Friends of the UNCG Libraries

When the anonymous author of Commercial Bookbindings , a historical sketch and description of an exhibition at the Grolier Club, New York, wrote in 1894, “Nobody thought of expecting the publisher to throw in a fine suit of clothes with the book,” he was commenting on the early years of what was to be the golden age of American book cover design.  The period from 1880-1920 saw the rise and decline in the use of artist/designers, and the astonishing results they could achieve with colored cloth, a few colors of ink, gold and silver, and a canvas the size of a book cover.  The Charles Adams American Trade Binding Collection at the University Libraries has a large selection of bindings concentrating on this period and particularly its zenith, from 1890-1910. To celebrate its collection and to accompany the new exhibit entitled "A Fine Suit of Clothes: American Publishers' Bindings, 1880-1920: A Progressive Exhibition,"   the University Libraries are sponsoring a pre...

When native Georgian Kathryn Stripling Byer came to UNCG to embark on her MFA in Creative Writing, she recalls being somewhat anxious in the presence of those who became her teachers, and her father was somewhat suspicious of his daughter going so far away. Byer is now a poet deeply rooted in North Carolina, having adopted the state as her home years ago.   On April 10 at 4 p.m. in the Hodges Reading Room on the second floor of Jackson Library, she will return to UNCG as one of the luminaries of American poetry to discuss and read from her new book Descent .  The event is free and open to the public. Of UNCG, Byer said upon her recent induction into the NC Literary Hall of Fame, “I realized I was where I needed to be, surrounded by mentors like Robert Watson, Fred Chappell, and the venerable Allan Tate, not to mention the young writers who became my friends.  William Pitt Root, Bertha Harris, Patricia Peters, Lawrence Judson Reynolds, Kelly Cherry, to name a few...

The University Libraries have accepted an invitation to join COAPI ((the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions) in recognition of our leadership role in the field and in recognition of the passage of the open access policy recently adopted by the University Libraries faculty. The Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) brings together representatives from North American universities with established faculty open access policies and those in the process of developing such policies. It was formed to share information and experiences and to illuminate opportunities for moving faculty-led open access forward at member institutions and advocating for open access nationally and internationally.  COAPI will offer a collection of best and evolving practices to act as a road map for inspiring, promoting and implementing open access polices at institutions without existing or effective open access policies. For more information, see: http://www.arl.org/sparc/about/COA...

On March 5, 2013, the library faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro voted unanimously to adopt an open access policy that commits them to archive their journal articles in NC DOCKS, UNCG’s institutional repository: http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/ The full text of the policy follows Whereas the Library Faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) recognize the vital importance of open-access archiving for the enrichment and expansion of scholarly communication in the Age of the Internet, we adopt the following policy in order to ensure that our research and scholarly works are freely available in perpetuity to the widest possible audience.We, the Library Faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, resolve the following: • We encourage all library faculty to publish in journals that are open access or allow open access archiving. • Before we sign a publisher’s copyright agreement for a journal article, we will verify our right to ar...

UNCG's  Digital Library on American Slavery, which recently added a collection of runaway slave ads , has been cited favorably in some recent news stories: African-American genealogy research difficult, but possible http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/art_life/display_features.htm?StoryID=147139 New database lets Britons find slave-owning ancestors http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_22683198/new-database-lets-britons-find-slave-owning-ancestors

Armondo Collins of the University Libraries submitted an essay to the National Council for Black Studies titled "Breaking a Slave's Mind: A New Reading of Omar Ibn Said and Solomon Northrup" last Spring. He wrote the essay for Sallyann Ferguson's ENG 735: Slave Narratives course.  In additiion to his work with the Digital Media Commons in the University Libraries, Armondo is a graduate student in the English Department. For the essay, Armondo did a close reading of narratives written by two men who were taken into slavery as adults, one from Africa, the other New York. The essay tied for 3rd place in the graduate division. Congratulations Armondo on this prestigious award!

Posting prepared by Shawn Delgado for the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts at UNCG: UNCG-Related Literary Events: Front Porch Friday with the Galen Kipar Project —Friday, March 1 st , 4:00PM Center for Creative Writing in the Arts, 127 McIver St., UNCG Free and open to the public      Front porch Fridays are designed to be intimate events wherein songwriters share their music as well as answer your questions about their composition processes, influences, ideas about writing, etc. This month, the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts is happy to welcome two members of the Galen Kipar Project, including Aaron Balance, a current poet in the MFA Creative Writing Program at UNCG.      Based in Asheville, NC, the Galen Kipar Project has been busy touring in support of their fourth album in five years, featuring the unique sonorous music that has become the band’s trademark. Effortlessly crafting a fusion of folk, classical, jazz, an...