WKU Libraries Blog

Nancy Richey received a Collections Care certificate earlier this month from the Campbell Center.

Nancy Richey, Visual Resources Librarian in the Department of Library Special Collections (DLSC), recently received “Collections Care” certification from the The Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies in Mount Carroll, Illinois.  Over several years, Richey has completed the following courses at the Campbell Center:  three sections of progressively intensive classes titled Care of Photographic Collections, Care of Historic Scrapbooks, Archives Principles and Practices, and Digitizing Museum Collections.

“Because of the diversity of materials in my care,” noted Richey, “the training I received at the Campbell Center in Collections Care, enables me to more carefully identify the nature of the material in question and the cause of its deterioration and subsequently prescribe preservation remedies.”  Richey currently manages illustrative material in the Kentucky Library Research Collections, including photographs in many formats, maps, broadsides, prints, and postcards.  “We are always pleased when faculty proactively seek out additional training to add to their expertise,” said Jonathan Jeffrey, DLSC Department Head.   “Besides completing an arduous curriculum of courses, Nancy helped procure funding to assist her in attaining this certification.  She has enchanced her own professional resume, while concurrently boosting the reputation and expertise of our department.”

Founded in the mid-1980s and located on a historic school property, The Campbell Center provides interdisciplinary and continuing education to meet the evolving training needs of individuals who work to preserve historic landscapes, and cultural, historic, and artistic properties.  Workshop topics range greatly and include hands-on training in areas such as art restoration, tombstone repair, historic masonry, preservation of historic properties and landscapes, basic archives training, and document preservation.

Native Bowling Greener, Ruel Sullivan Love (1903-1987), suffered from wanderlust.  He tried his hand at several occupations early in life before settling into a position as a court reporter in Chicago.  When Judge Richard Curd Pope Thomas (1872-1939) asked Ruel to serve as his personal secretary and court reporter in the Panama Canal Zone, the young man jumped at the opportunity.  Shortly after Ruel’s arrival, Judge Thomas, who was also from Bowling Green, wrote the young man’s father that his son was doing a fine job in the work, enjoyed plenty of rest, received a “good salary” of $27 per month, had a cozy home, and most importantly “married a fine little woman.”  Thomas reassured him that Ruel had picked out a woman “of good common sense” and was “sensible in every particular and much better looking” than Ruel had led the family to believe.

Letter from Thomas in the Canal Zone to George Love

When Ruel took time to write, he informed his father that he was enjoying his work and asked about ways that he could invest his money in Bowling Green.  In one letter he mentioned a recent court incident in which “They arraigned a Chinaman for murder.  He killed two of his countrymen on one of the Dollar line boats.  The case will come up soon before the Judge, and I imagine the Judge will have to pass the death sentence.”

R.C.P. Thomas

President Franklin Roosevelt appointed R.C.P. Thomas as the District Judge of the Panama Canal Zone in June 1933.  As he prepared to leave the U.S., local poet and friend John A. Logan penned a poetic tribute:  “We send him away that the world may known/That hospitality/With justice and mercy go hand in hand/With Kentucky gallantry.”  Thomas did an admirable job in Panama, but declined reappointment after his four-year term ended in 1937.  He returned to Bowling Green, retired from his law practice, and spent time working with a herd of Jersey cows on his farm until he died in 1939.

Ruel also returned to Bowling Green after Thomas’s term ended.  He and his “sensible” wife divorced soon afterward.  In 1943 Ruel moved to Louisville, where he established a court reporting business.  Later he became a court reporter in New Orleans, where he remained until his retirement.  Ruel died in 1987; both he and Judge Thomas are buried in Bowling Green’s Fairview Cemetery.

In celebration of the Panama Canal’s centennial, the Department of Library Special Collections will feature items from the collection during the month of August.

Librarian Chris Robinson-Nkongola

Librarian Chris Robinson-Nkongola welcomes patrons to the newly renovated Glasgow Library. This renovation is phase 1 of the makeover. Phase 2 will take place next year with a new circulation desk and carpets.

Future site of circulating collection.

The circulating collection will include a McNaughton Leisure Reading Collection. We have new laptop chairs with swiveling tables and a Courtesy Charging Station.

Dell Widescreen Desktop Computers

Dell Widescreen Desktop Computers

WKU Glasgow will also have 10 new state of the art all-in-one widescreen Dell computers (approximately 24 inches).

Aline & Ralph Shrewsbury

“My Dearest”

“Last night was the first night that has gone by since I left you without my writing to you!  I think that was the hardest part of the whole day!  Oh, darling, I’ll never be able to tell you the anguish I’ve been in since I got that nasty telegram.  I thought–first–only that I’d never see you again–never wake up beside you anymore–never have your babies–never never anything anymore!  But then I thought of all the ways it were possible to get you out safely!  So now I’m beginning to hope again.”

So begins Aline Shrewsbury’s short journal on 4 August 1944, shortly after she received a telegram stating that her husband, Ralph Damon Shrewsubry, was missing in action.  The couple had been married less than two years when the dreadful missive arrived.  Aline’s journal from 4th to 21st of August 1944, along with photographs, service records, family correspondence, and news clippings documenting Ralph’s WWII career were recently donated to the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives unit of the Department of Library Special Collections by the couple’s daughter and former WKU Educational Resources Center librarian Becky (Shrewsbury) Leavy.

Becky Leavy donates the Shrewsbury Collection to Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Coordinator Jonathan Jeffrey

This small collection documents the story of the unlikely meeting, and subsequent whirlwind romance, of a Georgia medical secretary at Camp Blanding, Florida, Aline Lanier, and Lieutenant Ralph Shrewsbury from Caneyville, Kentucky.  Shewsbury had participated in ROTC training at WKU prior to the war.  Aline and Ralph married only a few months after meeting.  Wartime marriages are difficult for both partners, but the spouse left behind can imagine all types of distress.  Ralph did have quite an adventure after landing at Utah Beach in June 1944.  Part of the collection features Ralph’s narrative about his stay in a German-occupied hospital in France.  In relation to nourishment, he noted:  “The usual fare at the hospital was a tea made of apple leaves and a quarter of a loaf of bread for breakfast, and sometimes not even the bread.  At noon we received a very small bowl of thin soup.  For supper we usually had a bowl of soup or stew containing very little nourishment.  Some of the French people working in the hospital brought us eggs and bread on the sly.”  Eventually he escaped from a transport train en route to a POW camp.  After finding American soldiers, Shewsbury by chance reunited with his old WKU ROTC commander E.B. Crabill.  It is a small world after all.

To investigate other WWII collections archived at WKU, click here.

Brian E. Coutts, Department Head, WKU Libraries

Brian E. Coutts received the Marta Lange/SAGE-CQ Press Award from David Horowitz, Vice-President of Sales for CQ/SAGE at a June 29, 2014 luncheon for the Law and Political Science Section (LPSS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The luncheon was held at Bally’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Past Winners: Lisa Norberg (Library Dean, Barnard College); Graham Walden, Head, Geology Library, Ohio State University; Bruce Pencek, College Librarian for Social Sciences & History, Virginia Tech; Brian Coutts

The award, established in 1996 by LPSS, honors an academic or law librarian who has made distinguished contributions to bibliography and information service in law or political science. It consists of a plaque and a check for a $1,000.

This award honors Marta Lange, 1990-91 Law and Political Science Section (LPSS) Chair, whose exceptional talents as a leader were enhanced by a wonderful collegial spirit. Her bright career, cut short in a fatal automobile accident in 1992, was an inspiration to others and a model of professional service.

Here is the link to the interview:

http://connection.sagepub.com/blog/2014/06/25/an-interview-with-librarian-researcher-reviewer-author-board-member-and-award-winner-brian-coutts/