Category Archives: University Archives

by | December 12, 2014 · 5:45 pm

Dear Santa

Training School GirlsThis year the WKU Archives Elves have been quite good.  We have digitized over 3500 images, scrapbooks, audiotapes, videotapes, posters, student newspapers, newsletters, programs, and other types of documents and described over 400 record groups and answered over 400 reference requests.

And all we want for Christmas (in addition to our two front teeth) is:

So Santa, baby, hurry down the chimney and leave us some goodies for the collections.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

XOXO

WKU Archives Elves

 

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by | December 3, 2014 · 1:48 pm

Out of the Box – November

75th Anniversary

Board of Regents 11/5/1931kybuilding75th

Cherry Hall

College Heights Herald 11/16/1956

Football, 1913

Founders Day

Fourth Estate 1980

Henry Hardin Cherry

Homecoming

Kentucky Building

ROTC Building

Veterans

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by | November 22, 2014 · 12:00 pm

From Quad to DVD

filmThis is just one of the many 2-inch quadruplex videotapes housed in WKU Archives.  These tapes were first created for use in television production in 1956.  Quads were phased out in the early-1980s and replaced by smaller videotapes. WKU no longer owns playback equipment for these tapes.

WKYU-TV recorded many programs using quad tapes that are being digitized through a $7500.00 WKU Libraries grant.  In September 59 quad tapes were shipped to Transfer Media in Indianapolis for digitization to DVD.  The first shipment of DVDs arrived at the Kentucky Building this week.

Theses titles are now available to researchers, some are available on TopScholar and on the WKU Library Special Collections YouTube channel.

Continue reading →

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by | November 19, 2014 · 10:15 pm

Western Players & Summer Players Scrapbooks

Leo Burmester “steals the show” with a belly dance in South Pacific, 1966/1967

Leo Burmester “steals the show” with a belly dance in South Pacific, 1966/1967

This photo from 1957-1958 shows women looking at a Western Players scrapbook, now in our collections, that was already 23 years old. It is now 80 years old.

This photo from 1957-1958 shows women looking at a Western Players scrapbook, now in our collections, that was already 23 years old. It is now 80 years old.

These fifty newly conserved and processed scrapbooks document theatre productions and other activities of Russell H. Miller and the Western Players from 1934 to 1969 and the Summer Players from 1956 to 1968. These scrapbooks include newspaper clippings, programs, tickets, greeting cards, correspondence, and many, many photographs.

Corky McCormick shows off his guns in Picnic, 1959-1960

Corky McCormick shows off his guns in Picnic, 1959-1960

The intended topics of the scrapbooks include the Players as a student organization, the players as students and actors, theatre productions, Bowling Green Community Theatre, oratorical and speech contests, debate team competitions (Miller was their coach for several years), regional theatre productions, and similar activities. However, the scrapbooks are also informative on changing fashions, costuming, perceptions of minorities (Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, French, the aged, and the disabled), set design, gender roles, and a variety of other topics. Continue reading →

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by | October 31, 2014 · 8:00 am

Out of the Box – October

In honor of Archives Month all of this month’s items relate to agricultureKentucky Archives Month poster

Ag Outlook Optimistic for Kentucky

Agricultural Exposition Center

Agriculture Collection Inventory

Agriculture Newsletter

Archives Month

Board of Regents

College Heights Herald 2/17/1983

Hayward Brown Papers

Holstein Wins Top Prizes

Memo Re: Agriculture Department

Ogden College Annual Report

On Campus 4/2000

 

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by | October 30, 2014 · 8:00 am

Trick or Treat

John CarpenterWKU is known for ghosts and those who hunt them.  The Folklife Archives houses many collected stories and legends about ghosts and other kinds of monsters, start with Supernatural Experiences.

WKU Libraries has many books related to the supernatural as well.

Ghosts have been known to appear in the Kentucky Library collections.

WKU Archives contains images and writings of John Carpenter, a local boy whose name has become synonymous with Halloween.

View a Kentucky Museum Pecha Kucha talk about the origins of Halloween.

Happy Halloween!!

Resources rounded up by WKU Archives Assistant April McCauley.

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by | October 29, 2014 · 8:00 am

#AskAnArchivist Day

SAA LogoOctober 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 | October 27, 2014 · 1:25 pm

Squirrel!

Kentucky Archives MonthThere are days in the archives that I feel like Dug the talking Dog from the movie Up.  I’m sitting at my desk working and all of a sudden . . . SQUIRREL!

It’s not that I’m easily distracted.  It is the nature of archival work that processing a collection of departmental papers may lead to the identification of a photograph.  Once I open that file cabinet to get the folder of photographs, I see there are 4 or 5 folders for that particular department and I am all of a sudden processing photographs.  Which in turn may lead to the prep work to have the unidentified images digitized.   Continue reading →

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by | October 22, 2014 · 8:00 am

International Open Access Week – Generation Open

Open Access

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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by | October 13, 2014 · 8:00 am

What Is an Archives?

Part of our continuing recognition of Kentucky Archives Month.

Whether you are researching your family tree, searching for inspiration for your latest historical fiction novel,1 verifying the royal succession,2 or looking for information about the One Ring,3 the place to look is an archives.

An archives is a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.  These records include photographs, maps, letters, diaries, government records, and many more things. Many of the types of records in archives are rare and most are one-of-a-kind.  The collections in an archives are often donated by organizations or individuals over time, and often these records are valued family artifacts.  So, archivists have a responsibility to the historical record- and to past donors- to protect and preserve the records in their care.  For more information about what an archives is and about our archival collections, follow the links below:

Continue reading →

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