African Americans in Corinth During the Civil War

The Northeast Mississippi Historical and Genealogical Society and the Lee County Library, Tupelo, MS are pleased to announce that National Park Ranger Tom Parson will present a program on “African Americans in Corinth During the Civil War”. Tom Parson is a Park Ranger for the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center and Shiloh National Military Park.

The program is scheduled at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010 at the Helen Foster Auditorium, Lee County Library, 219 North Madison St., Tupelo, MS.

This program, in observation of Black History Month, will include the role of slaves and freedmen in constructing the earthworks around Corinth, the establishment of the Corinth Contraband Camp, the visit by General Lorenzo Thomas in May 1863 and his speech concering the recruitment of black soldiers, the recruitment and organization of the 1st and 2nd Alabama Infantry of African Descent (later known as the 55th and 110th United States Scolored Troops), the closing of the camp in 1864.

Ranger Parson will also discuss the current preservation efforts at the site of the camp.

The public is cordially invited to attend.

For additional information, call Susie Dent, 662-844-2307.

Historic New Orleans Collection launches new online catalogue

The Historic New Orleans Collection has launched a new version of its online catalogue.

The new site makes the institution’s entire catalogued collection of books, manuscripts, maps, photos, art, and ephemera accessible to the public for the first time.  

The online catalogue presents three ways to search: by keyword, advanced search, and collections themes.

Researchers will also have access to more than 17,000 images, viewable in a gallery where they can be enlarged or compared side-by-side. The catalogue also features hyperlinks to PDF finding aids for manuscript collections and when cataloging permits researchers can navigate through the hierarchy of archival description. 

The catalogue allows the bookmarking of items to create a temporary list of items across multiple searches. At present bookmarked items are not saved once the catalogue is closed in your browser.

The catalogue is generated from the MINT collections management system by MINISIS Inc. MINT is an integrated library, archive and museum collection management system that The Historic New Orleans Collection helped to develop.

We invite you to experience The Collection’s new online catalogue and learn more about the institution and its holdings. 

For more information visit www.hnoc.org.

African American Resources at the Library of Congress

National African American History Month in February celebrates the contributions that African Americans have made to American history in their struggles for freedom and equality and deepens our understanding of our Nation’s history.

Visit the Library of Congress link below for an overview, legislative branch documents, executive branch documents, and web resources.

www.loc.gov/law/help/commemorative-observations/african-american.php

African American History Month Exhibits at Columbus Library

Throughout the month of February, the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library is displaying two exhibits celebrating African American history, heritage, and culture.

• Genesis Press Books: Genesis Press is the largest privately owned African-American book publisher in the country. Founded in Columbus, Mississippi in 1993, by two African-American attorneys, Since then, Genesis now brings its readers everything from suspense and science fiction to Christian-oriented romance and non-fiction. To find out more visit www.genesis-press.com
• African American Portraits: Explores the lives of thirteen African American leaders and their contributions in various fields such as sports, medicine, and education. 

The exhibits will be on display through the month of February.

Stop by the library today!

New NAACP Online Exhibit at the Library of Congress

In commemoration of African American History Month, the Library of Congress will launch a new online exhibition about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization which has donated its records to the Library, where they are the most-consulted collection.

On February 3, Dr. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, will officially launch the new website at myloc.gov/exhibitions/naacp. 

The site will feature nearly 70 treasures from the NAACP’s storied history, including the “Call,” Oswald Garrison Villard’s manifesto that launched the NAACP; the organization’s constitution and bylaws; photos of such key events as the New York Silent Protest of 1917, the Marian Anderson concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 and Rosa Parks’ 1955 arrest; documents about investigations of lynchings; President Harry Truman’s executive orders barring discrimination in the federal government and military; the Supreme Court decisions on discrimination; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and background on seminal figures in the NAACP.

The online exhibition will expand to eventually feature some 150 items. “We are proud, at the Library, to make these historic NAACP records available to Congress and the American people,” Billington said. “This is both our largest collection, encompassing some 5 million items, and our most widely used collection. It is a stellar example of how access to the primary documents of our history—even our relatively recent history—can be important and deeply moving to researchers and visiting citizens alike. “The importance of this organization to the lives of African Americans—those alive today and their forebears and descendants—cannot be overstated,” Billington said.

The Library’s NAACP online exhibition and symposium both are made possible by the generous support of AARP. The records of the NAACP are the cornerstone of the Library’s unparalleled resources for the study of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

The records were given to the Library of Congress in 1964 and are periodically augmented. They cover issues and history from the period 1842-2003. Included are manuscripts, prints, photographs, pamphlets, broadsides, audio tapes, phonograph records, films and video recordings.

A finding aid for these materials is available on the web at www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/naacp-front.html.

In addition to the NAACP records, the Library also houses a vast array of materials useful in the study of African Americans’ struggle for equal rights: the original records of organizations including the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the National Urban League, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the microfilmed records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

The Library also holds the personal papers of major figures in black American history, including those of Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Arthur Spingarn, Moorfield Storey, James Forman, Patricia Roberts Harris, Edward W. Brooke, Thurgood Marshall, Robert L. Carter and Joseph Rauh. Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution.

The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions.

Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on the website myLOC.gov.

Press contact: Sheryl Cannady, (202) 707-6456

Press contact: Jennifer Gavin, (202) 707-1940

Public contact: Adrienne Cannon, (202) 707-5383

Online pressroom available at www.loc.gov/pressroom.

FREE ORAL HISTORY WORKSHOP IN TUPELO

Saturday, February 27, 2010 9a.m. to 1p.m. Lee County Library Helen Foster Auditorium 219 N. Madison St., Tupelo, MS 38804

The Northeast Mississippi Historical and Genealogical Society and the Lee County Library will be partnering to present a program on how to collect and preserve family oral histories.

This workshop will offer several aspects of the oral history process, including project planning, interview strategies, recording technology, and archiving. Library resources will be discussed. A break-out session for role playing and interviewing will be available.

Space will be limited and pre-registration by February 24th is encouraged.

Participants are invited to bring their own recording devices and a friend or family member for personal interviews. Educational materials will be available for a donation of $5 to defray the cost of the handouts.

Participants may bring a sack lunch. Beverages will be available.

To register, call Melissa Holekamp, Lee County Library, 662-841-9013 or Susie Dent, 662-844-2307. Email: nems.hgs@gmail.com

The Deed of Gift Form (Part II)

In the first post about Deeds of Gift, I discussed the initial elements of a deed and how making such a donation is a legal transfer of ownership. 

In the sections below, additional areas of the form are explored.  Most importantly, transfer of copyright is crutial for both the donor and the repository.

Access to the Collection*

An essential mission of repositories is to make their collections open and available for research use. They are able to do this because most donors do not limit access to the materials they donate. There may be instances, however, when a donor or repository feels it is appropriate to restrict access to all or a portion of the materials for a limited and clearly stated period of time.

If the materials you donate contain student records, income tax records, medical records or legal case files relating to third parties (that is, to individuals other than you or your immediate ancestors, or to organizations other than the one whose records are being donated), federal or state privacy laws may apply. If you know that such materials exist, bring this to the attention of the repository representative.

If such materials are discovered by the repository during cataloging, the repository representative will discuss them with you. If your concerns go beyond these types of materials, explain them to the representative, and be as specific as possible when you discuss the papers or records you want to restrict.

If needed, the representative will work with you to arrive at lan- guage regarding the restriction that is acceptable to you and which can be enforced by the repository.

Transfer of Copyright

When you sign the gift agreement, you transfer legal ownership of the actual materials you want to donate. Ownership of intellectual property rights (primarily copyright, but including trade- marks and patent rights) may also be legally transferred by the deed of gift.

Copyright generally belongs to the creator of writings or other original material (such as photographs and music). Donors are encouraged to transfer all rights they possess in and to the materials donated to the repository; this assists researchers in their scholarship by making it easier to quote from documents.

If you wish to retain all or a portion of the intellectual property rights you own, you may include such a provision in the deed of gift, but you and the representative should agree upon a date after which the rights will be transferred to the repository.

You are not able to transfer ownership of rights to the works of others found in the materials you donate. These works might include such items as letters written to you by others.

Separations

In the course of arranging and describing the materials you donate, the repository’s staff will retain substantive materials of permanent historic value and separate out those materials that are routine, duplicative, or outside the collecting scope of the repository. The repository needs guidance in dealing with these separated materials.

You may choose to have the repository dispose of them in the manner they deem appropriate. This usually includes shredding or disposing of duplicates or materials of no historical significance, and transferring out-of-scope materials to another unit within the repository or to another repository.

You may, however, prefer to have the separations returned directly to you. You should discuss your options with the repository’s representative and arrive at an agreement that can be stated in the deed of gift.

Other Elements

Repositories vary widely in the kinds of materials they collect, the users they serve, and the facilities in which they preserve materials and make them available for research. As a result, a repository may require or permit the deed of gift to contain language related to a wide range of other issues.

If you have any questions or concerns about what is or is not included in a deed of gift, it is important that you raise these with the repository representative prior to signing the agreement.

Although it is possible that a repository may not be able to accommodate a specific request, it is best to ensure that all relevant issues are discussed.

*Copied from The Society of American Archivists brochure “A Guide to Deeds of Gift” c. 2002.

2010 MegaResources School Librarian Workshop at MSU

The 2010 MegaResource School Librarian Workshop will hold its 10th session this year on Friday, Feburary 19, 2010. 

Sponsored by the Mississippi State University Libraries, this year’s event will include Magnolia training sessions, hands-on software training, specialized seminars on using web 2.0 applications, copyright, and an introduction to graphic novels in the K-12 library. 

Pricing remains the same as last year: $40 for the workshop, $60 for the workshop and CEU credit.  Pricing includes breaks, lunch, and workshop materials. 

If you have any questions or would like a registration form, feel free to contact Deborah Lee at dlee@library.msstate.edu or 662-325-0810.

Budget woes close a dozen south Mississippi libraries

Posted: Jan 20, 2010 5:15 PM CST
Updated: Jan 20, 2010 7:11 PM CST

By Danielle Thomas

STONE COUNTY, MS (WLOX) – Budget woes have closed the doors at a dozen of south Mississippi’s libraries, at least for now. The Pine Forest Regional Library System, which includes Stone County, is in the middle of a two week shut down. Officials say it’s because of state budget cuts.

Libraries are supposed to be quiet, but not silent. On a typical day, librarians say about 100 people patronized the McHenry Library. However, no one can check out a book or log onto the internet because the library is closed.

Teresa Forrester is Stone County Library Board President.

“The budget cut has been $38,0000 over the past year,” Forrester said. “You can’t have that kind of budget cut without it having major implications.”

After this two week temporary closing, the McHenry and Wiggins branches will reopen, but for fewer days each week.

“If the library is closed, then the people cannot come to the library and use the computers to look for jobs and such and check out books,” Forrester said.

Stone County Supervisor Wendell Patton said while money is tight, Governor Haley Barbour should know hurting education is not the answer.

“I hate to see it in education because that’s the future of our young people coming up in the communities,” said Patton. “They need to have all the hands on information they can get. He’s got to cut it somewhere, but I wish it was somewhere else.”

Stone County contributes $70,000 a year to the libraries. This week supervisors approved a request to make monthly payments instead of quarterly. The board also chipped in another $5,000 to prevent future shut downs.

Patton said, “We’re going to do everything to keep it open because once something closes, it’s hard to get it back open. We don’t even want to think about that word ‘closing.’”

Officials said all the libraries in Stone, Covington, Perry and Greene Counties are closed, and ill not reopen until next week. County officials are urging the public to contact state officials and push them to restore funding to the libraries.

Copyright 2010 WLOX. All rights reserved.

Program on Photographing Nature at Plymouth Bluff Center

Sunday at the Bluff

January 24 at 2 o’clock Plymouth Bluff Center 2200 Old West Point Road, Columbus, Mississippi.

“Photographing Nature in the Golden Triangle” presented by Dr. William S. (Bill) Parker MUW Professor Emeritus of Biology.

Various furry, feathered, and scaly things of nature have been captured [with the camera] at some very special places in the Golden Triangle, including Plymouth Bluff, White’s Slough, and the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge.

During the past 30 years or so, Dr. Parker has spent more time on the trails at Plymouth Bluff than any other naturalist and has accumulated a large file of interesting photographs of plants and animals taken through the seasons.

His (Power-Point) slide presentation, with comments, will include a selection from these photos, along with others from White’s Slough near Columbus and the Noxubee Refuge. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sunday at the Bluff programs are sponsored by Mississippi University for Women Plymouth Bluff Center and are open to the public at no charge