Friends of the UNCG Libraries

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...

Erin Lawrimore, University Archivist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, was recently elected to a three-year term on the Society of American Archivists’ Council. The 12-member SAA Council is the organization’s governing body. It is responsible for ensuring SAA’s financial stability and growth, developing and implementing the Society’s strategic priorities, providing overall leadership and direction for SAA and its component groups, building and coordinating relationships with individuals and groups outside of SAA, and providing oversight of the Society’s executive office. Lawrimore holds a B.A. in English from Duke University and an M.S. in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to her 2011 arrival at UNCG, she worked at North Carolina State University and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. She also serves as a lecturer for San Jose State University's School of Information. Lawrimore has been an active member of SAA since 2001, pr...

University Archivist Erin Lawrimore has been appointed Vice Chair/Chair Elect for the Society of American Archivists' Committee on Public Awareness. She will take over as Chair for the 2016-17 year starting in July.

University Archivist Erin Lawrimore has been awarded the UNCG University Libraries’ Innovation and Enrichment Grant for 2014-2015. Her project will focus on enhancing access to oral history recordings conducted by staff of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) as part of the UNCG Institutional Memory Project. SCUA has a long tradition of conducting and preserving oral history interviews with faculty, administrators, students, and alumni from across the University’s history. These interviews, which typically are an hour or more in length, provide in-depth information about an interviewee’s contributions to and viewpoint on specific time periods or events in campus history. A recent focus has been on documenting the experiences of African American students during the 1960s and 1970s. Often these interviews provide valuable personal insight into history in a way that the official university records cannot. Currently, access to these oral histories i...

Erin Lawrimore, photo by Franklin Graves University Archivist Erin Lawrimore has been appointed to serve a three-year term on the Society of American Archivists' newly formed Committee on Public Awareness.  According to its charge, "The Committee provides strategic information and advice to the SAA Council to enhance SAA’s capacity to promote the value of archives and archivists to institutions, communities, and society.  The Committee recommends to the SAA Council the public awareness priorities on which SAA should focus its attention and resources, within the context of the Society’s mission and strategic plan.  In addition, the Committee works with staff and outside counsel to develop programs that promote the value and role(s) of archivists and archives nationwide....COPA generally is concerned with influencing opinions about the value of archivists and archives among the general public and stakeholder groups other than legislators and regulators (e.g., archives u...

Erin Lawrimore, University Archivist in the University Libraries’ Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, was recently selected as a member of the 2013 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute (ALI). Selection to highly-selective ALI is based upon leadership skills and potential, ability to influence policy and change within an organization and the archival field, commitment to the archival profession, and career progress and history. The Archives Leadership Institute provides advanced training for 25 emerging and innovative leaders each year, giving them the knowledge and tools to transform the archival profession in practice, theory and attitude. Participants will attend a week-long Leadership Intensive at Luther College (Decorah, Iowa) in June 2013, conduct a practicum-style leadership project at their home institution, participate in ongoing discussions, projects, and networking opportunities through a virtual ALI Salon, attend the ALI Practices Wor...

University Archivist Erin Lawrimore and Digital Technology Consultant Richard Cox have been awarded the University Libraries’ Innovation and Program Enrichment grant for 2012.   Their project is to build upon the existing interactive UNCG campus map  by adding walking paths, and to repurpose existing information/digital objects to create individual web pages that focus on the history of each building on campus and enhance the map. Short term, the project will enhance the historic campus tours already conducted by staff of the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) staff. Currently, SCUA staff lead hour-long historic walking tours of campus for undergraduate and graduate classes, alumni, donors, potential students, and other groups visiting campus. Interest in these tours grows each year. The project will more readily allow SCUA staff to incorporate multimedia (such as digitized photographs) into their own walking tours. Additionally, the development of a histo...