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Today we're highlighting two digital repositories -- one large and one small -- focused on the history of the American Civil Rights movement in the mid-20th century.
The Civil Rights Digital Library is based in Georgia, but it includes materials from dozens of institutions across the country. Their mission statement is to promote "an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale." Their impressive multimedia collections include resources for educators, an interactive timeline, oral histories, diaries, government documents, and so much more. From the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 and beyond, these resources provide an in-depth look at the struggle for racial equality in the United States.
The Civil Rights Movement Archives is a smaller-scale project created by Queens College in New York. Using the QC Library's Special Collections archive of images and documents from the early 1960s, the students in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science created a digital repository on the Omeka platform (the same system behind our own exhibit site). It contains photographs, fliers, and original correspondence, most of it relating to the activism of Queens College students, both in the city and in southern states.
Whether you're looking for the bigger picture or more personal stories, these sites are great places to start your search.
--Robin
The Massachusetts Studies Project at UMass Boston's Healey Library has embarked on a mobile scanning and oral history initiative.
The Mass. Memories Road Show is a state-wide digital history project that documents people, places and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories.
In partnership with teams of local volunteers, we organize public events to scan family and community photographs and videotape "the stories behind the photos." The images and video are indexed and incorporated into an online educational database at http://www.massmemories.net. Since its launch, the project has gathered more than 2,500 photographs and stories from across the state.
The goal of the Mass. Memories Road Show is to hold public scanning events in all of the 351 communities of Massachusetts, creating a digital portrait of the Commonwealth, providing access to family photographs and stories, and building community knowledge and connections.
If you'd like to attend or host a local Road Show event, take a look at the planning page on the Mass. Studies ning community.
--Robin
We are in our fifth week at Old South and after our orientation we started working where previous teams had left off. Mostly this means sorting, organizing, and re-foldering records into acid-free folders. So far we've been working with sub-collections that belonged to various officers of the Church. According to the records left to us, we're a little more than half way through the collection and are looking forward to continuing the good work that has been done here.
We'd also like to take this opportunity to thank our supervisor, April Johnson, and the folks at Old South -- especially Helen -- for their advice and assistance so far. We look forward to working with them as we complete our portion of the project!
-Christopher & Sari,
Old South Interns
Although we may not be circulating many books, we are still adding current books to our collection.
Recently, on the recommendation of a Board member, we added Urban Ministry in a New Millennium by David Claerbaut. The Amazon description says:
"Urban Ministry in a New Millennium" is both a practical and academic book dealing with Christian ministry in an urban context. It provides an intelligible analysis of the city in all its complexity and then moves in the direction of showing realistic ministry models for the city. The important historical perspective is provided in order to better examine the current context of globalization and regentrification on the city, the church, and urban ministry. This contemporary, socially and spiritually sensitive book is applicable to seminarians, parachurch workers, and "first entry" people as well as those more deeply rooted academically and personally in the urban milieu.
Another book received is the second edition of God's Secretaries: the Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson. This adds to our collection another book celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible. The Amazon page reads:
A network of complex currents flowed across Jacobean England. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; the era of the Gunpowder Plot and the worst outbreak of the plague. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than the country had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between these polarities. This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment "Englishness," specifically the English language itself, had come into its first passionate maturity. The English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own scope than any form of the language before or since. It drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
We also welcome the donation of books published by churches in celebration of their anniversaries or other events. We add these to our collection of Local Church Histories. One book donation that returned with Peggy from Greece is Not to be Served but to Serve: A History of The American College of Greece by Giles Milton. This is a lovely illustrated book.
Our online catalog is available 24 hours a day. We encourage you to browse our collections. Books that circulate may be requested through the catalog, by email, snail mail, and phone.
-Claudette
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