New Special Collections website

Well, I am still here! We recently launched a
new Special Collections website. So I may be not writing, but at least I am cranking! We have gotten through our first 60 batch of Owen Wister letters, and are working on creating our Digital Wisteriana / La Salliana concept. We've been spending a lot of time updating Wikipedia with information on the Wisters. Given that the Wisters' estate was on the La Salle campus, we are really poised to be an authority on the family. Many Google searches take you to another website that I am now in charge of -- Belfield and Wakefield: A Link to La Salle's Past. I recently took over this website from Dr. Jim Butler, who had made it with an honors English class in something like 1994. I think its going to be a wonderful opportunity to incorporate digital collections and things like internet based geneologies and such and breathe some life into a website that hasn't been updated in a while. I have changed the style sheet on this website to make it conform to the La Salle "brand" more and started incorporating some images from the Wister Special Collection, so please look for this to develop more over time.

Where we are at...

I am putting off thinking about what my access tool will be until the ALA Mid-Winter Meeting, which is here in Philadelphia, and will allow for me to be totally overwhelmed by the vendor exhibits. My director and I have talked briefly, however, and I am on track to acquire my software sometime between April and June.

In the meantime, I get to play with Special Collections. I'm really listening to Dr. Skinner when she said that you need to know your collection before you choose the tool, so I'm revamping the Special Collections website and photographing the collections to learn what we have, meaning both physical objects and their bibliographic control. What diverse, fun stuff!

Here's a couple of highlights:

This is an illuminated bible from the 14th Century.


This is an artist's book of Ho Chi Minh, handprinted on rice paper in a handmade case.


And then there are kitchen matches from the premier of Rambo 3 in France.

This quickly shows the range of materials I will be working with. We have both the written word, preserved carefully in our Bible collection, and then there is the Vietnam War collection, intentionally a collection of artistic expressions including both fine art and ephemeral novelties. My challenge here is to come up a methodology for exposing these materials in a thought-out, cohesive manner. Hopefully by the time I'm ready to choose my software, I'll be ready to tackle the digital needs of the collections.