Category Archives: Events

by Susan Broady | December 4, 2014 · 8:27 pm

SOKY Book Fest partners select finalists for 2015 Kentucky Literary Award

Bowling Green, Ky. –The Southern Kentucky Book Fest partnership announces the five finalists for the 2014 Kentucky Literary Award. This year’s award will go to a work of non-fiction by a Kentucky author or with a significant Kentucky theme that was published in 2013 or 2014. The five finalists include:

The Kentucky Barbecue Book, Wes Berry

Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage, Michael R. Veach

Mud Creek Medicine: the Life of Eula Hall and the Fight for Appalachia, Kiran Bhatraju

Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred Industry, James C. Nicholson

Unbridled Service: Growing Up and Giving Back as a Frontier Nursing Service Courier, 1928-2010, Ann Z. Cockerham

The award winner will be announced at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest’s Meet the Authors Reception to be held Friday, April 17–the night before the main Book Fest event. The Kentucky Literary Award is presented annually by the Southern Kentucky Book Fest partnership, and the 2015 award is sponsored by the Friends of WKU Libraries. For more information about the award, contact Kristie Lowry, Book Fest and Literary Outreach Coordinator, at kristie.lowry@wku.edu or 745-4502.

The Southern Kentucky Book Fest is a partnership of Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Warren County Public Library, and Western Kentucky University Libraries. For more information, visit sokybookfest.org.

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by Susan Broady | November 18, 2014 · 10:16 pm

WKU Libraries participates in Kentucky Building 75th Anniversary Cellebration

Faculty, staff, students and community members joined together Friday, November 14, to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of the Kentucky Building. President Ransdell spoke of the significance of the Kentucky Building over the years and the direction the board plans to take the Museum in the future. Library Special Collections Department Head Jonathan Jeffrey gave a brief history of the building, including original intentions in design, funding sources, and time frame to completion as well as Dr. Cherry’s sentiments. Professor Jeffrey concluded with naming several recent acquisitions that were donated to the Special Collections, including (getting info from Jonathan). Cake, punch, and tours of the building were given at the end of the program.

Some recent acquisitions:

These speeches by Dr. Gary Ransdell are representative of the one and a half cubic feet of speeches that were transferred to WKU Archives in 2014. WKU Archives holds approximately 350 cubic feet of WKU President’s Office papers dating from 1906-present. WKU Archives

This model bayonet was issued to US soldiers fighting in World War I and was based on a bayonet first produced by the British. It is one of three weapons recently donated to the Kentucky Museum by Thomas Redford, a 1951 graduate of WKU. Today, the weapons collection includes 200 plus firearms, edged weapons, and accessory items. Donated by Thomas Redford. Kentucky Museum

The Sears Family papers contain a large copy book (1850-1870) used by Chauncey Sears, a Shaker from Mt. Lebanon, New York. Opened is a manuscript hymnal commenced by Polly Ann Smith in 1848; she and Chauncey later married and moved to Ohio. This collection also includes several loose hymns that Polly intended to enter into the hymnal. The papers also include genealogy related to the Sears family and some correspondence. Donated by Drs. Karl & Beth Laves. Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Josephus, Flavius. Phlabiou Iōsēpou Hierosolymitou hiereōs Ta euriskomena… Coloniae: Sumptibus Mauritii Georgii Weidmanni, 1691. Anonmyous donation. Kentucky Library Research Collections

(A history of the Jewish nation after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD by Flavius Josephus; parallel texts in Latin and Greek)

Photo Album

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Filed under Acquisitions, Events, Latest News

by Susan Broady | November 11, 2014 · 7:19 pm

WKU Libraries teams up with Confucius Institute to offer a Homecoming Reception.

WKU Libraries partnered with the Confucius Institute and offered a Homecoming Reception Saturday morning in Helm Library, Room 100. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni visited the event in the morning from 10 to 11:30 am. There were opportunities to participate in a tea ceremony, try calligraphy, view Tai Chi demonstrations, and listen to the Chinese Music Club as well as enjoy the American and Chinese reception food.

Photo Album

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Filed under Events, Flickr Photos, New Stuff

by Susan Broady | November 7, 2014 · 9:05 pm

Homecoming Reception

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Filed under Events, Latest News, Uncategorized

by Susan Broady | November 3, 2014 · 5:22 pm

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by Susan Broady | October 31, 2014 · 9:49 pm

WKU Libraries Halloween Potluck

WKU Library faculty, staff, and students celebrated Halloween with the annual potluck party and costume competition. The winners of the costume competition are:

Most Traditional – Jennifer Wilson – Minnie Mouse

Best Face Painting – Allison Sircy – broken strings marionette

Most Creative – Bryan Carson – Pimp

Most Original – Glenda White – One Night Stand

Best Cartoon Character – Crystal Bowling – Captain America

Best Book Character – Lesley Montgomery – Mary Poppins

Best Store Bought Costume – Laura Bohuski – Renaissance Lady

Photo Album

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Filed under Events, Flickr Photos, Latest News, New Stuff, People

by Jennifer Wright | October 29, 2014 · 3:39 pm

Booktalk: Karen Petrone at the WKU Owensboro Campus

Dr. Karen Petrone, Chair of the Department of History at the University of Kentucky, talking on “The Great War (WWI) in Russian Memory” at WKU Owensboro Campus

On Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 7 pm, the WKU Owensboro Campus hosted a reprise of Karen Petrone’s April Far Away Places talk on her book “The Great War (WWI) in Russian Memory.” Dr. Petrone is the chair of the Department of History at the University of Kentucky, and her work focuses on cultural histories of Russia and the Soviet Union.

Photo Album | Sound File | Podcast Rss

Continue reading →

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by Suellyn Lathrop | · 8:00 am

#AskAnArchivist Day

SAA Logo October 30th has been declared Ask An Archivist Day. Archivists from around the country will be monitoring Twitter to respond to your questions. The day long event is sponsored by the Society of American Archivists as the send off for Archives Month.

No question is too silly . . .

What is the craziest thing you’ve come across in your collections?
If your archives has a soundtrack, what songs would be on it?
What do archivists talk about around the water cooler?

. . . and no question is too practical!

As a teacher, how can I get my students more interested in using archives for projects?
What should I do to be sure my emails won’t get lost?
I’ve got scads of digital images on my phone. How should I store them so I can access them later?
How do you decide which items to keep and which to weed out from a collection?

Just tweet your question and include the hashtag #AskAnArchivist in your tweet.

Follow along through the day to see questions and answers.

And even after Archives Month is over you can ask us questions at WKU Archives – archives@wku.edu

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by Suellyn Lathrop | October 24, 2014 · 8:00 am

Open Access Week – KenCat

Open Access

Special Collections are often referred to as hidden collections. They require a special environment, careful handling and labor intensive description work to make them available. In the time it takes to process a small collection of photographs I suspect a book cataloger could catalog about 250 books.

WKU’s Special Collections are over 75 years old and we are just now beginning to gain ground in opening our hidden collections with the help computer technology. KenCat is your portal into our world of special collections. Since purchasing this software in 2005 we have created descriptions of over 56,000 items housed in the Kentucky Building. There are rare books on all sorts of topics, books about Kentucky, maps, photographs, documents, oral histories, blueprints, postcards, newspapers, memorabilia, letters, diaries and much more.

KenCat went live late in 2007 and searches have been steadily increasing since that first year from 2 to 21,566 so far this year. We will continue to reveal more and more of our treasures in the years to come.

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Tagged as KenCat, Open Access Week, Research tools, Special Collections

by Suellyn Lathrop | October 22, 2014 · 8:00 am

International Open Access Week – Generation Open

Open Access

SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition coordinates the annual International Open Access Week. This year’s theme is Generation Open, that is to say the focus is upon student and early career researchers. In keeping with the theme, WKU Libraries is focusing upon our student researchers past and present.

We make access to student research projects and creative activities available by posting them on TopSHOLAR which went live in 2007. Since that time works by students have been downloaded over 487,000 times. Continue reading →

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