Friends of the UNCG Libraries

The first scanning event for UNC Greensboro’s PRIDE! of the Community project was held on May 19. In partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guilford Green Foundation, the PRIDE! project hopes to record the often invisible history of the LGBTQ+ community as it relates to North Carolina, especially in the Triad area and Greensboro. Digital Projects Coordinator David Gwynn, Special Collections Technician Stacey Krim, and Manuscripts Archivist Jennifer Motszko were all present at the first scanning event to ensure the transition from physical to digital went smoothly. Most of the items they scanned during the first event were from one of their partners, the Guilford Green Foundation. They hope that as time goes on, more LGBTQ+ people and organizations will take advantage of the PRIDE! scanning days. These events serve as a way to create digital copies of physical items such as photographs, t-shirts, organizational newsletters and records, bar or club fliers,...

University Libraries’ held its Fourth Annual Members’ Choice event on April 10, allowing Jackson Society members to vote on their preferred selection of books to be added to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives . The additions twill help grow the collection as it strives to meet the needs of current and future faculty and students, as well as the broader community. Jennifer Motszko, Manuscripts Archivist, gave a short presentation on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol . This first edition, first issue, second state, with red and blue title page and green end papers with illustrations by John Leech and published by Chapman & Hall in 1843 was an instant success, reportedly selling all 6,000 copies of the first edition on the first day of publication. Chapman & Hall, a British publishing house founded in the first half of the 19th century, also published William Thackeray and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. After A Christmas Carol , Dickens woul...

On Friday, April 20, as part of UNCG's Reunion 2018, librarians in the Research, Outreach and Instruction department provided a workshop to the Class of 1968 entitled, "Books, Bots and Everything in Between!" Led by Amy Harris-Houk and Jenny Dale, participants learned how librarians support student success every day by helping students with research projects and evaluating information online. Alumnae also toured Jackson Library with Kathy Crowe and saw first-hand how students use a variety of learning spaces and technology.  They learned how the Digital Media Commons staff helps students complete their multimedia projects and enjoyed an overview of the makerspace by Armondo Collins.

Haley Gann and David Arneke Haley Gann, a student worker in University Libraries’ Access Services and Administration departments since 2016, has been named as the 2018 Outstanding Student Library Worker Award Winner. The award, made possible by generous gifts from David Arneke and UNC Greensboro’s University Bookstore, is given annually. As winner, Gann’s name will be placed on the award plaque on display in Jackson Library, and she will receive $500 cash from Arneke and a $500 gift card from the University Bookstore. “Haley is committed to the Library,” said Karen Ward. “She shows great passion for the work she does with patrons, faculty, staff and students.” Gann fully embodies the criteria for the award, including reliability, responsibility, conscientiousness and commitment to service and teamwork. She will graduate this May from UNC Greensboro with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing and has accepted a full-time position in the Nursing Residency Program at Vanderbilt...

Every two years, the national Guild of Book Workers invites members to participate in its traveling juried exhibition. The 2018-2019 exhibition, entitled Formation, will travel to five venues over the two-year exhibition, including the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts in Minneapolis, the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, the University of California – Los Angeles, the North Bennet Street School in Boston and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  The Guild of Book Workers was founded in 1906 to establish and maintain a feeling of kinship and mutual interest among workers in the hand book crafts. Among its early members were well-known artist-craft workers, such as bookbinders and typographers. The Guild believes there is a responsibility among civilized people to sustain the crafts involved with the production of fine books, and its members work to broaden public awareness of the hand book arts and highlight the need for conservation and restor...

University Libraries will host its 60th Annual Friends of the Libraries Dinner fundraiser on Saturday, April 28, at 6:30 p.m., with keynote speaker NC Author and UNC Greensboro alumna Marianne Gingher. The evening’s festivities—which will take place at the Greensboro Country Club—include dinner, the new Friends of the UNC Greensboro Libraries Literary Award presented to Scuppernong Books, hear about the planning for the future Library addition, and honoring Cal Shepard, the State Librarian of North Carolina on her retirement. Proceeds from the event help support University Libraries’ most pressing needs, including its collections, resources and services. Tickets for the Friends of the UNC Greensboro Libraries Dinner are available in three categories including dinner and reception: $100 ticket per person ($50 tax deductible), $125 ticket per person (name recognition in program) in honor of UNC Greensboro’s 125th Anniversary ($75 tax-deductible) or $850 Table Sponsorship (name re...

Now in its fifth year, #BelieveInTheG is one of UNCG's largest celebrations of school spirit. The campaign launches on February 21  and runs through February 22, 2018. During this 48-hour period, show your pride by wearing blue and gold, making a gift of any size to University Libraries and sharing why you love UNCG on social media with #BelieveInTheG. Let's tell the world what it means to be a Spartan! Exposing students to new ideas, sparking their ingenuity and satisfying their intellectual curiosity is at the core of what we do every day. University Libraries is an instructional partner: strengthening learning experiences for students, fostering the burgeoning demand for collaboration and creativity for faculty, and playing a vital role in the fabric of our campus community through evolving technology, flexible and functional spaces and promoting life-long learning.Visit www.believeintheg.com now!

A book discussion of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad will be held on Thursday, March 1, 2018 at Weatherspoon Art Museum. A pre-talk reception begins at 6:30 p.m. and the book discussion begins at 7 p.m. The first 10 attendees will receive a complimentary copy of T he Underground Railroad . The event is free and open to the public. Noelle Morrissette, UNCG Associate Professor of English will lead the book discussion in conjunction with the exhibition of work by Sanford Biggers.  Whitehead’s research for his novel included content from the Digital Libary on American Slavery, an online resource that was created at UNCG and is part of the digital scholarship collection. The author used images of runaway slave advertisements in the book, which are also part of the Digital Library on American Slavery. View the collection at  https://library.uncg.edu/slavery/   Broadly interested in poetry and poetics, biography and autobiography, and gender and sexuali...

Anti-slavery needle case, Harriet Peck Papers Don't miss Documenting Slavery and Freedom, a public talk on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 from    12 - 1 p.m. in the Dillard Room at Weatherspoon Art Museum. The free event will feature Gwen Gosney Erickson, Guilford College Archivist and Librarian, and Richard Cox, UNCG Digital Technology Consultant, sharing their experiences preserving and making publicly accessible primary source materials like letters, newspaper articles and deeds that document anti-slavery and slavery activities in Greensboro and in North Carolina. As Friends Historical Collection Librarian and College Archivist, Erickson manages the special collections unit of Guilford College, which includes anti-slavery related Quaker documents and letters. Guilford’s campus is notable for its history as a school and as land where local African Americans worked with New Garden Quakers, including famed Quaker abolitionist Levi Coffin, to implement Underground Ra...

On Friday, November 3, more than 120 guests gathered at the Alumni House at UNCG. The attendees were primarily women veterans whose service ranged from the WWII era up to current UNCG students. Thanks to the generous sponsorship by UNCG Nursing alumna and Air Force Nursing veteran Glenda Schillinger the luncheon was free for all attendees. The luncheon featured an exhibit of uniforms and artifacts from the collections, music from UNCG student musicians, remarks from Jacqelean Gilliam and Martin Halbert as well as an excerpt from the theater production of Star Spangled Girls . The main program was a discussion among the women veterans who shared their experiences and insights about their service and the  Women Veterans Historical Project .

#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. Now in its sixth year, this worldwide movement kicks off the charitable season by providing a platform to encourage others to donate time, resources and talents to help address societal challenges. Join the challenge!   In honor of our 125th anniversary, be one of 125 alumni to support UNCG on #GivingTuesday. As we celebrate the season of giving, perform an act of kindness to share on social media using #UNCG125. For more information about Giving Tuesday,  click here . Make a gift. In celebration of our 125th anniversary, be one of 125 alumni to help our students continue to change the world by supporting the area of UNCG that you care about most.  Build community. Share why you gave to UNCG using #GivingTuesday and #UNCG125. Consider changing your  Facebook photo frame  for the day, or even the week, to encourage your friends to do the same. Suppor...

On October 20, the North Carolina Library Association (NCLA) held its 62nd Biennal Conference in Winston-Salem where its membership elected the following University Libraries' faculty to the Executive Board for the 2017-2019 biennium. Mike Crumpton, Assistant Dean of Administration has been elected to the office of President. Amy Harris Houk, Head of Research, Outreach and Instruction, has been elected as Assistant Treasurer. Lynda Kellam, Librarian for Data Services and Government Information and Assistant Director of International and Global Studies has been elected as the American Library Association Counselor. An affiliate of the American Library Association and the Southeastern Library Association, NCLA is the only statewide organization concerned with the total library community in North Carolina. Its purpose is to promote libraries, library and information services, librarianship, intellectual freedom and literacy. Learn more about NCLA by visiting its website.

The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP) began with a luncheon in 1998 to honor the unrecognized military service of women, including many Woman's College (now UNCG) alumnae. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the WHVP and the 125th anniversary of UNCG, University Libraries will be celebrating the history of the WVHP and hearing from some of the veterans who are a part of the project. Thanks to the generosity of Glenda Schillinger, UNCG alumna and U.S. Air Force Nurse Corps veteran, tickets to the November luncheon will be free. As always, the luncheon is open to the public and all are invited. One of the primary focuses of the project is oral histories. This year, 17 new oral histories were added to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, including those from Megan Mead, Rachel Puckett, Barbara Marshall, Deborah Branson, Kate Germano, Caroline Cleveland and Amanda Westfall Dayman. The WVHP 20th anniversary luncheon will...

Jenny Dale, Information Literacy Coordinator in Research, Outreach and Instruction at University Libraries, will lead a book discussion of Behind the Beautiful Forevers:  Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo on October 24, 2017 at 4 p.m. in the Martha Blakeney Hodges Reading Room, located on the 2nd floor of Jackson Library. The book, chosen as the 2017 UNCG Keker First Year Common Read at UNCG, is based on three years of reporting and the winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction. The event is sponsored by the Friends of the UNCG Libraries and is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information or for disability accommodations, please contact Hollie Stevenson-Parrish at 336-256- 0184 or hdsteven@uncg.edu.

On September 13, Abraham Lincoln's  Political Debates Between the Honorable Abraham Lincoln and the Honorable Stephen A. Douglas was presented to Chancellor Gilliam to commemorate the 125th anniversary of UNC Greensboro. The book was chosen by the members of the Walter Clinton Jackson Society at the Third Annual Members Choice event in April along with the other volumes that were added to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives. When published as a presidential campaign tool in April 1860, the collected speeches became a best-seller, and by the time of Lincoln’s official nomination, some 30,000 copies were in circulation. The book is a first edition and was published in 1860. The debates were Lincoln's springboard to fame and feature the publisher's original embossed cloth and gilt engraved spine. The Lincoln–Douglas debates are unquestionably the most famous, and most important, of such confrontations to have been staged in the hi...

Sheryl Oring, Associate Professor of Art in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at UNCG, will lead the discussion of her book, Activating Democracy: The "I Wish to Say" Project  on September 25, 6 p.m., in the Hodges Reading Room of Jackson Library. The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Friends of the UNCG Libraries.  Oring's  I Wish to Say Project was a recipient of University Libraries' 2016-2017 Digital Partners Grant, an initiative that supports a collaborative approach to the creation and sharing of digital content of enduring value to UNCG  and the global scholarly community.  The Digital Projects unit, part of the Electronic Resources and Information Technologies (ERIT) Department, worked closely with Oring to create a searchable web-based archive of her o n-going public art project consisting of dictated postcards to the U.S. President  and included more than 2,000 postcards and supplemental photographs created ...

University Libraries’ Digital Media Commons (DMC) partnered with the Aspire IT (“IT is for Girls/Women”) Summer Camp, a Women In Information Technology (WIIT) initiative and AAUW Greensboro during the week of July 24 through July 28 to encourage middle school girls to pursue paths and careers relevant to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields and build leadership, teamwork and collaboration skills.    While the camp offered students insight into the many aspects of IT, it also included talks from women in various STEM fields, demonstrations in 3D printing, robotics and a visit to Analog Devices in Greensboro.  The camp, led by Dr. Lakshmi Iyer, UNCG Associate Professor and Director of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management Graduate Programs, began in 2009. This year, the camp hosted four sessions for 68 middle schoolers and 22 high school/college mentors. The workshops included app development, robotics, filmography and creating Arduino/Makey-...

Gaylor F. Callahan Gaylor F. Callahan, University Libraries, died suddenly on August 3, 2017.  Gaylor received her BA (1974) and MA (1977) in English and her MLIS (1990) from UNCG.  She also pursued graduate studies at Duke University.  Most of her career was devoted to the Libraries. She worked in Circulation and Reserves while a student and after graduating worked in the Serials Department. Since 1984 Gaylor served as the Interlibrary Loan Borrower and helped countless researchers across campus obtain the materials they needed to complete their projects successfully.  If you look at the acknowledgments in many UNCG faculty publications you will see their gratitude for Gaylor’s invaluable assistance.  Gaylor also taught English at Elon University, UNCG and Duke.  It is hard to imagine Jackson Library without Gaylor and she will be greatly missed.

During the 2016-2017 academic year, University Libraries launched the Digital Partners Grant in an effort to maintain and preserve the research of UNCG's faculty. Recipients can receive up to $22,500 in resources from the Electronic Resources and Information Technologies (ERIT) department, which provides appropriate existing hardware and software at no cost. Additionally, University Libraries commits to maintaining the scholarly product and making it broadly available for the long term. The 2016-2017 Digital Partners Grant recipients are listed below.  Dr. Chris Hodgkins, Department of English, UNCG and Dr. Robert Whalen, Department of English, Northern Michigan University The University Libraries worked with Hodgkins to acquire, archive and maintain a local copy of the George Herbert: The Digital Temple web application, while also working with him and Whalen on the longer-term design and development of The Complete Works of George Herbert . In addition, University Libra...

Mitch Capel "Gran'daddy Junebug" Mitch Capel “Gran’daddy Junebug”  is a storyteller, recording artist, poet, actor and author. He was born in Southern Pines, North Carolina and has been delighting audiences nationally with his warmth, wit and compelling style since 1985. He refers to  his style of storytelling as “sto’etry” (stories recited poetically) and has been described as a “word magician,” “national treasure,” “unexpectedly powerful” and a “transformer of lives." He has been featured at numerous festivals and has performed his character education programs in more than 2,000 schools. Additionally, Capel has received numerous awards from local, state and national organizations for his work as a storyteller.  He won the the Zora Neal Hurston Award from the National Association of Black Storytellers and co-founded the African American Storytellers’ Retreat in 1990 held annually in North Carolina.  The University Libraries at UNC Greensboro, with the help of ...