Written Legacy: the Writing and Poetry of African American Women

Celebrate Black History Month and Women’s History Month by exploring the writing and poetry of African American women. Archives and Special Collections house a variety of literature by well known African American female authors and poets. Included in the exhibit are Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning Song of Solomon; the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, who was named Poet Laureate consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress; and the writings of actress, playwright, director, autobiographer, and poet, Maya Angelou. Also featured in this exhibit will be Wanda Coleman, Rita Dove, and many more.

Written Legacy: the writing and poetry of African American Women will be on display in Archives and Special Collections on the second floor of Bracken Library from February to April 2010. For more information, please contact Lajmar Anderson at LDanderson@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5078.

Schuyler Nolan Collection in DMR

We are pleased to announce that the Schuyler N. Nolan Architectural Records are now available in the Digital Media Repository: http://libx.bsu.edu/collection.php?CISOROOT=/NlnArchRcrd. Nolan has a landscape architecture firm in Indianapolis from 1937 to 1976 and designed residential and corporate landscapes, reforestation plans for local parks, and landscapes for churches, colleges, and universities. The digital collection consists of 56 projects that survived a flood in his basement that unfortunately ruined most of the drawings from his career.

Thanks to everyone who worked on this digital collection in Metadata and Digital Initiatives, Archives and Special Collections, Library Information Technology Services, and Carol Street, for making these records available in the DMR.

Bracken Library Will Host Marathon Screening of Ken Burns’ The War

Bracken Library will host a two-day marathon showing of The War, a film by Ken Burns, on January 30-31, 2010, as part of the Muncie Public Library/Ball State Public History Program’s upcoming speakers series, “America and the World in the 1940s.” The film is fifteen hours long and was six years in the making.

Dr. Michael Doyle is the Academic Advisor for Adult Programming at Muncie Public Library. After making the decision to show the film to the public, he began looking for a place that had high student traffic, was conveniently accessible for Muncie community members, and comfortable for viewing such a long presentation. Bracken Library’s room 104 was the perfect choice. Dr. Doyle said, “I am always looking to foster more town and gown relationships for Ball State.”

With Bracken Library being so well-known by both students and community members, Doyle imagines that many people will find it convenient to slip in and slip out, as desired. “World War II is a perennial subject of fascination,” says Dr. Doyle, since it touched everyone’s lives, whether soldiering in the European or Pacific Theaters or staying on the home front growing victory gardens, working in assembly plants, or watching loved ones go off to war. Doyle notes that through the years, many veterans of the war have not been talkative about their experiences in the war, which “enhances its mystique” for so many family members of all ages, from college students on up.

Dr. Doyle says that the Ken Burns film is the first in our generation to interweave the European, Pacific, and home front activities, rather than treat them separately. It “gives a sense of what it was like to be alive in the 1940s, when you did not know what would happen from one day to the next.” The film also pays special attention to the affect of the war on and the involvement of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans.

When The War originally aired on PBS in September 2007, many local PBS stations were given the opportunity to develop related programming. For WIPB, Ball State personnel directed and produced the Telly-winning Echoes of War, a live 60-minute interactive educational program(www.bsu.edu/wipb/echoesofwar/about.asp), which Ken Burns introduced and closed. Because of Burns’ involvement in 2007, he personally made the decision that his production company, Florentine Films, would waive the usual public screening fee for this upcoming 2010 showing of The War at Bracken Library.

The marathon screening of Ken Burns’ The War will take place in Bracken Library’s room 104 over the weekend of January 30-31, 2010, from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. both days. The War was directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.

Muncie native Joseph M. Fisher (left) and Vernie Druin standing in front of a tank in Koblenz, Germany, March 1945. From the Joseph Fisher World War II Scrapbook Collection in Archives and Special Collections, available online in the Digital Media Repository at http://libx.bsu.edu/collection.php?CISOROOT=/WWIIScrp

Additional Archives and Special Collections World War II Resources:
http://bsu.libguides.com/archivesworldwar
http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/archives/sharedsacrifice/

Friends Memorial Church Collection

When Muncie’s Friends Memorial Church celebrated their centennial in 2008 by removing the contents of a time capsule placed in the cornerstone of their building in 1908, they found an unpleasant surprise. Water had seeped in through a hole in the metal container holding the historical objects carefully placed there a hundred years before. Many of the items were damaged, mildewed, or moldy. Some seemed beyond repair or salvage.

Mrs. Pat Barnett and other members of the congregation contacted John Straw in the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections to see what might be done to preserve these valuable relics of the church’s past. John Straw and Maren L. Read, Archivist for Manuscript Collections, paid a visit to inspect the items and provide professional advice.

The result was a collaborative project between the Friends Memorial Church and the University Libraries to digitize the contents of the time capsule and make them available in the Digital Media Repository (http://libx.bsu.edu/). The same was done for other items in the church’s archives and for materials in the Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections about the history of the church.

The Friends Memorial Church Collection is now available online at the following address: http://libx.bsu.edu/collection.php? CISOROOT=/FrndsMem. Items in the digital collection include photographs, a handwritten church roster from 1906, the building contract, histories, directories, reports, and issues of the Muncie Evening Press and the Muncie Evening Star with articles and photographs about the church. The water damage done to the items is apparent in several of the digital images.

The Friends congregation held their first meeting in 1876. The first meetings were in a private home north of the Courthouse Square and later in a public hall above retail rooms across from the old Delaware County Courthouse in the 100 block of North High Street. The first church building was erected at Mulberry and Seymour streets in 1903, and the current church was built in 1908.

The Libraries’ collaboration with the Friends Memorial Church will continue as more items from their archives are digitized and made available over time. For more information on the Digital Media Repository, contact John B. Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, or 765-285-5078.

Drawings and Documents Archive Continues to Expand

The Drawings and Documents Archive, located in the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP), has experienced a great deal of change this year, particularly during the past semester.

Students, alumni, and outside researchers have expressed their appreciation for greater access to materials through longer hours of operation and quicker responses for research requests, and for an active outreach program through online resources and exhibitions. CAP Dean Guillermo Vasquez de Velasco said, “The Archive has been transformed into an interesting, exciting, and accessible place for students and faculty.”

Evidence of this transformation is in the user statistics for the Archive. This semester 455 users accessed 721 items in the collection. By comparison, for the same period a year ago, 197 users accessed 24 items in the collection. The University Libraries are also expanding access to the Archive collections by digitizing hundreds of rare architectural drawings and making them available in the Digital Media Repository (http://libx.bsu.edu/).

The Pierre and Wright Architectural Records Collection was the first collection digitized. Edward Pierre and George Wright were two of the most influential architects in Indiana during the 20th century and were responsible for important structures such as the Indiana State Library and Old Trails Office Building, as well as the houses in Williams Creek Estates and numerous structures in Indianapolis. You can access our growing online collection of Pierre and Wright material at http://libx.bsu.edu/collection.php?CISOROOT=/PieWri.

Other collections currently being digitized are the Schuyler N. Nolan Landscape Architecture Records Collection, Wayne M. Weber Architectural Records Collection, and Samuel G. Bartel Architectural Records Collection. For more information, contact Carol A. Street, University Libraries’ Archivist for Architectural Records, CAStreet@bsu.edu, 765-285-8441.

Usually, we do not get to hear how our online collections affect offsite researchers. This photo, available online in the DMR, shows the Edward Pierre-designed Dodd House soon after the house was built in 1946.

One Indianapolis homeowner recently ended his five-year quest to determine the architect who built his house, thanks to our online collections. “This is just terrific! I am as pleased as punch!” he wrote us, sending along this picture, taken at a similar angle.

Grant Awarded

Carol A. Street, Archivist for Architectural Records, has been awarded a Preservation Needs Assessment Grant from the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. The $6,700 grant, partially funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will pay for a consultant from the Conservation Center to conduct a preservation assessment of the Drawings and Documents Archive.

Friends Memorial Church Collection Added to DMR

We are pleased to announce that the Friends Memorial Church Collection has been added to the Digital Media Repository: http://libx.bsu.edu/collection.php?CISOROOT=/FrndsMem

This digital collection contains historical documents and photos for Friends Memorial Church in Muncie, and is the result of a collaboration with the church. While some of the items are from Archives and Special Collections, many of them came from the cornerstone of the building where they had been placed in 1908 and were opened in 2009. Unfortunately, water had seeped into the cornerstone so many of the items were damage. We worked with them to digitize and preserve what could be saved.

Holiday Archive Hours

Holiday Archive Hours
(beginning December 21)

*8:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

*Dec. 23

8:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.

*Dec. 24 and Dec. 25

CLOSED

*Dec. 31

8:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.

                                                   

*January 1, 2010

CLOSED

We will resume regular hours January 11, 2010

Indiana Diners and Drive-ins from the Drawings and Documents Archive

Experience the history of the American diner! The Drawings and Documents Archive’s new exhibit, Indiana Diners and Drive-ins, explores the architecture of the diner from its origin as a night lunch wagon, where night workers and bar patrons bought five-cent ham sandwiches and pie after the regular restaurants had closed for the night, to the rocket ship-inspired drive-ins of the 1950s, where teenagers cruised in their Ford convertibles, looking for a malt and a burger.

The humble diner is a familiar aspect of the American landscape. No road trip would be the same without its comforting neon beacon at the end of a long road, and every late night out deserves to be capped off with a visit to the local greasy spoon to ease the transition home.

While we may take the structure of the modern diner for granted, it has experienced many architectural revisions in its progression from novelty business to regular customers. Indiana diners, as well as the diner’s midcentury offspring, the drive-in, developed according to cultural interests and pastimes and, therefore, architecturally reflect what was happening in Indiana and in the rest of the country.

The exhibit is available for viewing November 12, 2009, through January 5, 2010, at the College of Architecture and Planning’s gallery, located on the first floor. To see the exhibit online, visit www.bsu.edu/libraries/archives/drawings/Exhibits/diners/index.htm. For more information, contact Carol A. Street, University Libraries’ Archivist for Architectural Records, CAStreet@bsu.edu, 765-285-8441.

Review of the Additions to the Ball State Digital Media Repository in 2009

T’was the night before final exams, and all through the halls of academia, not a student was texting or tweeting. It was time to look in the digital stocking to see what gifts were waiting.

Suddenly such a clatter arose on the roof of Bracken Library, and with a clang and a twitter, the digital elves, those little pixel pixies, had arrived, delivering new digital resources from the University Libraries to bring joy and academic advancement to all the Ball State girls and boys. (And thanks to that jolly little round-bellied elf named Google and his competitor elves, to boys and girls everywhere.)

Here is a list of this past year’s stocking stuffers, all of which are accessible to you through Ball State’s Digital Media Repository, http://llibx.bsu.edu/

Art History Images – A selection of significant artworks, ranging in date from prehistoric to the late 1990s, including such styles as Abstract Expressionist, Fauve, Surrealist, Pop and beyond.

Charles E. Bracker Orchid Photographs – Thousands of digital photographs of orchids taken by Dr. Charles E. Bracker from 1964 through 1999.

Cantigny First Division Oral Histories – Forty high definition video oral history interviews with veterans of the U. S. Army’s First Infantry Division, commonly known as the “Big Red One.”

Middletown Women’s History Collection – Diaries, minutes, correspondence, photographs, and other archival materials documenting the experiences of women and women’s organizations in Muncie, Indiana, from the 1880s through the 1930s.

Muncie Redevelopment Commission Records – Minutes from 1973 and 1980-2004 that document the organization’s work to rehabilitate properties in the city of Muncie.

Pierre and Wright Architectural Records – Drawings, photographs, 3-D models, and other materials from the architecture firms of Edward D. Pierre, the Pierre Wright Partnership, and Edward D. Pierre and Associates, documenting many well-known buildings designed by the firms throughout Indianapolis and the state of Indiana from 1920 to 1960.

376th Heavy Bombardment Group Oral Histories – Audio and video oral histories with veterans serving in the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group during World War II.

Yorktown-Mount Pleasant Township Historical Alliance Collection –
Photographs, newspaper clippings, and other materials from the Historical Alliance documenting the history of Yorktown and Mount Pleasant Township, Indiana, from 1888 to 2007.

So all the Ball State students, faculty, and staff snuggled warm in their beds, knowing these digital gifts were waiting just a click away on the University Libraries’ wonderful Web site to help them achieve success in their academic careers.

As they fell into slumber on this cold winter’s night, they dreamed of all the new digital resources that would arrive in the new year: American Almanacs, Indiana Historical Atlases, Delaware County Aerial Plat Maps, Beeman Costume Collection, Frederick Putnam Diaries, Student Architectural Models and Projects, Samuel Bartel Architectural Records, Wayne Weber Architectural Drawings and Photographs, Holy Cards Collection, Historical Children’s Books, Bird Specimens Collection, Vietnam Veteran’s Oral Histories, and so much more.

From all the University Libraries’ digital elves, season’s greetings, and to all a good night.

Indiana Diners and Drive-ins: Architectural Drawings from the Drawings and Documents Archive

Experience the history of the American diner from November 12, 2009 thru January 5, 2010!

The University Libraries’ Drawings and Documents Archive’s new exhibit, Indiana Diners and Drive-ins, explores the architecture of the diner from its origin as a night lunch wagon where night workers and bar patrons bought five-cent ham sandwiches and pie after the regular restaurants had closed for the night, to the rocket ship-inspired drive-ins of the 1950s where teenagers cruised in their Ford convertibles, looking for a malt and a burger.

The exhibit will be on display until January 5, 2010. For more information, contact Carol A. Street, University Libraries’ Archivist for Architectural Records, CAStreet@bsu.edu, 765-285-8441.

The Charles E. Bracker Collection Acquired

Thirty Thousand Digital Photographs of Orchids at Ball State University Libraries

The Ball State University Libraries are now the proud home of a collection of more than 30,000 digital photographs and nearly 2,000 prints of orchids. These outstandingly beautiful photographs are the work of Charles E. Bracker, retired professor of botany and plant pathology at Purdue University.

The collection of digital photographs is being made available to students, researchers, and orchid-enthusiasts around the world through the Ball State Digital Media Repository (DMR), http://libxi.bsu.edu/, a project of the University Libraries.

Dr. Bracker’s wife Anri began their personal collection of orchids in the late 1980s after purchasing two plants on a trip to Hawaii. After his wife passed away in 2001, Dr. Bracker wanted to keep her collection alive and thriving. He installed a basement greenhouse in his home and began adding orchids to the collection. He combined his passion for orchids and photography to create more than 30,000 stunning photographs of orchids.

In 2008, Professor Bracker donated 1,000 orchids to Ball State University’s nationally renowned Wheeler Orchid Collection and Species Bank. Recently, he also decided to give his collection of orchid photographs to Ball State University.

According to Cheryl M. LeBlanc, Wheeler Collection curator, “The combination of the plants and the photographs brings Ball State University to the forefront as having the largest university-based orchid collection in the country.”

The collection of prints and digital images are housed in the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections. More than 300 of the images are now in the Charles E. Bracker Orchid Photographs collection in the DMR, http://libx.bsu.edu/collection.php?CISOROOT=/BrckrOrchd, and the remainder of the 30,000 images are being added to the collection.

The Bracker Orchid Photographs join a collection of rare orchid books held by Archives and Special Collections. One particularly interesting title is the four-volume set, Reichenbachia, a nineteenth century work containing magnificent color prints of orchids. The title comes from orchidologist Heinrich Gustave Reichenbach.

Bound in leather with marbled end pages, these large books were published in two series with each volume dedicated to a queen or empress: Queen Victoria, the Empress of Germany and Queen of Persia, the Empress of Russia, and the Queen of Belgium. Each book includes color lithography, notes on the orchid’s history and cultures, and structural drawings of each flower. For more information, contact John B. Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Orchid Photographs on Exhibit

A selection of 60 Charles E. Bracker Orchid Photographs are on exhibit outside of the Archives and Special Collections, Bracken Library BL-210, and in exhibit cases on first floor east through December 2009.

The exhibit illustrates the diversity of orchids captured in Dr. Bracker’s superb photography. In a 2006 article in Purdue Agriculture Connections Magazine, Bracker was quoted as saying, “When I take pictures, I take a lot of them.” He said he typically took about 20 exposures for each flower.

Viewers of the exhibit will see that, as a rule, the flowers were only photographed when they were in full bloom. Dr. Bracker’s orchid photographs have been on exhibit in Hawaii, Massachusetts, and various other places in the past. For more information on the exhibit, contact Lajmar D. Anderson, Archives and Special Collections Supervisor, LDAnderson@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Russ Vernon to Speak on Orchid Art and Conservation at Library Friends Program

In conjunction with the Bracker Orchid Photographs exhibit, internationally recognized orchid horticulturalist Mr. Russ Vernon will present a program on “Orchid Art and Conservation” on Tuesday, October 20, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. in Bracken Library BL-104. Sponsored by the Friends of the Alexander M. Bracken Library, the presentation is free and open to the public.

Mr. Vernon is a 1972 graduate of the Ohio State University where he majored in horticulture/floriculture. He has worked for Orchids by Hausermann, A & P Orchids, and Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield the cat. In 2004, he and his wife Anita started New Vision Orchids, a company specializing in Phalaenopsis, Odontoglossums and their intergenerics, Miltoniopsis and Lycastes. Their focus is on hybridizing and wholesale and retail sales. He is a judge for the American Orchid Society (AOS) and is currently the president of the International Phalaenopsis Alliance.

Earlier in the day on October 20, free tours of the Wheeler Orchid Collection at the Greenhouse in Christy Woods will be offered from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. From 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., University Libraries personnel will present a demonstration of the Bracker Orchid Photographs Digital Collection in the Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz Special Collections and Digital Complex on the first floor of Bracken Library.

University Development will provide free shuttle service from the Wheeler Collection to Bracken Library between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. Tours of the Charles E. Bracker Orchid Photographs Exhibit in the Archives and Special Collections will be offered prior to, and immediately following, all of the events.

For more information on the Friends program or any of these events, contact John B. Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, and Executive Secretary of the Friends of Bracken Library, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Bracken Library Hosts Grand Opening of The Schwartz Digital Complex

The grand opening of the Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz Special Collections and Digital Complex was the focus of this year’s first Tech4U held on September 17, 2009, in Bracken Library from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Sponsored by the Vice President’s Office for Information Technology, Tech4U is an information technology showcase of emerging media and other cutting-edge technologies.

A series of five Tech4U events this academic year will highlight different aspects of technology for teaching, learning, and research. The Schwartz Digital Complex is a high-tech facility located on the first floor of Bracken Library. It is a resource designed to support collaboration and innovation through digital technology. This facility has been made possible by a financial gift from local businessman and philanthropist Mr. Martin Schwartz in honor of his late wife Helen.

The September 17 opening event included two keynote sessions that highlighted the advanced technology of the Schwartz Digital Complex. The first session, “Avatars in the Library: The Opening of the Virtual Alexander M. Bracken Library,” focused on the new virtual Bracken Library in the 3-D world of Second Life.

Dr. James Connolly, Director of the Center for Middletown Studies; Dr. John Fillwalk, Director of the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts; Maren Read, Archivist for Manuscript Collections; and John Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, gave presentations on the construction of the virtual library and its resources, the potential academic uses, and the future plans for further development of this virtual learning environment. The virtual Bracken Library project was funded by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Innovative Library Program Grant received by the University Libraries for 2008-2009.

The second keynote session, “A Collaboration in Architecture: Virtual Design Studios,” featured Dean Guillermo Vasquez de Valasco and Associate Professor Antonieta Angulo of the College of Architecture and Planning, along with students from Professor Angulo’s studio class. Dean Vasquez de Velasco gave an interactive presentation on the Las Americas Virtual Design Studio in the Schwartz Complex Viewing Room while Professor

Angulo conducted her studio class in the Schwartz Complex Learning Pods. The simultaneity demonstrated the collaborative nature of virtual studios and the versatile capabilities of the new facility. Students used SMART AirLiner wireless slates and Second Life, Skype to work with the architectural firm NBBJ in London, and video conferencing technologies to collaborate with BSA LifeStructures students and instructors in Indianapolis.


Throughout the Tech4U event, attendees were able to interact with educational partners AT&T, Apple, Lenovo, and Roscor to learn about their latest products. Information tables and demonstrations were available through United Technology Services, Infocaster, WIPB TV, IPR Radio, Emerging Media Initiatives, Virtual Studio, the University Libraries’ Digital Initiatives, Emerging Technologies and the Digital Corps, Journalistic Games, and Modern Languages’ Second Life Project. In addition, tours and demonstrations of the Schwartz Digital Complex were offered during the day.

Microsoft Surface, a multi-user, multi-touch computer that looks like a table and works without a mouse or keyboard, was a big hit again this year. The University Libraries now have a Surface in the Schwartz Digital Complex, and it attracted a large audience of students and others throughout the day. University Computing Services and Department of Computer Science personnel worked with University Libraries personnel to create three new applications that are available on the Libraries’ Surface unit: interactive campus maps and photographs that show the development of Ball State through the years, a sampling of digital images of orchids from the Charles E. Bracker Photographs Collection (described in earlier posting), and a collection of College of Architecture and Planning students’ work from the Las Americas Virtual Design Studio.

In addition to the individuals mentioned above, several other University Libraries personnel participated in the planning, set-up, and events of Tech4U, including Alex Amira, James A. Bradley, Dixie D. DeWitt, Bradley D. Faust, Angie S. Gibson, Amanda A. Hurford, Bobbie J. Pearson, Carolyn F. Runyon, Blake R. Stiener, and Budi Wibowo.

The next Tech4U will be held in Bracken Library from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., October 15, 2009. Others will follow on November 19, 2009, March 25, 2010, and April 15, 2010. All events are free and open to the public. To learn more, visit http://cms.bsu.edu/About/AdministrativeOffices/Tech4U.aspx