Special Collections The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XIX * No. 1 * Spring 2005

By the time this issue goes to press, another Ann will be working in Special Collections. Ann Cammack has accepted the Library Assistant position vacated by Cathy Spitzenberger upon her promotion to Public Services Librarian. Ann will work closely with me to acquire new print materials and with Carolyn Kadri to process and catalog them. Ann will also help staff our service desk and perform a variety of support functions in the program area. She holds a Ph.D. from Texas Woman's University in Library and Information Studies and an M.L.S. from the same institution and has previously worked in libraries at the Amon Carter Museum, TWU, and the Arlington Independent School District.

We also welcome to the staff Tara Kirk, our Graduate Research Assistant. Tara is pursuing a master's degree in history at UTA and has joined us for the Spring 2005 semester. She is working under the supervision of Brenda McClurkin to process small collections and to quality control finding aids encoded as part of our participation in the Texas Archival Resources Online project. Once the encoded files have passed muster by Tara, they will have a line or two of code inserted to make them compliant with TARO's system and will be delivered to the technical team at UT Austin, after which they will appear on the TARO web site. They will join a growing body of searchable, online finding aids contributed by repositories from around the state.

Recent staff activities of note include Maritza Arrigunaga's attendance at the Festival Internacional de las Artes in Mérida in January. She made presentations on the topics, "Microfilms Yucatecas en Universidad Tejas en Arlington" and "Autoridades Indígenas en Yucatan." Kit Goodwin has been working with the Bob Bullock State Museum of Texas History on the exhibit, "Drawn from Experience: Landmark Maps of Texas," which opened in Austin on February 19. Special Collections loaned 58 items, among which are Stephen F. Austin's Map of Texas (1836), William Emory's Map of Texas and the Countries Adjacent... (1844), and Antonio Herrera y Tordesillas' Map of New Spain (1601). In Special Collections, Ron Aday, our Exhibits Designer, has recently installed the new exhibit, "European Mapping of the New World : Facsimile Images at The University of Texas at Arlington." This exhibit was curated by UTA professor David Buisseret; the gallery guide was edited by Kit Goodwin.

I have been representing UTA in the Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative, a statewide effort spearheaded by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to make digitized cultural heritage materials in Texas more easily available to the public. THDI has just submitted a proposal to the Institute of Museum and Library Services to support the creation of a portal to be hosted by TSLAC. If the funding is received, our Tejano Voices web site would be UTA's first contribution to the pool of resources to which the portal would provide access.

I am happy to report that Blanca Smith was promoted to Library Assistant III in December. She continues to work hard to fill the numerous requests we receive for photographic resources, and she serves on several Libraries committees. Carolyn Kadri remains active on committees of ALA's Maps and Geography Roundtable. Brenda McClurkin and I will have the opportunity to address attendees at this year's San Jacinto Symposium in April and will discuss the Philpott Collection and other resources in Special Collections relating to the Texas Revolution. Cathy Spitzenberger has begun serving on the Libraries' Web Advisory Committee and represents Special Collections in weekly meetings of the Libraries' Information Services program area. She recently made a special presentation to the IS library assistants to increase their familiarity with Special Collections resources. Gary Spurr is occupied, among other things, with the arrival of the Martin Frost Papers, about which he writes in this issue.

In addition to the Frost Papers, new acquisitions include an anonymous gift of maps and deeds relating to the Santa Fe Railroad in Texas, a gift from the Benson Latin American Collection of duplicate books pertaining to Mexico, a gift from the Center for American History of duplicate oral history interviews about the oil industry in Texas, and a sizeable purchase of books from the Kenneth F. Neighbours estate. While some of the Neighbours books are about Mexico, the majority concern the history of Texas. They include a collection of materials relating to the legal struggle over the boundaries of Greer County. We also acquired History of the Tenth Cavalry, by E.L.N. Glass, a work that nicely complements our acquisition last year of a manuscript map relating to that unit, and, in a departure from usual formats, a T and O map sculpture created by Pat Gilmartin, speaker at last fall's Virginia Garrett Lectures in the History of Cartography. (See Kit Goodwin's article in this issue.)

In other news, we have embarked on a project to transcribe oral history interviews and have chosen to begin with Allan Saxe's interviews with Arlington leaders. We continue to look for other ways to increase and improve access to Special Collections' holdings. Do let us know how we can be of assistance in your research.

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Special Collections
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Phone: (817) 272-3393 * Fax: (817) 272-3360 * E-mail: Reference Desk

This page last update on Wednesday, May 04, 2005