On April 1, 2010, WKU celebrated its opening of the Owensboro Campus. The Owensboro Campus Library is opened at the same time. WKU employees attended the ceremony and toured the new library.
WKU Opened Owensboro Campus and Library April 1
Rachel Pearl returns to Java City
Wednesday, April 7th at noon, Jazz guitarist/vocalist Rachel Pearl and folk rock singer/songwriter Treva Blomquist will return to Java City with their own special brand of American folk music.
Filed under Events
The Vista
You may know the Talisman and may have heard about the Towers, but did you know that the first Western Kentucky State Normal School yearbook was The Vista? Published in 1915, it was a one off. There would not be another yearbook until the Talisman debuted in 1924. The Vista has the expected campus views, faculty and student photographs. It also includes class wills, poems and songs as well as snap shots of student life. Take a look at campus life 95 years ago. The Vista and other school yearbooks were digitized during the WKU Centennial and are available online.
Filed under Events, University Archives
David J. Bell Featured Speaker In This Month’s Kentucky Live! Series
David J. Bell was the featured speaker in this month’s Kentucky Live! series on Thursday, April 8th at Barnes & Noble bookstore. His topic was “The Missing and the Lost: “A Girl in the Woods’ and ‘The Condemned’.” A booksigning followed his talk.
While honing his craft as a writer, David worked as a delivery driver, A.V. grunt in a library, bartender, bookstore clerk, and telemarketer. A native of Cincinnati, he received his BA in English from Indiana University, his MA from Miami University of Ohio, and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. His short fiction, interviews and reviews have appeared in such journals and anthologies as: Backwards City Review; Cemetery Dance; Western Humanities Review; Shadow Regions; Wicked Karnival Halloween Horror; The Edge, Tales of Suspense; Rain Crow; and Black Pearls. His first novel The Condemned was published by Delirium Press in 2008. One reviewer called it “a wonderful, forceful, moody book that’s as palpable as it’s engaging.” The Girl in the Woods, his second novel, also from Delirium, was published in late 2009. When not writing, Bell teaches English at Western Kentucky University.
Filed under Flickr Photos, Kentucky Live, Podcasts
Homeward Bound
YMCA Guest Book, Rennes, France, 1919
After the United States entered World War I, the YMCA played a crucial role in providing for the welfare of the troops. Soldiers both at home and overseas frequented YMCA posts, called “huts,” to relax, socialize, worship, write letters, and partake of educational opportunities. The YMCA was particularly active in France, where it also operated canteens in order to free up more soldiers for military rather than kitchen duty. The YMCA continued its work after the Armistice, serving soldiers while they endured the long process of demobilization.
A guest book maintained at the YMCA post in Rennes, France (now part of the collections of WKU’s Special Collections Library), vividly documents the mood of the troops following the end of hostilities. “Nine months ago today the Armistice was signed, still here?” mused a soldier from Oregon. “We’ve paid our debt to Lafayette. Who in Sam Hill do we owe yet?” asked another from New York. Other signatories were more cheerful, expressing gratitude to the YMCA for providing amenities, such as chocolate, that they had long missed. But, as might be expected, the most common expressions were of a longing to go home “toot sweet“. . . “where they make good whiskey,” declared a soldier from Kentucky.
To see the YMCA’s Rennes, France guest book, visit WKU’s Special Collections Library. Click here to access a finding aid. To explore other KYLM collections relating to World War I, search KenCat and TopScholar.
Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
>http://www.loganjournal.com/guestarticle48.php
Follow the link to an article on the history of the Felts Log cabin located on the campus of WKU. The article was written by the KY Library & Museum’s own Christy Spurlock.
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Filed under Events
Java City Performance
Beautiful weather made it a great day for a performance by Zingara outside of Java City in Helm. The crowd was entertained by belly dancers Lee Ann Bledsoe and Nadia DeLeon (and some library staffers who joined in the fun!) on Wednesday, March 31st at the noon performance sponsored by Independence Bank.
Filed under Events
Kate Matthews and “The Little Colonel”
Photographer Kate Seston Matthews (1870-1956) was born in New Albany, Indiana, but she lived most of her life in rural Pewee Valley, Kentucky, a small community near Louisville. Matthews used this community and her friends and family as her subjects, but she is most well known today for her photographs depicting characters in the children’s book series, The Little Colonel. These stories were written by her neighbor, Annie Fellows Johnston. Matthews also loved to pose living pictures or tableaux vivants, whereby she captured on film a “water colored” view of her community and life in rural Kentucky. A patron has donated some of these original model prints depicting characters from the series to the Kentucky Library’s Photographic Archives. These materials are available for research Monday through Saturday (9-4) and may also be viewed at our online catalog, KenCAT.
Filed under Events
Training School & College High Collection
Girls Basketball Team 1927
Founded as a teachers college in 1906, WKU soon found the need to have a training school located on campus. The first was located in the old Southern Normal Training School building. Upon moving to the Hill, the training school was moved to the original Potter Hall. Lastly, in 1925 the training school and high school moved into its own building, currently known as the Science and Technology Building.
University Archives holds about 10 cubic feet of records from the training school and high school. These include class rolls, catalogs, scrapbooks, photographs, basketball scorebooks, event programs, curriculum guides and cookbooks.
These materials are available for researchers in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room, Monday to Saturday 9 to 4. Check out KenCat to see digitized photographs. See also the new online exhibit in commemoration of the rededication of the Science & Technology Building.
Filed under Events, University Archives
Music Index Online
As if April 1st, 2010, WKU Libraries has access to the Music Index Online:
Published since 1949, The Music Index is the single most comprehensive annual Subject-Author Guide to Music Periodical Literature.
The editor-librarians at Harmonie Park Press have surveyed data from more than 875 music periodicalsfrom over 40 countries.
Produced in conjunction with the PRINT format, The Music Index ONLINE edition features over 1.5 million records. The searchable database is updated quarterly with about 100,000 new records added annually. Open URL support is available and Full Text Article Links are accessible to JSTOR Participants. We are pleased to announce that in 2009 The Music Index Online coverage will span from 1973 to the present.
Topics concerned with every aspect of the classical and popular world of music are thoroughly categorized and organized according to the framework of an internal Subject List which includes both Subject and Geographic headings. Covering all styles and genres of music, The Music Index duly cites book reviews, obituaries, new periodicals, and news and articles about music, musicians, and the music industry.
The longevity and dedication of our editorial and production staff has ensured a publication of unfailing high-quality. The thoroughness of indexing and subject heading research, along with our comprehensive coverage of the music field, makes The Music Index an invaluable resource for both the novice scholar and the experienced academician.
Click here to search Music Index Online. If you are off campus, you will need to log into our proxy server first. You can also access Music Index Online through our library webpage by going to TopCat and search “Music Index Online” or through EBSCOhost via our Databases Page.
Filed under Acquisitions, Latest News