Cool@Hoole

The Deseret First Book, Part I

Posted on October 20, 2014 by | Posted in: Ashley Bond, English pedagogy, Rare Books Collection | Leave a comment

By: Ashley Bond, SLIS graduate student

DeseretFirstBookChart

The Deseret First Book alphabet key, found in Hoole Library Rare Books PE1152 .U7 vol.1

The Deseret First Book is one of four books published in the late 1860s in an alphabet created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This alphabet, known as the Deseret Alphabet, was created when the second president of the church, President Brigham Young, called a committee to develop a new phonetic alphabet that would help simplify spelling the English language.

The story behind this alphabet originates with the initial emergence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830. Due to some resistance to this new church, founder Joseph Smith and his converts were driven westward to Illinois. After much persecution and the death of Smith and his brother Hyrum, Brigham Young led the church to settle further west around the Great Basin in the area we now recognize as Salt Lake City, Utah. Over 350 Mormon settlements in the region would eventually form the Territory of Deseret, ruled by Young as president. Congress, however, rejected this area as a territory and created the much smaller state of Utah with Young as its governor. It was in the midst of these developments in the Latter-day Saints Church that Young and fellow leaders proposed a new alphabet be created to aid immigrants and children in more easily learning English. George D. Watt, the first English convert to the new church, had studied Pitman shorthand in England and was chosen along with other church leaders to design the phonetic letter set. On January 19, 1854, the Board of Regents at the University of Deseret, known now as the University of Utah, announced the creation of the thirty-eight character Deseret Alphabet, which contained a letter for every sound in the English language. Critics claimed that the alphabet was the Church’s attempt to isolate converts and prevent outsiders from easily deciphering Mormon literature. However, this notion is unlikely, as each publishing in the alphabet includes a table of letters in order for readers of the traditional English alphabet to translate it. Once the alphabet was formed, Orson Pratt was given the task to create elementary texts that would help the population more easily learn how to read the new letters. In 1868, Russell Brothers Publishing Company in New York printed ten thousand copies each of the Deseret First Book and Second Book Readers to be shipped to Salt Lake City. When errors were found throughout the two primers, however, Orson Pratt, George D. Watt, and R.L Campbell formed a committee and made corrections in the form of an errata sheet to be added to the back of each copy. In addition to the elementary primers, the Book of Nephi Part One and eventually the entire Book of Mormon were also available in print for purchase. Between 1854 and 1870, the alphabet underwent many revisions, including the addition and removal of characters as well as shape and design changes in the letters themselves.

Continue reading →

April Burnett becomes a Certified Archivist

Posted on October 17, 2014 by | Posted in: April Burnett, Donnelly Walton | Leave a comment

By: Donnelly Walton, Archival Access Coordinator

This fall, two Special Collections staff members received honors and promotions. Kevin Ray was promoted to Institutional Records Analyst and April Burnett became the Division of Special Collections’ only certified archivist. 

logo

April Burnett joined the University Libraries in 2007 when she interned with Doug Boyd, the former head of digital collections. She already had obtained a Master’s degree in public administration from UA, and in late 2007 she graduated from the School of Library and Information Studies with an MLIS. In January 2008, she accepted the position of archival technician in the Hoole Library, a position she has held since then. As an archival technician, April first learned how to arrange and describe manuscript collections so that she would understand the larger picture of archives. Through the years she increased her knowledge base and skillset by taking additional courses on preservation and archival practice.

MetadataExample

Example of metadata entered for Keene family biography by James Anderson

Her position is responsible for creating item-level metadata of Special Collections materials that are included in the Libraries’ Digital Collections. After other staff in Special Collections select a collection for inclusion in the digital program, April examines every item that will be digitized, and at the bare minimum, assigns a title to that item. She inputs that title, along with a number of other pieces of data about the item, in a spreadsheet developed by Cataloging and Metadata Services. Searching for that item in Acumen is then pretty easy!

Yesterday a patron asked me if I was familiar with an unpublished biography of the Keene family in Tuscaloosa. The patron had seen it at some point on her many visits to the Hoole Library, but she couldn’t recall how she stumbled upon it. With more than 8000 linear feet of manuscript materials at the Hoole Library, it’s impossible to remember every item. A search of our finding aids and our in-house database found nothing—archivists don’t typically describe materials at the item-level and instead describe materials at the collection, series, box, or folder level. When I keyed “Keene family” in the search bar of Acumen, the University Libraries’ portal for digital collections, the first hit was for “Biography, Sketch of Keene Family and Keene’s Mill, by James A. Anderson, circa 1940” in the James A. Anderson papers. Bingo!

KeeneFamily

Keene Family biography displayed through the Acumen interface

Thanks to April’s work, we and our patrons are able to locate items, along with their digital images, that earlier would have required the patron to spend an inordinate amount of time searching our materials. April must read letters, diaries, receipts, deeds, and various legal and financial documents to decipher names and dates, as well as the general content of a document. Since we primarily digitize materials that are in the public domain, a great number of these items are written in nineteenth-century script and often very difficult to read. She amazingly has provided the item descriptions for over 71,000 items—an item might be a postcard, or it could be a ten-page letter. Her work often requires her to conduct research to discover the identity of the writer and to inform the creation of names for our database. April is, of course, only one person in the digital program—numerous people in several Libraries departments work to make it easy for patrons to find their materials.  Her portion is the first and very visible step in the larger process.

After receiving training from Cataloging & Metadata Services a few years ago, April is now able to add very important subjects and names to our finding aids to add another level of discovery and standardization to our finding aids and collection records in Special Collections. So far, she has added over 1000 names and subjects for us.

This summer she applied to sit for the Academy of Certified Archivists’ examination, which just happened to be in Tuscaloosa. The Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA) was established in 1989 to “develop and administer a program of certification and certification maintenance for archivists in the United States and internationally; increase knowledge of archival certification and its benefits within and outside the archival profession; and promote among archivists the attainment of a high level of professional knowledge.” Anyone interested in becoming a certified archivist must apply and gain approval from the ACA to take the test, and upon approval, sit for the exam in one of several designated sites each year. Only archivists with the requisite amount of experience and qualifying educational background may take the exam. The rigorous exam tests the applicant’s knowledge of archival history, theory, practice, and management.

April took the exam in August and recently received confirmation that she passed the examination and is now a certified archivist! She is the only certified archivist in the Division of Special Collections. We are all so proud of her and this accomplishment!

Kevin Ray promoted to Institutional Records Analyst

Posted on October 16, 2014 by | Posted in: Donnelly Walton, Kevin Ray | Leave a comment

By: Donnelly Walton, Archival Access Coordinator

KevinRayandDonnellyWalton

Kevin Ray, Institutional Records Analyst, and Donnelly Walton, Archival Access Coordinator

This fall, two Special Collections staff members received honors and promotions.

Kevin Ray first started working at the Hoole Library in 1993 and stayed until 1998, when he received his MLIS and left UA to work as a media specialist at a public school. Kevin returned to the Hoole Library in 2002 to work as a project archivist for the Bevill Foundation. As the project archivist, he arranged and described the papers of Tom Bevill, a long-time member of Congress from Jasper, Alabama. When the grant project ended in 2004, Kevin began working as the institutional records assistant, a position he held for about nine years. He worked with Tom Land, who was the institutional records analyst. As institutional records assistant, Kevin was responsible for the daily running of our large records management program. Departments on campus send us their non-current records which state law mandates we keep until a certain amount of time (ex: 10 years after creation) until we can destroy them. Occasionally, however, these offices might need to view the record again. A representative from the office then contacts us and requests delivery of the record. We deliver the record to them and retrieve it when they are finished, recording its chain of custody along the way. In addition to non-current records that may be destroyed eventually, we also hold student transcripts as well as many other permanent records that record the business of the University. Requests for these vital records come from the Records Office; we deliver and retrieve these records as well.

In 2013, Kevin became an archival technician, a role that is responsible for arranging and describing manuscripts. Around the same time, Jessica Lacher-Feldman, our faculty member who was responsible for managing our reference activities, resigned and moved to another institution. Kevin very successfully took on the added responsibilities of managing our reference activities—he answered all incoming questions via email and phone calls, and he supervised our reading room activities. Always an essential member of the Hoole Library staff, Kevin’s role and the importance of his contributions skyrocketed in March 2014 when Tom Land retired after twenty-seven years. For several months, Kevin, still an archival technician, took over management of the University archives and the records management program (with the help of Gates Winters, who joined Special Collections in Spring 2013 as institutional archives assistant), while continuing to oversee all reference activities in Special Collections.

As of October 1, Kevin Ray is now officially the institutional records analyst. He has made an impact on our services by developing new records management guidelines that will soon be shared with offices on campus; working with Gates Winters and various offices on campus to very quickly identify large amounts of records (6000+ linear feet) that can be destroyed according to state law and work with University Recycling to accomplish this feat; and updating our reference practices. Special Collections has undergone several changes in the last few years as staff have retired and resigned; Kevin’s selflessness and dedication have made these changes painless for other staff and our patrons. A past recipient of the Library Leadership Award, Kevin continues his long-standing commitment to providing excellent service to our patrons, whether that patron is an undergraduate, a faculty member from UC-Berkeley, or a representative from President Bonner’s office. Special Collections and the University Libraries are very fortunate to have Kevin Ray.

Goodbye, Corolla, Goodbye: 1980s-1990s

Posted on October 13, 2014 by kgmatheny | Posted in: UA History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

In the last of our series of posts saying farewell to the UA campus yearbook, the Corolla, we look at two books you can’t find online. (Various pages were photographed just for this post.) Both of them — and all the rest — are available in the Hoole Library reading room. Unlike most Hoole resources, they are part of the reference collection, which means they are on the shelves, ready to be used without you having to request them!

The funny thing about these two volumes is how little time I spent choosing which ones to pull. I gravitated toward volumes with covers I found interesting, and what was inside turned out to be a good indication of the decade that produced them. In many ways, any yearbook would’ve been just fine: each has pictures and articles that really speak to its time. That’s why the loss of the yearbook is such a loss for the campus.

1984

The Corolla for this year featured an embossed image of Clark Hall on the cover:

Corolla1984_06

That year, the building turned 100. But the pages of the book were definitely more 1984 than 1884. For example, the late 19th century military college wouldn’t know what to do with a girl dressed as Boy George:

Corolla1984_03

There was a spread on the popular movies of the day, including the conclusion of the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi, and the second movie of Harrison Ford’s other big trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Click on the image below to see the spread up close.

Corolla1984_02

And look what was mainstream enough to make it into the pages of the yearbook:

Corolla1984_01

The Football team was regrouping from the Bear Bryant era, with the short tenure of coach Ray Perkins:

Corolla1984_05

Apparently, the Corolla Beauties section had morphed into Corolla Favorites. The fashion, too, had morphed…and I’m not sure if it was for the better :/

Corolla1984_04

 

1995

The cover of this mid-nineties volume featured fingerprint whorls, announcing the theme of the book: Identity.

Corolla1995_01

Topical pieces included a look at former Vice President Dan Quayle, who received mixed reviews from students when he came to campus to speak that year:

Corolla1995_02

A very different campus visitor also brought controversy, less because of anything she did than because of what the campus group that invited her didn’t do: promote the show very well.

Corolla1995_03

Following National Championships in 1988 and 1991, the Tide gymnastics team was hitting their stride.

Corolla1995_04

Though they didn’t win the championship in 1995, they did the next year.

While the late 20th century yearbooks covered more popular culture than ever before, they still had plenty to share about the campus greek system:

Corolla1995_05

But other topics were pretty new, like those new staples of the home and office, computers:

Corolla1995_06

Who knew that the Supe Store had been an Apple distributor for 20 years!

Thanks for taking this stroll down memory lane with us. For over 100 years, the Corolla has been a mainstay of the University, reflecting and at times even questioning the world of the campus and beyond. It will be sorely missed, if not by the current student body, at least by future researchers.

Introducing the blog of Digital Services & The End of the Corolla

Posted on October 13, 2014 by | Posted in: Amy Hildreth Chen, Corolla, UA History | Leave a comment

By: Amy Chen, CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow

CorollaShelf

Corollas from the late 1940s and early 1950s

The Division of Special Collections and Digital Services work closely together. One of the mandates of Digital Services is to digitize materials from Special Collections to place into the University of Alabama’s online repository, Acumen.

While Acumen contains only a small percentage of the overall materials found in the W.S. Hoole Library and the A.S. Williams III Americana Collection, Digital Services works continuously to increase the amount of items that can be viewable online. Just this summer, Acumen released its new interface. Now, users can contribute to the repository themselves by adding their own tags and transcriptions to what they find.

Digital Services has its own blog, which features longer articles on topics related to the materials they are digitizing, fun features on interesting items they come across, as well as guides and discussions of the technical aspects of their division. And, if you want to keep up with the most recent happenings in Digital Services, check out their Facebook and Twitter feeds (@UALibDS).

CorollaCabinet

The Corollas are all available in a cabinet in the Hoole reading room.

Most recently, Digital Services’ blog did a profile on the Corolla — the University of Alabama yearbook that began in 1893 and, it was announced recently, will conclude publication after the 2013-2014 edition due to low sales numbers. Those of us in Special Collections and Digital Services were sad to hear this announcement, as the Corollas are some of the most fun items to pull out to show students and patrons. The Corollas are all available in a special cabinet in the reading room of the W.S. Hoole Library as “ready reference,” which means you can select and browse these volumes independently, unlike the majority of materials in Special Collections that can only be pulled by staff.

In response to the announcement that the Corolla would cease publication this school year, Kate Matheny, the Digitization Outreach Coordinator from Digital Services, generated a series of blog posts documenting aspects of the Corolla as seen in issues from the 1890s-1900s, 1920s-1930s, 1950s-1960s, and the 1980s-1990s. As Digital Services has an initiative to digitize all the Corollas, many more issues than can be featured on the blog are also available through Acumen. So far, issues from 1893-1909, 1938, and selected volumes from the 1950s-1960s can be found.

We encourage readers of Cool@Hoole to check out Digital Services. Our content is different: Digital Services focuses on longer-form articles and in-depth features written by their staff, while Cool@Hoole strives to recruit short pieces from a diverse set of authors. However, we both feature items and content of general interest to the University of Alabama community, such as information pertaining to the traditions and content found in the Corolla.

Goodbye, Corolla, Goodbye: 1950s-1960s

Posted on October 9, 2014 by kgmatheny | Posted in: UA History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Continuing our look at Corollas of the past, these two volumes from the 1950s and 1960s are both in Acumen, and they document a rapidly changing student body and new student attitudes.

1959

With the Space Race now underway, the 1959 yearbook editors used imagery of rockets and space to anchor their introduction to the book, as well as to adorn the cover.

1959 Corolla

1959 Corolla

But closer to home, the students were still students — and the Corolla could be a little bit bolder about covering their activities:

1959 Corolla

Lest you think UA was all about football or the Greek system, there were also a lot of artistic endeavors being pursued:

1959 Corolla

But probably the most important event of the year, even if they didn’t yet know just how important, was Bear Bryant’s first year as coach:

1959 Corolla

1968

This volume from the late 1960s found UA in the thick of a cultural revolution, reflected in the topics discussed at the Emphasis symposium…and in the protesters outside:

1968 Corolla

Depending on when the book went into print, Martin Luther King Jr. was either a force to be reckoned with or a recent martyr. Here he is as part of a collage printed in the book:

1968 Corolla

Fields like engineering were really coming to the forefront:

1968 Corolla

Unsurprisingly, sports (and color photos!) were a major part of the book:

1968 Corolla

Our concept of beauty and fashion had changed a bit, seen here in a Corolla Beauty that the 1938 girls would’ve considered scantily clad:

1968 Corolla

Finally, the student body was also undergoing a change. While African-American students were still few and far between, even five years after the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, they were very much present, like the young man seen here (row two), a pre-med student:

1968 Corolla

In the next post, we’ll wrap up our look at the Corolla over the years with glimpses of the 1980s and 1990s.

Banned: To Kill a Mockingbird and Beloved

Posted on October 8, 2014 by | Posted in: Exhibitions, Page Novak | Tagged | Leave a comment

By: Page Novak, UA undergraduate

This fall, step into the lobby of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall to see Page Novak’s display of banned books celebrating Banned Book Week, which was September 21-27. Novak’s exhibition will be up for the remainder of the semester.

In case you can’t manage to stop by, you can read more about the books she selected to feature here. On Monday, she discussed Ulysses and 1984; today, she shares information about Beloved and To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Beloved

Beloved Hoole Library Wade Hall Collection PS3563.O8749 B4 1987

Beloved

The novel Beloved (1978) by Toni Morrison follows a slave named Sethe who escapes to Ohio from a plantation in Kentucky owned by Mr. Garner to find her family and free herself. Throughout the novel, flashbacks portray what Sethe’s life was like in Kentucky as well as when she first came to Cincinnati.  Sethe was free when she first arrived, but a school teacher from the plantation came to find her and her children.  Before the school teacher could get to Sethe’s children, she took them to a shed to kill them, but only succeeded in killing her youngest daughter who became the ghost that haunts Sethe’s house on 124 Bluestone Road.

Many school districts throughout the United States challenged the inclusion of the novel Beloved on their curriculum.  In 2011, parents of AP English students brought up the racial slurs and sexuality present throughout the novel.  These charges made Beloved one of the most challenged books in the United States since it was published.

Continue reading →

Banned: Ulysses and 1984

Posted on October 6, 2014 by | Posted in: Exhibitions, Page Novak, Rare Books | Leave a comment

By: Page Novak, UA undergraduate

Banned

Banned, curated by Page Novak

This fall, step into the lobby of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall to see Page Novak’s display of banned books celebrating Banned Book Week, which was September 21-27.

Novak’s exhibition will be up for the remainder of the semester, but in case you can’t manage to stop by, you can read more about the books she selected to feature here. Today, she shares information about Ulysses and 1984; Wednesday she will discuss To Kill a Mockingbird and Beloved. 

 

Ulysses

Ulysses Hoole Library Rare Books PR6019.O9 U44 1929

Ulysses

Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce is set in Dublin, Ireland during the day of June 16, 1904. The novel begins at eight o’clock when one of the main characters, Stephen Dedalus, wakes up for work.  Stephen teaches history at Garrett Deasy’s boys’ school. Dedalus meets Deasy, who wants Stephen to take an editorial to his friends at the newspaper company.  That same morning, Leopold Bloom brings his wife Molly her mail and breakfast in bed. At each following hour of the day, Stephen and Leopold’s actions are noted.  Bloom and Dedalus finally meet at the end of the novel.

The novel Ulysses is one of the most challenged and controversial books in history; it was banned in the United States until 1934.  U.S. District Judge John M. Woolsey presided over the court case United States vs. One Book Called Ulysses in 1933. He ruled the novel was not pornographic and, a decade after it was published in Ireland, Ulysses would legally debut in the United States. However, it was quickly banned in communities in both the US and the United Kingdom to the novel’s strong sexual themes.  Some groups, such as the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, even took legal action to not allow this book to be sold in the United States.  Ulysses still resides on the top 100 most challenged books in the United States and Apple, the company that sells iPhones and iPads, even declined to sell the novel when it was turned into a digital comic because of the presence of nudity.

Continue reading →

When research changes a proposed topic idea

Posted on October 3, 2014 by | Posted in: Birmingham, Evan Ward | Leave a comment

By: Evan Ward, UA MA student in History

This post is an update from Evan Ward’s initial research proposal, seen in his first blog post on April 21, 2014. Since then, his work shifted. As many students fear the moment when they realize the need to change the direction of their research, he agreed to discuss both how and why his research changed in an interview and through the summary presented below. 

We hope his example will not only enlighten others about the significant work he is doing, but also help demystify the process of refining your topic in response to what sources become available. 

u0003_0001577_0013493_0001_2048 (1)

The Iron Age

My project began with a question that occurred to me while studying constitutional change in Alabama during the era of Democratic Redemption. When redeemers retook the state house in the fall of 1874, they associated industrial development with the profligacy and fiscal irresponsibility of Alabama’s Reconstruction governments, which had left the state deeply in debt. The Redeemers of 1874-1875 forbade state aid to corporations, improvements to infrastructure, and sought to repudiate the state debt to the railroad companies, which would have discouraged future investment in the state.

A quarter-century later, when Alabama’s leading figures gathered to again rewrite the state’s constitution, a marked change had occurred in the thinking of the state’s political elite. The 1901 constitutional convention was composed not just of planters and the sons of planters, but of industrialists and corporate attorneys from the state’s mineral belt as well. On the eve of the convention, one of Alabama’s most prominent statesmen, former Confederate general and eight-term Democratic Congressman Joseph Wheeler, lauded the “great hand-maids of civilization, steel iron and coal,” and further marveled at industry’s capacity as a force “exercised in the support of and in extending the influence of American spirit, determined courage and high civilization.”[1]

Why the change? My project initially sought to understand how Alabama’s industrialists pursued their interests in the political arena during this time. But as I read newspapers and industry pamphlets, I was struck by the fervent language that was employed by industrial boosters. I detected a change in attitudes held regarding the dignity associated with industrial labor, and the fitness of industrial managers and wage-workers alike for participation in public life. Some grew to resent the old economic system, under which the gentlemen planter was seen as the epitome of success. “When we cease to entertain extravagant and erroneous ideas of the social dignity of idleness,” The Birmingham Iron Age opined, “and not till then, will we begin to build up our waste places, as the trite phrase runs.”[2]

Whereas talk of manly honor had once been the province of independent landowners, industrial labor began to accrue a kind of dignity and honor that was its own. Some Alabamians began to see miners and mill workers as playing a special role in the Redemption of the state. Though the South had failed to secure political independence, economic self-sufficiency could prove to be the next best thing. The quicker states like Alabama could industrialize, the quicker they could free themselves from dependence on northern-made products and raw materials. The Birmingham Iron Age again describes the mood of industrial boosters, heaping praise on those working in settings once thought of as degrading:

All honor, we say, to the noble mechanic of our Southern land – the bone and sinew of our country – the stalwart men who run our machine shops, foundries, forges and railroads…One such man is worth a thousand of our well-dressed idlers, even though his pockets be lined with gold and his face brazen with brass. The hope of our country is the industrious mechanic. Without them, our country would be a desert waste.[3]

[1] Montgomery Advertiser, April 28, 1901.

[2] Birmingham Iron Age, February 19, 1874.

[3] Birmingham Iron Age, February 26, 1874.

Interview with Evan Ward, UA MA student in History

Posted on October 3, 2014 by | Posted in: Birmingham, Evan Ward | Leave a comment

By: Evan Ward, University of Alabama M.A. student in History

EvanWard-Crop

Evan Ward

Hello! Thank you for agreeing to share with Cool@Hoole readers how your research experience in the Division of Special Collections at UA has progressed since we last featured your project back on April 21, 2014.

First off, since your first post just featured an abstract of your project, would you mind introducing yourself?

Sure. My name is Evan Ward, and I am a graduate student in the History Department. I am starting the second year of my Masters degree. I grew up in Prattville, AL, which sits a few miles north of Montgomery. I came to the University in the fall of 2008 to start my undergraduate degree, and eventually settled on history as my major. I originally chose history because of the wide variety of courses that were offered – I was able to simultaneously dabble in the history of ancient Egypt and modern United States. But what I came to enjoy most about my major, perhaps ironically, was its local significance. As I completed an independent research project during my junior and senior year, I was reminded of the rich and immediately accessible history of my own community, state, and region.

 What led you to do research in the Division of Special Collections?

In the second semester of the history graduate program, students enroll in HY 657, a research seminar. The goal of the course is to build students’ experience doing archival research, and it concludes with the completion of an article-length work of original historical scholarship. The first few weeks of the seminar actually meet in various libraries across campus, with the goal of becoming more aware of the vast array of source material that is held with UA’s libraries. While meeting at the Hoole library, the archival staff mentioned the arrival of some new documents relating to southern industry and labor, which happened to be where my research interests were. Thus, Hoole became a kind of base camp as I started my research.

Continue reading →