Western Kentucky University Libraries has selected The Last Black King of the Kentucky Derby: The Story of Jimmy Winkfield, written by Crystal Hubbard and illustrated by Robert McGuire, as the winner of the fourth Evelyn Thurman Young Readers Book Award. Hubbard is a sports buff and full-time writer. Her children’s books have received honors such as Bank Street College’s Best Children’s Books of the Year and ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project. Hubbard lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband and their four children. McGuire is a full-time illustrator with a degree in fine arts whose work reflects a love of diverse cultures. He currently lives in New York City. The author and illustrator have been invited to attend an awards luncheon in their honor at the Kentucky Library & Museum in November.
Category Archives: Latest News
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
Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database Trial
Starting 9/1/10 and ending 10/2/10, WKU Libraries will have a trial subscription to Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database:
CLCD is an ever growing online database with over 400,000 reviews, MARC records and related information about children’s literature. CLCD contains reviews supplied by over 38 quality review media including:
- The ALAN Review
- BookList
- KIRKUS
- National Science Teachers Association
- VOYA
You can access CLCD at their homepage or through their search engine.
Filed under Acquisitions, Latest News
Kentucky Museum Art Now on View in Lexington
Portrait of a thoroughbred colt by Anna Hyatt Huntington
Filed under Latest News, New Stuff, People, Stuff
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
Duncan Hines Objects on Loan to National Inventors Hall of Fame
Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix Box
What do containers that advertise Duncan Hines’ yellow cake mix, double-fudge brownie mix, and chocolate ice cream have in common with a “Recommended by Duncan Hines/Adventures in Good Eating” sign from 1951? Selected from the Duncan Hines Collection at the Kentucky Library & Museum, they are part of the “Inventive Eats: Incredible Food Innovations” exhibit mounted by the National Inventors Hall of Fame.From what it takes to fry an egg, have a bowl of breakfast cereal, or enjoy a bag of potato chips, innovations abound in the food world, and Inventive Eats presents the fascinating stories behind many of these food innovations.
Recommended by Duncan Hines sign
Interested in knowing more about Duncan Hines? Come visit the “Recommended by Duncan Hines” exhibit at the Kentucky Library & Museum which features photographs and postcards as well as pots and pans, barbecue tools, canned goods, china, and other objects associated with this nationally recognized food icon. The “Inventive Eats: Incredible Food Innovations” exhibit is currently running at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Alexandria, Virginia and will move to its sister institution in Akron, Ohio in 2011.
Filed under Events, Latest News, New Stuff, Stuff
Kentucky Library & Museum Quilt Currently on View in Lexington
Henry Clay Presentation Quilt
The Henry Clay Presentation Quilt is featured in the exhibit, “Cherished Ornaments of our House: Important Personal Artifacts of Henry Clay” at Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate. One of more than 165 quilts in the KYLM collection, this unique textile features a needlework portrait of our most famous Kentucky statesman as well as pastoral scenes done in crewelwork. The quilt is attributed to Clay’s wife, Lucretia.
Mounted to commemorate the completion of the book, “Henry Clay: The Essential American” by David and Jeanne Heidler, the exhibit includes numerous artifacts never before displayed at Ashland. The Henry Clay Quilt will be on exhibit at this historic Lexington home until July 9, 2010. Exhibit hours are 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday-Saturday and 1 pm-4 pm on Friday with tours occurring on the hour. More information.
Filed under General, Latest News, New Stuff
Libraries still open
Though the main library areas were not affected by the recent heavy rains, Cravens Library did have some flooding at the ground level where the Center for Leadership Studies is housed. The Center for Leadership Studies has been moved temporarily to Cravens Room 111 and their contact number is 745-8973. Cravens Library is not closed; however, caution tape is set outside the Normal Boulevard entrances to encourage patrons to use other entrances as workers continue the clean up process.
Filed under Latest News
Canadian Library Grant 2009-2010
WKU Libraries has recently received a 2009-2010 Canadian Studies Library Support Program Grant in the amount of $2,411. The funds support acquisition of library materials (books, films, CD’s) published by Canadian publishers which expand our knowledge of Canada and Canadian culture. This is our 14th grant. The grant was announced by Dennis Moore, Public Affairs Officer at the Consulate General of Canada in Detroit.
Filed under Acquisitions, General, Latest News
“Mountains and Valleys”
The WKU Bookstore sponsored a gathering of local authors at WKU Libraries on Tuesday, April 20 at 7:00 p.m. in the Helm Reading Room. Arranged by Sarah Fricks and entitled “Mountains and Valleys” it included selected readings on themes of struggle and hope, friendship and endurance. Tom Hunley, poet and Associate Professor of English at WKU read poems from his books My Life is a Minor Character, Still There’s a Glimmer and his newest book Octopus and even shared a new poem recently accepted for publication by The Louisville Review. Craig Dehut, who joined WKYU-PBS in April of 2009, read from his autobiography Her Little Soldier which chronicles the struggles he faced after he found out he had Juvenile Diabetes at age 10. Dehut has also worked on several feature and short films and is a graduate of the Art Institute of Atlanta. Mark Shine is a former Army journalist whose writings have appeared in Back Home in Kentucky and Kentucky Afield. He lives near Nolin River Lake, Kentucky. He read from his first novel Shine about the friendship between a middle class fisherman and an old moonshine man. David J. Bell, who teaches English and creative writing at WKU read from his newest novel, a thriller A Girl in the Woods. A large crowd enjoyed the evening. A book signing followed.
Filed under Events, General, Latest News, Past Events