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The Kentucky Library Research Collections in the Department of Library Special Collections recently acquired a rare broadside related to civil rights in Kentucky after the Civil War which includes a blistering attack on Democrats who were supportive of Reconstruction and universal male suffrage. The broadside was addressed to voters in Henderson County, but it discussed political wrangling within Kentucky’s Democratic Party.

The broadside begins with a diatribe against the “Radical party led by the dominant majority in Congress on the one side and the friends of Constitutional government on the other—This Radical party is led by those men in the North, who for many years have been notorious sectional agitators, enemies of the Union and the Constitution, and who ceased to proclaim their hostility to them both, only when the war offered them the means of gratifying their malignity, and effecting their sectional and selfish ends.”

After providing a list of 5 grievances that the state party had with national leaders, the broadside writer turns his attention to recent events within Kentucky’s Democratic Party.  Chief among them was two conventions called to elect a state party leader.  Both meetings were held in Louisville; one in May and the other in June.  The more conservative faction of the party elected Alvin Duvall as party chairman, and the liberal leaning members elected General Edward H. Hobson.  Interestingly, the writer never refers to Hobson by his full name, only as General Hobson.  He had no kind words for the General, saying “Hobson is supported by every radical newspaper in the State, and every one, which has delighted to stigmatize Northern Democrats as copperheads and traitors.  And his election is advocated and desired and will be hailed as a cheering omen by every radical man and newspaper in the North, who has spoken or who will speak of it.”

The writer surmised that if Duvall was elected as the true leader of the Kentucky’s Democratic Party, “the friends of the Constitution will accept it as a cheering omen of approaching triumph, as the breaking light of a glorious morn, and after a long and dreary, and almost hopeless night, and encouraged by the omen, will follow Kentucky’s lead as in 1798, to a universal national triumph, and the restoration of our ancient liberties.”

Department of Library Technical Services faculty Laura Bohuski and Amanda Drost had the opportunity to attend a 4-day Name Authority Cooperative (NACO) training at the University of Kentucky in June of 2015.

NACO is a program where participants contribute authority records for personal, corporate, and jurisdictional names; as well as uniform titles and series to the Library of Congress/NACO Authority File.

The Library of Congress defines authority control as a means of establishing a uniform recognized title for the body responsible for authoring a work and using that title whenever the name is required as an access point in a bibliographic record.

Why is authority control important? It provides the library user a way to search the catalog more easily. When a controlled heading is established for an author’s name, works by that author can be collected and accessed under the same access point in the library catalog. Authority control makes it easy to differentiate between people and corporate bodies with similar or identical names. It also allows librarians to link works together even if they have different titles and editions. These features of authority control ultimately clean up the library database and makes it easier for users to conduct research.

At their training, Laura and Amanda learned how to create authority records that meet the Library of Congress’s standards. By following these standards, they are able to contribute authority records to the Library of Congress’s authority file database, which is used by libraries worldwide.

WKU Libraries held staff, faculty, and library-all kick off meetings met Wednesday, August 19 in Helm 100. Dean Connie Foster welcomed and gave a brief presentation, charting the library course for the upcoming academic year. New faculty and staff were introduced. Glenda White, Dean’s Office coordinator, handed out numerous door prizes to everyone throughout the day.

The faculty of WKU Libraries’ Department of Library Public Services had its first meeting of the fall semester 2015 at the Barren River State Resort Park, Kentucky on August 18. Retired professors joined their lunch. Together they had a group photo made against the beautiful setting of the tree-shadowed lake.

Photo Album

A young Robert Penn Warren. Courtesy of Dept. of Library Special Collections, WKU.

The Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies and the Department of Library Special Collections at Western Kentucky University (WKU) are pleased to announce the acquisition of Driftwood Flames, the first poetry anthology containing Robert Penn Warren’s poems.  The Poetry Guild of Nashville published the limited edition compilation in 1923.  The anthology, dedicated to influential Vanderbilt English professor John Crowe Ransom, includes five poems by Warren:  “The Fierce Horsemen,” “Wild Oats,” “Iron Beach,” “To Certain Old Masters,” and “The Golden Hills of Hell.”  Later in life, RPW had  no kind words to proffer about his early efforts.  In a poem, “Red Tail Hawk and Pyre of Youth,” Warren described himself as burning “a book/Of poems friends and I had printed in college.”

Published when Warren was a sophomore at Vanderbilt University, Driftwood also includes poems by fellow poet Andrew Lytle, who along with Warren was a member of the Fugitives, a literary group composed of Nashville residents who shared an interest in poetry.  Although some of the other poets included in Driftwood do not have easily recognized names, many of them enjoyed distinguished academic careers:  John Paul Abbott taught English at Texas A&M University, Warren Taylor was a professor at Oberlin College and published several books including an important textbook Poetry in English, and Richard S. West, Jr. taught humanities at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Driftwood Flames is important because of its association with the Fugitives and because it is Warren’s first published verse in an anthology.  The volume is rare, because it was produced in a limited edition of only 325 copies and because it is soft bound.  Soft bound books cannot generally endure the same wear and tear that a hardback volume receives.  These factors, combined with the age of the piece, make it difficult to find.  “We consider WKU’s Warren collection to be one of the finest in the country, and anyone conducting serious Warren research should include WKU in their itinerary,” said Center co-director and Robert Penn Warren Library curator Jonathan Jeffrey.  “We are thrilled to add Driftwood Flames to the collection. It was one of only a handful of Warren items the collection lacked.”

Founded in 1987, the Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies at Western Kentucky University honors the legacy and achievements of native Kentuckian Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate of the United States and the only person who has received Pulitzer Prizes for both poetry and fiction. The Center is proud to celebrate Warren’s life and work by increasing awareness of Warren’s achievements, curating an extensive collection of Warren-related memorabilia, artifacts, and documents, and, in collaboration with the Robert Penn Warren Circle, supporting an annual symposium on Warren every April.