2003-2009. These have been digitized and are now available on TopScholar as full text searchable documents. These and other records created by the Music Department are available for researchers to use in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building, Monday-Saturday, 9 to 4.
Filed under Events, University Archives
Rodes-Helm Lecture Series
On September 27, 1961 the College Heights Herald announced the $25,000 endowment of the Rodes-Helm Lecture Series. The money was donated by Harold and Mary (Rodes) Helm in honor of two individuals close to them.
John Rodes was a judge in the Warren County circuit court described as “one of the most distinguished jurists in the South.” Judge Rodes was a native of Bowling Green and graduate of Ogden College. He went on to study law at the University of Virginia. He was also the father of Mary Grider Rodes Helm.
Margie Helm, Harold’s sister was born in Auburn, Kentucky and grew in Bowling Green. She attended Randolph Macon Women’s College, Pratt Institute Library School and Chicago Graduate Library School. She returned to Bowling Green in 1920 taking the position of assistant librarian at WKU. In 1923 she was appointed head librarian and held that position for 42 years. Two years after her retirement, WKU rededicated the library building as the Margie Helm Library in her honor.
Kelly Thompson stated that the Rodes-Helm Lecture Series “will be used to bring to the Western campus, personalities, thinkers and speakers whom we might not otherwise have an opportunity to meet.” Some of those have included Pearl Buck, William Buckley, Chet Huntley, Buckminster Fuller and Charles Kuralt to name a few.
The record series includes programs, press releases and recordings of some lectures. The initial press conference announcing the gift and establishment of the lecture series was recorded on a 33 1/3 lp which is also part of the collection. The finding aid for the series is available online at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/123/ Researchers can use view and listen to the items in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building, Monday-Saturday, 9-4.
Filed under Events, University Archives
Nancy Disher Baird Retires
Nancy Disher Baird
After 35 years of dedicated service, Nancy Disher Baird retired on June 30 as Kentucky History Specialist at the Kentucky Library & Museum. A teacher, author, speaker and world traveler, Nancy has published many articles and books (most recently, Josie Underwood’s Civil War Diary), given countless programs and taught thousands of students about the history of Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky and the world. Her many achievements include a University award for public service, the Sara Tyler Merit Award, and a stint as acting head of the Department of Library Special Collections. Nancy’s knowledge and skills will be greatly missed, but we hope to see her frequently in the library as she continues work on some unfinished projects. Hail, Queen Nancy!
Filed under Events