September Student Art Exhibit

The William R. Jenkins Architecture & Art Library is pleased to present new art by student Isaac Farley, on display through October 2017.

Artist’s statement:

My work is a form of storytelling. I want to tell stories
of the lives of everyday people, like my family that is
made up of people who were and are workers, either on
ranches or in factories, and their desires, struggles, their
triumphs, and tribulations. Stories are rooted in oral
traditions and cave paintings and are the basis of human
history. When I try to tell a story without words, I think
in images. These images are influenced by movies, photography,
and other art, and are most readily translated
onto a two dimensional surface.

Often the work deals with America. Not so much what
America is or what it was, but the ideal, and myth of
America. America, the land of equal opportunity, where
the truth is spoken, justice is fair and even, and where
people live as they choose instead of what others impose
on them.

Duality appears often in my work as innate and inborn
opposing or balancing forces. People are simultaneously
advanced and primitive, capable of great acts of kindness
and cruelty, with the ability to create both great art and
terrible destruction.

2017-2018 Poetry and Prose

The 2017-2018 season of Poetry and Prose: Creative Writers at the University of Houston kicks off on September 20.

Now in its 18th year, Poetry and Prose provides a venue for the talented authors and poets of the Creative Writing Program at UH to share their work with the UH and Houston community.

The 2017-2018 series line-up includes:

• September 20 – new Creative Writing Program graduate students
• October 11 – Faculty Mat Johnson and Roberto Tejada
• November 15 – Ecopoetics on the Gulf (class)
• February 7 – Henk Rossouw and Novuyo Tshuma
• April 25 – Glass Mountain contributors

Each reading is held on Wednesday evenings at 5:30 p.m. in the Honors College Commons, MD Anderson Library. All readings are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.

UH Library Movie Night

Join UH Libraries for a viewing of the 1987 cult classic Spaceballs, plus special UH archive footage. A UH student ID is required to receive free admission plus free snacks.

What: UH Library Movie Night
When: Wednesday, September 20 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: MD Anderson Library Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion

UH Libraries Wins Grant to Digitize Documentary Collection

University of Houston Libraries Special Collections has received a grant to preserve and digitize documentary interviews on 16mm film.

The TexTreasures grant in the amount of $24,750 will provide for the digitization of 112 interviews from This Is Our Home, It Is Not For Sale, a documentary collection on the histories of segregation, gentrification, and urban development in the Houston, Texas neighborhood of Riverside Terrace. UH Libraries will preserve master files, catalog and index the recordings, and publish them to the UH Digital Library where they will be freely accessible.

TexTreasures is a yearly competitive grant program of TexShare, a consortium of Texas libraries joining together to share print and electronic materials, purchase online resources, and combine staff expertise. TexShare is administered by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC).

The TexTreasures awards are made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to TSLAC under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.

IMLS  is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s approximately 123,000 libraries (link is external) and 35,000 museums. Our mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. Our grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

September 2017 New Databases

The following databases are now available from the University of Houston Libraries:

SimplyAnalytics
Country and geography information

Nexis Uni (recently migrated from LexisNexis academic)
Biographies and people

LinkedIn at the Library This Week

The University of Houston Libraries, in partnership with University Career Services, have brought back an event to help students gain a competitive edge using LinkedIn. The event will provide students with the tools and knowledge to maximize their use of the powerful career and networking platform.

The free event is open to all UH students. Staff from the UH Libraries and Career Services will be on hand to provide friendly critiques of students’ LinkedIn profiles (similar to a résumé critique) and offer best practices for networking on LinkedIn. Professional portraits will be offered to students to use in their LinkedIn profiles.

No registration is required to attend. Drop-ins are encouraged. Light snacks will be available.

What: LinkedIn at the Library
When: Wednesday, September 13 from 12 noon to 2 p.m.
Where: MD Anderson Library Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion

Constitution Day 2017

Constitution Day is Sunday, September 17, 2017. Get your free pocket Constitution at the MD Anderson Library Service Desk.

UH Special Collections Winter Book Club

University of Houston students, staff, faculty, and alumni are invited to join UH Libraries for a discussion of The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.

Readers will gather on Thursday, December 7 from 12 noon – 1 p.m. in the Special Collections Evans Room at the MD Anderson Library. Lunch will be provided but registration is required.

For more information, contact Lisa Cruces.

IMLS Grant Awarded for Content Migration Toolkit

A multi-institutional project team has been awarded a 2017 Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grants for Libraries award.

The University of Houston Libraries, in collaboration with Stanford University, DuraSpace, Indiana University and the Digital Public Library of America, received the grant LG-70-17-0217-17 to develop a toolkit that will help institutions accomplish complex system migrations. Focusing primarily on migrations from CONTENTdm to Hyku, the toolkit will allow institutions to better understand their digital library ecosystems and how they can prepare for migration. The toolkit will include content such as documentation on the theoretical approaches to migration, instructions on how to conduct a needs assessment based on analyzing metadata structures and understanding system requirements, best practices for preparing repository data for migration, and specialized tools to assist users with migration to Hyku.

This project was made possible in part by the IMLS, which is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and approximately 35,000 museums. The mission of IMLS is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning­­­­­, and cultural and civic engagement.

National Leadership Grants for Libraries support projects that address challenges faced by the library and archive fields and that have the potential to advance library and archival practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, or alliances that can be widely replicated.

New Digital Collection: Montrose Voice

The Montrose Voice digital collection preserves and presents issues of one of Houston’s most notable LGBT publications. Over 250 issues from throughout the publication’s history are preserved in this collection, ranging from May 1981 to July 2006.

Known at various points in its run as the New Voice and the Houston Voice, this local paper was one of many started by Houston publisher Henry McClurg. As with some of McClurg’s earlier publications, the Voice had a Houston focus but national interest. Its contents included syndicated columns and cartoons, editorials, letters from readers, news items, classified and graphical ads, and community calendars. While later issues focused more on gay-friendly entertainment and nightlife options in the Houston area, during its early decades, the Voice was a significant source of information on current political and social events. A number of gay-owned and gay-friendly business and civic organizations advertised in the Voice‘s pages, letting readers know where they could find welcome both in and out of Montrose, Houston’s gayborhood.

Issues presented in this collection contain pieces dealing with a number of issues of Texan and national LGBT interest, including: the emergence of HIV/AIDS as a major health threat, including government and medical responses; political activism and campaigns of notable LGBT Houstonians, including Annise Parker, Glen Maxey, Larry Bagneris, Phyllis Frye, and Ray Hill; legal cases surrounding Texas Penal Code Section 21.06, including Baker v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas; the development of and controversies surrounding Houston’s Pride Week celebrations; local and national LGBT-related crimes, including the murders of Paul Broussard, Marion Pantzer, and Matthew Shepard; and the spread of civil unions and marriage equality throughout the United States and Canada before the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.

The original materials are owned by the Gulf Coast Archive and Museum of LGBT History.