Click here to view the collection!

This digital collection features fascinating photographs of early 20th century India under British rule. The photographs come from a rare book called India illustrated: being a collection of pictures of the cities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, together with a selection of the most interesting buildings and scenes throughout India.

UH Libraries is proud to announce that the Gladys Ewing Debutante scrapbook is now available in the Digital Library!

Click here to see the entire collection.

This is a scrapbook kept by Houston debutante, Gladys Ewing, daughter of Judge Kittridge and Mrs. Kittridge Ewing. The ephemeral contents of the album include invitations, notes, dance cards, and much more — all in the beautifully graphic, formality and color of the Edwardian period. Miss Ewing starts saving these items during the very formal No-Tsu-Oh Houston Social Season in the fall of 1911 and continues through the winter Mardi Gras celebrations, Krewe parties and such. She was, it seems, the premier debutante of that season and served as Maid of Honor to the No-Tsu-Oh queen.

The locally held version of the Sparky Awards has come to an end! There will be a small reception in the Learning Commons on November 19th at 2pm to celebrate the winning video and award prizes, including an iPod Touch!

There will also be light refreshments of juice and cookies.

Here is the winning video:

The Light of Knowledge from Faizan Majid on Vimeo.

Want to know more about the Sparky Awards? Check out the UH Libraries Sparky Awards website.

Please join in the celebration of the winning video, which will be submitted to the National Sparky Awards competition in December and give the creator a chance at winning fame, glory, an actual Sparky award, and $1000.

Hope you can come!  And watch for the competition to return next year!

Sparky Awards Committee
Rachel Vacek, Chair
Nate McKee
Alex Simons
Miranda Bennett
Nora Dethloff

Sparky AWards Call for Entries

Create a video.   Win an iPod Touch.  Be famous.

UH Libraries is hosting the 2009 Sparky Awards, a competition for students to illustrate in a short video presentation in what they see as the value of sharing information. Winners will receive an iPod Touch and much more! Entry Deadline is November 7, 2009. Check out the site to learn more!

The UH Libraries & UH Women’s Resource Center joint Summer Book Club is back!

Join us on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at Noon in the Women’s Resource Center (in the UC Satellite) for Summer Book Club.

We’ll be discussing Ayelet Waldman’s new memoir, Bad Mother.

Questions? Contact Veronica Arellano (varellano [at] uh.edu) or Beverly McPhail (bmcphail [at] central.uh.edu).

Finals Mania, Spring 2009 Edition, kicked off at 10pm last Wednesday, May 6 at the UH M.D. Anderson Library. Hundreds of students were drawn to the library for a free late night pancake breakfast, made and served by UH faculty, staff, and student leaders.

The library’s own Dean Dana Rooks and Associate Dean Diane Bruxvoort were on hand to flip pancakes, along with Faculty Senate President Dr. Dan Wells, SGA President Kenneth Fomunung, Vice President for Administration & Finance Dr. Carl Carlucci, VP for Student Affairs, Dr. Elwyn Lee, and Staff Council representatives.

President Khator joined in the late night study break festivities to mingle with students and play a heated match of Hungry, Hungry, Hippos.

Finals Mania is a biannual study break for UH students sponsored by UH University Services, the UH Libraries,  the Student Government Association, Student Affairs, Staff Council, and Faculty Senate.

For photos of Finals Mania, check out the UH Libraries on Facebook.

To celebrate it’s official grand opening, the UH Libraries’ Learning Commons is holding a Student Media Contest!

You can win an iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, or Target Giftcard if you use the Learning Commons’ equipment to answer the following question…

What Does it Mean to be a UH Cougar?

Being a UH Cougar means something different to everyone on campus, so put your creativity and the Learning Commons’ equipment to use and tell us what being a UH Cougar means to YOU!

Anything goes, as long as it fits one of the following categories:

• Still Digital Photography
  (An original photo in jpg or tif)
• Graphic Design
  (Your own creation in jpg or pdf)
• Video
  (No more than 5 minutes uploaded to YouTube)

Submission Guidelines
You must be a UH student to enter the Learning Commons Media Contest.
To enter, send an email to uhlearningcommons [at ] gmail [dot] com with the following information:

• Your Name
• Phone Number
• Email Address
• Title of Your Submission
• Category of Your Submission
  For Still Frame Photography, attach your design as a JPEG or TIFF.
  For Graphic Design, attach your design as a JPEG or PDF.
  For Video, upload your clip to YouTube, and include the URL in the body of your email.
• A short paragraph describing your entry

Important Dates
All entries must be submitted by April 28, 2009 at 5pm. Winners will be announced at the Media Contest Winner’s Reception on May 4
in the Learning Commons.

Questions? Contact
Nathan McKee (npmckee [at] uh [dot] edu),
Veronica Arellano (varellano[at] uh [dot] edu), or
Robin Dasler (rlhoward [at] uh [dot] edu).

Please join us for the Opening Celebration of the Libraries’ Learning Commons on Wednesday, April 8th at 2:00pm.

The Learning Commons offers students flexible and inviting spaces for both collaborative and individual work, new opportunities for developing presentation projects, and enhanced access to sophisticated computing technology and advanced applications. This facility offers both high-end PCs and Macs which feature either dual or large-screen monitors. A wide variety of software is available, e.g., Adobe Creative Suite, Apple iLife Suite, Camtasia Studio, Captivate, Visual Studio, EndNote, Mathematica, Matlab, SPSS, ArcGIS, and SAS.

Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia), considered by many of his Senate colleagues the most learned student of the nation’s founding documents, accomplished a long-standing goal by getting a rider passed in the 2005 Appropriations Bill. The law designates September 17 as Constitution Day. It requires schools and federal agencies to hold educational programs on the Constitution on the anniversary date when, in 1787, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document.

Of those 55 signers, the University of Houston Libraries’ Special Collections Department owns a number of books written by, and original documents signed by, some of those delegates to the Constitutional Convention: Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Charles Pinckney, and George Washington. This online mini-exhibit is presented during the time in which Constitution Day falls, this year from September 15 — 26, on the TV monitor in the library lobby.

For further information about the U.S. Constitution and Constitution Day, see www.constitutionday.us and www.constitutioncenter.org.

The UH M.D. Anderson Library and the UH Women’s Resource Center would like to invite you to the

Return of Summer Book Club
Thursday, July 17, 2008 @ Noon
at the Women’s Resource Center (in the UC Satellite)

Read, then Join Us to discuss our summer pick:

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Namesake, once again delves into the cultural conflict between Bengali parents and their American-born children in her new short story collection, Unaccustomed Earth.