Music Library Displays Instruments In the Stacks

Several in-stacks display cases were recently mounted in the Music Library to show off musical instruments from the Lentz Collection for Asian Culture. The unusual idea came out of a discussion music librarian Anita Breckbill had several years ago with members of the User Experience team of the Libraries, and it stuck.

String instruments are in one case, flutes in another, and reed and brass instruments in a third.  There are a few larger instruments displayed elsewhere in the Music library. Faculty in the music school often borrow and incorporate the instruments into a class curriculum. 

See the new instruments during the hours that the Music Library is open. 

University of Nebraska launches Nebraska Archives Online

University of Nebraska launches Nebraska Archives Online

Archivists from the four University of Nebraska campuses have collaborated to launch Nebraska Archives Online (http://archives.nebraska.edu), a shared online database that provides access to finding aids and guides for the university’s unique archival and manuscript collections. Through the work of the University of Nebraska Consortium of Libraries (UNCL), Nebraska Archives Online meets a longstanding need to provide a one-stop portal to these collections. It’s a resource meant to engage the public’s curiosity and improve the research process for students or anyone with a research need. The materials in each of the NU archives are available for anyone to use.

“Bringing together the University of Nebraska’s unique collections provides benefits to users of archives as well as the repositories. Folks visiting the archives in Kearney can now easily find material in Omaha and Lincoln,” explained Amy Schindler, Director of Archives and Special Collections at the UNO Libraries.

For example, a researcher searching for materials relating to social workers Grace and Edith Abbott may now find their personal and professional papers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and materials relating to the Grace Abbott School of Social Work at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, which can lead to a greater understanding of the location and variety of resources.

The four archives and special collections repositories spent the last year migrating their individual databases into a single instance of the ArchivesSpace platform. The public now has a tool that provides descriptions of collections physically located across the university system with links to thousands of pages of documents and audio and video recordings. This includes over 3,500 records associated with unique collections and materials at UNK, UNL, UNMC, and UNO.

“Its ongoing work, but we’ve collaborated before on the online exhibit on the 1968 university merger. Actually, what a way to celebrate that achievement, bringing together our resources today, and looking towards the future,” stated Mary Ellen Ducey, university archivist/special collections librarian at UNL.

As with the earlier exhibit project (http://exhibit.nebraska.edu), the project benefits from building a community of practice to share ideas and collaboration opportunities. Nebraska Archives Online will continue to grow with new material from the four campuses of the University of Nebraska and with new opportunities for potential future expansion. Archivists at each campus will continue to focus on matching professional archival standards, such as those supported by the Society of American Archivists, with local best practices and operations.

The University of Nebraska’s four archival repositories share a mission of long-term access and preservation of the historical record by maintaining millions of pages of documents, photographs, letters, policies, and material in all formats that answer questions, tell a story, and celebrate something unique about our university, our communities, and the state of Nebraska.

Nebraska Archives have helped students working on class projects, someone researching their neighborhood, administrator looking for a policy document, genealogist seeking a piece of information about an ancestor. In order to help people reach these goals, archivists create finding aids or guides to the thousands of collections in the University of Nebraska’s archives and special collections repositories. Now these guides are collected together in one portal, Nebraska Archives Online (http://archives.nebraska.edu).

About the University of Nebraska Consortium of Libraries (UNCL):

UNCL leads the University of Nebraska libraries to create and sustain a rich, supportive, and diverse knowledge environment that furthers teaching, learning, and research through the sharing of collections, expertise, and programs. Each campus preserves the unique history of the University of Nebraska and offers unique collections that support the research needs of each campus and interests of the state of Nebraska. Our reading rooms are open to the public.

2019 Libraries Visiting Scholar lecture: “Academic Freedom: The Key Role of Archival Records”

April 18, 2019, 11 am – Noon, Nebraska Union Auditorium

Tanya Zanish-Belcher, the Director of Special Collections & Archives at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is the 2019 Visiting Scholar for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. Her public presentation on “Academic Freedom: The Key Role of Archival Records,’ is scheduled for April 18, 2019, at 11:00 a.m. in the Nebraska Union Auditorium (1400 R St., Lincoln).  The event is free and open to the public.

Zanish-Belcher’s presentation will address research, and the broadest sense of the historical record, which is based on, or depends upon, the quality and amount of historical records available for the types of stories we can tell. The expansion of the documentary record, particularly (1) the creation of materials giving a much-needed view of marginalized groups long silenced, (2) the explosion of community-based archives, and (3) the digitization of materials from the past all provide rich new sources for exploration. What impact does this growing plethora of information and data have on our efforts to describe, contextualize, and share the various elements of our complicated histories? At the same time, a growing lack of access to the public record, whether by cost, censorship, a decrease in public funding, or a narrowing view of American citizenship, challenges us. How can archivists, researchers, and scholars reverse this trend and ensure the continued preservation and access to the historical record which defines who we are?

Zanish-Belcher received her M.A. in Historical and Archival Administration from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and her B.A. in History from Ohio Wesleyan University. Prior to her appointment as director at Wake Forest in 2013, she was the Head of Special Collections & Archives at Iowa State University Library between 1998-2013, and was also a Special Collections Archivist at the Alabama Dept. of Archives and History between 1989-1994.

Her publications include Perspectives on Women’s Archives (edited, with Anke Voss) for the Society of American Archivists (2013) and author of one of its chapters, “’A Culture of Concealment’: Revealing the Records of Human Reproduction.” Tanya has taught workshops on archival reference for the Midwest Archives Conference and has given many presentations at the state, local, and national levels. She has published articles on women’s archives and women in science, and has served on and chaired various SAA committees, including the nominating committee, Committee on the Status of Women, and the Membership Committee. She was named a Society of American Archivists (SAA) Fellow in 2011, the highest accolade given by the Society. She is a Past President of Midwest Archives Conference, member of the SAA Council (2012-2015), and was elected Vice-President/President Elect for SAA in 2016. Zanish-Belcher served as the 73rd President of the Society of American Archivists in 2017-2018.

Kiyomi Deards Named ARL Visiting Program Officer for Diversity and Leadership

(Reprinted from ARL News)

By Mark A. Puente

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has appointed Kiyomi Deards of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln as a visiting program officer for diversity and leadership, effective February 1, 2019. Deards will support the Association’s diversity, equity, and inclusion portfolio in advancing access to economic and social prosperity, encouraging full participation in society, and countering the historical lack of access to and underrepresentation of human and material resources that research libraries cultivate and steward.

As a visiting program officer, Deards will conduct research and produce several resources for ARL member libraries and archives to use in strengthening their efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her areas of research will include (1) frameworks for diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies in libraries, archives, other cultural heritage and information organizations, and higher education; (2) training, community building, and development programs that address diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies; and (3) funding sources for developing a cohort of expert facilitators to help ARL institutions create and implement diversity, equity, and inclusion plans.
Beth McNeil, chair of the ARL Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and dean of the University Library at Iowa State University, said, “We are pleased to have Kiyomi working with the Association to advance some of the key priorities in our diversity, equity, and inclusion portfolio. Her work will help inform what strategies and programs we need to implement and sustain in order to make more substantive and enduring change in this area. It is particularly gratifying to have someone who has benefited from participating in ARL’s diversity recruitment programs giving back to the Association and to the profession.”
Deards is an associate professor, and librarian for chemistry, biochemistry, forensic science, physics & astronomy, and water, at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) University Libraries. She has worked with, and led, programs focused on mentoring and career support for historically underrepresented groups in libraries since 2009. Most recently, she chaired the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Dr. E. J. Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentor Committee. At UNL Deards leads the SciPop science and pop-culture outreach program. She writes and presents about issues of management equity and mentoring in libraries, science literacy, and informal science education. In 2009–2011, she was an ARL Diversity Scholar in the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce.
The ARL Visiting Program Officer program provides opportunities for outstanding staff members at ARL member libraries and archives to contribute to special projects and programs, either in whole or in part, in order to advance the agenda of the Association. Visit the ARL website for more information about the Visiting Program Officer program.