Students got to hold history in their hands and make “connections” during a visit to Special Collections at the UTA Central Library. 

Latin American Culture and Civilization, Spanish 3312, students studied materials from the Chicano Civil Rights Movement on Wednesday, April 19, as part of a class assignment. 

The hands-on lesson paired students up to review a document related to the labor movement and answer some basic questions about it. These questions included finding out when the document was written, who its audience was, its importance and why it was created. 

Students later used the El Malcriado newspaper, published between 1964 and 1976 and founded by Cesar Chavez, to find the meaning behind the political cartoons in the publication. 

Professor of Spanish, Dr. Chris Conway stated that using historical documents in a lesson helps to connect students to the history they are learning about in class. 

“I have found over the years that students are fascinated with working with materials of this kind. College students and high school students are saturated in digital visual culture. They lack exposure to physical non-virtual artifacts,” Chris said. “My experience with them is that they respond positively to the materials in Special Collections. There is a hunger for that kind of tactile contact with history.” 

Evan Spencer, a public services archivist, stated that this type of lesson connects students with the past and helps them research future topics. 

“The critical thinking exercise is to analyze a primary source, but it is also to get them comfortable working with this type of material,” Evan said. “We have a lot of return visits from students to work with something that they saw during the class session. They work that into a final paper for the class or some other project that they are doing.” 

Jenna Randle, a Spanish major, stated that this type of activity helps to connect you with the information you are learning in class better. By looking at physical documents, Jenna noted that she could see similarities in historical events in different countries, such as the same type of struggles that Cubans and Americans both went through. 

Caroline Garcia, a Spanish major, stated that working with historical documents connects her with her roots.  

“For me, I think it is more a part of my culture as a Chicana to learn our history of how working conditions used to be for Hispanics and Latin American people,” Caroline said. 

The ability to not just see pictures or video about a topic, but hold the past in their hands, is part of what makes our Special Collections department at UTA Libraries so vital to the future.  

Conway shared that the point of the lesson in Special Collections is to “give them this experience of working with primary sources and to create a sense of excitement and discovery.” 

People can find more information about the UTA Libraries Special Collections Department online at https://libraries.uta.edu/collections/special-collections. 

Information about UTA Libraries can also be found through its social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

Archives have traditionally been seen as a repository of knowledge to gain insight into the past. Through a new exhibit, the UTA Libraries Special Collections archive has been reimagined to allow the creation of new art. 

The Retro Remix: Archives-Inspired Student Art exhibit is on display through Sept. 1. It features an exhibition of student art that "remixes" historical materials from the Special Collections Department. 

Evan Spencer, a public services librarian and archivist, stated that Special Collections partnered with 27 students from the art and art history program for the exhibit. Students used photos, maps, book pages, and documents from the archive to create these original works of art. 

"In the exhibit, we have displayed the student's art next to the materials that inspired it. Sometimes it was a map from 1771 that inspired a new artistic endeavor," Evan said. "We have put a QR code with each original item in the exhibit. This is so visitors can scan the code and make their own remix." 

The Retro Remix exhibit is divided into three different sections. The first section is called Layered Composition. The artwork created in this section uses several archival items to create a new original work. 

The next section is called Colorized, where images from the past that are black and white or grayscale have realistic colors added to them. 

The third section is called Question Everything. In this section, students were instructed to construct a fake image that looks believable and real. For example, an artist might add an object like an iPhone to a person's shirt pocket in a 1950s photograph. 

At the end of the exhibit, there are several items on display that haven't been remixed yet into art. People can use those items to create new artwork or use archival items used in the exhibit. They can also choose images from the UTA Libraries Digital Gallery at https://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery. 

People can submit their Retro Remixes for consideration to be displayed digitally in the Special Collections Department online at https://bit.ly/41nbEZd.  

Prizes will be awarded for the best monthly submission. 

"We want to encourage students and library staff to participate if they are inclined to test their Photoshop skills," Evan said. "We want submissions and welcome different takes on different things." 

The Retro Remix: Archives-Inspired Student Art exhibit is displayed in the Special Collections Department from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday through Sept. 1. 

The Special Collections Department is on the sixth floor of the UTA Central Library building. 

The story of Antarctica can now be explored in the UTA Libraries Special Collections Department through a recent donation of 150 antique maps and hundreds more stamps and postal covers. The collection came to the university from NBC 5’s meteorologist David Finfrock.  

Finfrock stated that these items tell the history of Antarctica, the explorers who braved unknown dangers, and the scientists who continue to work there today.  

His interest in geography started at a young age, growing to encompass Antarctica.   

“My father was a geologist, and we had traveled across the country. We had maps that we would color in each state we visited,” Finfrock said. “That really teaches you a love of geography and maps when you can associate a place with something on a sheet of paper or now a digital map.”  

Finfrock’s interest in Antarctica grew as he learned about some explorers who made the trip into the unknown. Explorers such as Sir Ernest Shackleton led three British expeditions to Antarctica in the early 20th Century and survived a shipwreck that grabbed Finfrock’s attention.  

Over the years, Finfrock wrote letters to scientists working at research stations on the continent. He got replies from them with the correspondence postmarked from Antarctica. Some of these stamps were from American, Russian, and British scientists.  

Finfrock’s map collection grew not only to encompass Antarctica but Texas. He noted that his wife, Shari Finfrock, has deep Texas roots. She is a descendant of one of Stephen F. Austin’s settlers.  

About 20 years ago, Finfrock got the chance to visit the place he had learned so much about for years.  

“On my 50th birthday, my wife said, ‘why don’t you go to Antarctica?’ because it was something that I always wanted to do. I got to take a tourist trip flying down from DFW to the southern tip of South America and sailing across the Drake Passage,” he said. “Exploring Antarctica, I got to see the different wildlife there and the different varieties of penguins, birds, and seals.”  

With his connection to the university through the Texas Map Society and as a member of the advisory board with the Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, Finfrock thought that UTA would be a great permanent home for the collection. He noted that the collection contains maps from several different eras of exploration and discovery. There are maps from the earliest expeditions of Captain James Cook through the present day, including British Admiralty charts, and maps chronicling Charles Wilkes and Admiral Richard Byrd’s expeditions.  

“It is a pretty extensive collection that I was proud to bring together and even prouder to provide here so that there will be a home to these maps,” he said. “Scholars and students will be able to benefit from them instead of them sitting in a drawer.  

The Antarctica maps and stamps collections can be viewed in the Special Collections Department on the Sixth Floor of the UTA Central Library building. Special Collections is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. 

In its new mini-exhibit, the UTA Libraries Special Collections Department is showcasing some of the creative works from its collection that have become public domain materials on Jan. 1, in partnership with UTA Libraries new Open Partnerships and Services department.  

Leah McCurdy, Director of Open Partnerships and Services, stated that she attended a program at a workshop where copyright law was being discussed, which is where she got the idea for the mini exhibit. 

“I was in a workshop offered by Internet Archive,  a large nonprofit digital library, and there was a program about copyright and the history of copyright,” Leah said. “A guy (in the workshop) mentioned that on Jan. 1, things go into the public domain. This made me wonder what is coming into the public domain in our  Special Collections. Evan Spencer with SPCO and I just did a search on the main library catalog, and found that 160 things were going into the public domain, more than we expected.” 

Leah stated that the mini- exhibit gives people a good education about the public domain, how they can use it and its purpose.  

According to the Stanford Libraries website, the term public domain refers to creative materials not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws.  

The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it. However, while each work belongs to the public, collections of public domain works may be protected by copyright.  

Works can go into the public domain if the copyright has expired, the copyright owner did not renew, the copyright owner deliberately placed it in the public domain, or copyright law does not protect this type of work.  

“Every Jan. 1, we get a new crop of public domain materials. This year most things published in 1927 went into the public domain. So, this year Winnie the Pooh literary work came into the public domain and next year (2024) the earliest versions of Mickey Mouse like Steamboat Willie will become public property,” Leah said. “It also depends on whether the publisher seeks additional copyrights and all that stuff.” 

The mini exhibit displayed in the Special Collections Department features books, photographs and music chosen as favorites by staff from the list of 160 newly public domain items. One item in the mini exhibit is the musical score “My Texas,” written and published by Patti Morriss Anderson of Olney. Evan digitized the musical composition and made a QR code to scan in the mini exhibit. People also can listen to it on the UTA Libraries website at https://libraries.uta.edu/media/3554.  

Leah said an exhibit like this helps bring awareness to these items and that they are available to be used by the public and can help inspire new creative creations.  

The Public Domain Month mini- exhibit runs through the end of January. The exhibit is in the Special Collections Department on the sixth floor of the UTA Central Library building.  

One of UTA Libraries' educational partners is The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies. The Center works to expand educational opportunities for students, faculty members, library patrons, and the public as they seek to learn more about the history of the Southwest. 

Dr. Sam Haynes, Center Director, stated that the Center works to promote interest in learning about the Southwest through public events such as book talks, aiding researchers in their work, and digitizing information held at UTA Libraries so that it can be viewed online by a global audience. One of these digital humanities projects is a website about the U.S.-Mexico War called "A Continent Divided." 

"In the past, if you wanted to view the U.S.-Mexico War collection in Special Collections Department at the library, you would have to make a trip to Arlington, stay in a hotel, and go there during their regular office hours. Now you can do it from anywhere in the world," Dr. Haynes said. "The more you digitize your holdings, the easier it is for scholars doing research." 

The "Continent Divided" website uses information contained within "The Mexican American War of 1846-1848" collection that is kept in the Special Collections Department at the UTA Central Library. Some items within the collection include government documents, cartographic materials and newspapers. 

A few topics on the website are The Road to War, The War in the West, South and At Sea, The War at Home, and The Occupation and Aftermath. 

Haynes stated it is not just people conducting scholarly research accessing these websites but also high school and college students and the public. It is estimated that the "A Continent Divided" website had more than 100,000 page views in 2022. 

While providing these historical resources online to the public, The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies works to create events that will bring people from outside the university to campus. A public outreach event The Center is hosting in April tells the story of the LGBTQ+ community and the American West. 

The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies is working to become a resource for educators. They are developing lesson plans related to the digital humanities projects they are working on, such as the U.S.-Mexico War and Texas history. The Center is also looking to host workshops again for teachers as they have done in the past. 

Throughout its history, The Center has collaborated with various organizations, such as The Center for Mexican American Studies, The African History Museum in Dallas, and the UTA College of Liberal Arts, on previous projects. 

To learn more about The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, visit its website at www.uta.edu/academics/schools-colleges/liberal-arts/departments/southwestern-studies. 

People can view The Center's digital humanities projects can be online. "A Continent Divided: The U.S. – Mexico War viewed at https://library.uta.edu/usmexicowar/index.php.  

The second project, "Border Land: The Struggle for Texas, 1820-1879," can be viewed at https://library.uta.edu/borderland. 

A recent donation of astronomical charts and books to the UTA Libraries Special Collections Department provides a window into the past for researchers. The donation totals 40 celestial charts dating from the 1740s as well as seven books and atlases on astronomy dating from 1548 to 1805. 

Ben Huseman, Cartographic Archivist with Special Collections and Archives, stated that the charts and books cover several different subjects related to astronomy, such as the moon and the constellations. He noted that by looking at the charts and books, people could see how much knowledge has progressed. 

“What is interesting about these charts is that they are post-Copernicus, and some of the earlier material already in the collection is pre-Copernicus,” Ben said. “Prior to the acceptance of Copernicus’ theory that the earth and planets revolve around the sun, people believed that the world was the center of the cosmos, which was a theory that goes back to the ancient Greeks and earlier geographers.” 

Ben stated that while the earlier astronomers did get some information wrong, it is fascinating to see how much knowledge they got right with the limited resources at their disposal. These discoveries help inspire others to dig deeper in the quest for information about the universe. 

When looking at each of the charts, people can appreciate not only the astronomical information but also the artwork that accompanies it. 

“They (the charts) are beautifully done and in a lot of cases, the color is original. They are very old, but they have probably been hidden in drawers for many years,” Ben said. “There is a lot of beautiful material here.” 

Ben stated this donation to UTA should attract classes from the astronomy, physics, and other science departments. Already, classes on the history of science have visited the Special Collections to view and learn from these items. These items will continue to be available for people from UTA and the community to learn from and view.  

Ben expressed his thanks to Donald Sheff of New York, who made this generous donation that will be an excellent resource for students, faculty, and the public for years to come. 

History is not about dates and places but about the people who shape them. A new exhibit in the Special Collections Department at UTA Libraries called “Shifting Shapes of Early Texas” will do just that. It will tell the stories of people who shaped Texas through documents, books, and maps they left behind.  

The exhibit is set to take place in the middle of September and will run through Jan. 15, 2023. It is free for students, staff, faculty, and community members to attend.  

Ben Huseman, Special Collections Cartographic Archivist, stated the exhibit would explore Texas’ history before it became part of the United States.  The exhibit will explore Texas’ history in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries ending around 1850.  

“The exhibit’s goal is to show off the collections to our students and the community around us to give them an idea of the richness of Special Collections,” Ben said.  

Ben stated as people walk through the exhibit, they will be able to see how knowledge changed over time as the new world was explored. He noted that looking at the items on display shows “history’s unfiltered story.”  

“Not all progression of human knowledge was a progression. Some of it was a regression. One step forward and two steps backward,” Ben said. “An example of this is some early French maps of the interior of North America, which show the Mississippi River coming out in the middle of Texas.” 

The maps are only part of the process of telling the story of Texas’ early years. One of the earliest accounts of the exploration of Texas in the exhibit comes from 1555. This account is from the Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in his book called “La relación y Comentarios,” which translates to “The Account and Commentaries.” This account tells of Cabeza de Vaca’s survival after being shipwrecked off the Texas coast.  

Items that will surprise visitors include an original copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence from 1836 and a letter from General Thomas Jefferson Rusk during the Texas War of Independence.  

Ben stated that it is an “incredible honor” to be the caretaker of these items and to be able to share them with the public. He wants to encourage everyone to stop by and view the exhibit when it goes on display in September.  

For more information about the exhibit, go online to https://libraries.uta.edu/collections/special-collections. If people have additional questions, they can be emailed to the Special Collections Department at spcoref@uta.edu.  

The documents, books, maps, and photographs that are a part of the UTA Libraries Special Collections department continue to share life lessons with each person that stops by for a look. These items preserve the past to educate future generations. 

Priscilla Escobedo, Special Collections Archivist, stated the archived items tell the stories of the area from the people who experienced those events firsthand.  

The UTA Libraries website states Jenkins Garrett family donated more than 10,000 books, documents, graphics, maps, periodicals, manuscripts, newspapers, and pieces of sheet music. Since the donation in the 1970s, the archive has expanded to include Texas history, cartography, Spanish language history, Texas labor history, Texas political history, and UTA history.   

 “When we get a collection, we have our internal way of processing it as a gift or a donation. We make records about who donated this item and when it was donated,” Priscilla said. “Then we process the collection and put it into archival boxes.”  

Priscilla stated that depending on the size and complexity of the collection, students could help with processing collections. Once the processing is completed, the new collection will be available for the public to view.  

With the advances in technology, the archive has not only taken steps to care for physical media, but it goes further to preserve digital media.  

Kathryn Slover, Digital Archivist, stated that digital information is constantly changing by the second, and it is imperative to have these resources saved. 

“People don’t send letters to each other. They are sending tweets, texts, and emails. My job is to preserve newer content that hopefully will be valuable to future researchers and manage our web archive program,” Kathryn said. “We use a service created by the Internet Archive that captures web pages so we can preserve that content for many organizations. We have been archiving COVID-related pages as they frequently change. For the last couple of years, we have been trying to document and preserve that story for future research. 

The information housed inside the collection draws people in from the campus community, the local area, and globally.  

Priscilla and Kathryn shared that the events documented in the archives have valuable lessons, but people from those times can connect with a person.  

Documents that brought the past and future together for Kathryn in the archives were the Rebel mascot controversy on campus. During this moment, students succeeded in getting the mascot changed.   

 “For me, that was interesting because this was happening in the 1960s and early 1970s, and it mirrors stuff happening on college campuses now,” Kathryn said. “To me, it resonated with what I saw on my campus in Tennessee.” 

For Priscilla, it wasn’t an event but a person, Shirley Smith, whose personal papers, and photos are preserved in the archive.  

 “She was a young woman and was only 27 years old when she passed. She had some physical disabilities due to childhood polio, and she was very popular, charming, and pretty. There are photos of her at weddings and parties. She was the football sweetheart in high school and a librarian,” Priscilla said. “I was her age when I started here. For some reason, I really resonated with her. I really wanted to know more about her and her life.” 

Priscilla and Kathryn want to encourage people to stop by the Special Collections Department to research or expand their knowledge about the world around them. While looking at or reading materials in the archive, people will not only learn about the past, but they will learn about themselves in the process.  

 For more information about the Special Collections Department at UTA Libraries, go to https://libraries.uta.edu/collections/special-collections. 

Steven Conner found the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Digital Gallery like many do—by Google search.

“I was trying to research what outfit my father served in when I came across a gap-toothed 18-year-old with a smile that took me less than a nanosecond to recognize,” Conner said.

Conner’s father, Jake Melugin Conner, is the subject of several photos taken at the Masonic Home and School of Texas in Fort Worth in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Melugin Conner was sent to live at the masonic home following the death of his own father, Arch Rice Conner, a well-known rancher and politician in Archer City, Texas, who appeared to be fictionalized in the book and film The Last Picture Show. Conner even has a telegram that then-Texas Governor Miriam “Ma” Ferguson sent to Arch Rice Conner’s wife upon his passing.

This family legacy holds tremendous personal value for Conner, who was looking to more fully understand his father when he found the photographs held by UTA Libraries.

“My father was an enigma who never shared much in the way of personal experiences,” Conner said.

Melugin Conner eventually graduated from the masonic school, joined the U.S. Marine Corps, and fought at Iwo Jima just 80 kilometers from Chichijima, where a young President George H. W. Bush was shot down.

“He would never talk about it,” Conner said.

Whitney Russell, Metadata Projects Librarian, is excited that users like Conner—especially ones with a local connection—have been able to find photos of their family members in the Digital Gallery.

“We have so many wonderful collections and photographs in our collection, especially related to the history of this area, so it’s great to see the interest in the collection by patrons,” Russell said. “It’s one thing to digitize the material from a preservation standpoint, but to be able to aid in someone’s research, or to help families track down their genealogy is such a rewarding thought.”

Sometimes photos from UTA Libraries collections end up reaching even broader audiences. In his time at the masonic home, Melugin Conner was a member of the undefeated football team—the Masonic Home Mighty Mites—of 1941. Photographs from UTA Libraries Special Collections including Melugin Conner and his teammates are featured in the currently playing film 12 Mighty Orphans.

Conner says he can only imagine the kind of player his dad was.

“On a football team, a guard is a house pretending to protect a quarterback,” Conner said. “My father was 144-lb. guard defending a quarterback on an undefeated team in 1941—think how tough and mean he had to be.”

Conner, who now lives in New Jersey, says he is currently trying to get back to Fort Worth so he can be buried next to his father.

“Thank you for what you’re doing,” Conner said, speaking to the work of UTA Libraries. “Your communication has given me extra stamina.”

Users can explore more than 93,000 images and documents available in the Digital Gallery now.

It’s 2002, and Dutchman Joost Claassens has a new job: taking care of the grave and the remembrance of an American soldier killed in the fight for European liberation during World War II.

Claassens’ charge, Captain Chester C. Slaughter, is one of more than 10,000 soldiers given a family, school, or company to be remembered and cared for in lieu of Americans who could not likely tend to the graves themselves.

Cpt. Slaughter rests in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, and from the moment that Claassens assumed responsibility, the steward began researching his soldier online.

“It was the early days of Google,” Claassens said. “The American Battle Monument Commission only provides Name, Unit, State of enlistment, the day of death, and US Army serial number, and I, like most of the adopters, wanted to know more about my new family member.”

Since 2002, Claassens has continued to hunt for more information. He was lucky enough to find a grave marker at the New Hope Cemetery in Limestone County, Texas and newspaper clippings from the Mexia Weekly Herald. He even made contact with family of Cpt. Slaughter in Houston, Texas and uncovered the story of how he was killed—in air collision when, as an Infantry Captain, he was flying as an observer in a bombing mission with the 416th Bomb Group—which helped him make numerous contacts in the US and Europe.

This research also led to a volunteer job as photographer for the American World War II Orphans Network, covering all the events at the Margraten Cemetery.

Claassens’ work has spanned nearly two decades, and still, he was looking for one thing: a good picture of his charge. He had one—copied from a newspaper in 1945—that was being used for The Faces of Margraten project, but it wasn’t in the best condition. And then—

“Suddenly, a high-quality picture emerged in the UTA Libraries Digital Gallery!” Claassens said. “You made my decade!”

This photo of Cpt. Slaughter—really a photograph of a photograph—was included in the Digital Gallery as part of the Libraries’ Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection. The picture, published just a month before his death, accompanied a story about his receipt of the Bronze Star Medal for heroic achievement for leading his platoon through action near Baesweiler, Germany in November 1944.

Whitney Russell, Metadata Projects Librarian for UTA Libraries, helps to create the metadata for digital materials so that researchers like Claassens can locate them online.

“In order to make sure the materials are as accessible as possible, accurate descriptions and subject terms need to be included, which helps with Google searches,” Russell said. “Being able to pull up items that are all related to one person, for instance, is especially important when looking for family members or prominent figures in the area’s history. My job working with metadata allows me to craft these descriptions and terms to maximize visibility for our collections.”

Russell is excited that Claassens—who is doing such important work so far from UTA—was able to locate the photograph of Cpt. Slaughter in the Digital Gallery and wants to continue growing the collection.

“I think it’s wonderful, and really hits the mark for the mission of the gallery,” Russell said. “My hope for the future of the Digital Gallery is to continually increase the materials and collections that are added.”

The photograph and background information on Cpt. Slaughter is exactly the kind of material The Faces organization aims to preserve. Founded in 2011, The Faces is a group of volunteers that tries to memorialize the men and women who are buried in American War Cemeteries overseas. One of their largest efforts includes locating pictures of all of the more than 10,000 soldiers at Margraten; they now have more 8,000 photos in their collection.

“These pictures are put on display every two years at the cemetery,” Claassens said. “They add a poignant dimension to the solemn grave markers and the Wall of Missing.”

These displays have been indefinitely postponed due to COVID-19 safety protocols.

Claassens calls this discovery a “one in a million” find for him. He also sometimes just explores the Digital Gallery since stumbling upon it a year ago.

“It is very well organized, documented, and accessible,” Claassens said. “You never know what you’ll find!”

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is excited to announce the launch of an expansive, enhanced Digital Gallery.

This repository of 76,000+ images is designed to broaden access to the rich materials in UTA Special Collections. The simplified and intuitive web interface is supplemented by rich metadata that allows users to browse by collections, date range, or search specific subject terms.

“Special Collections is a jewel—our photographs are used for school papers, genealogy research, club programs, instruction; theses and dissertations, news broadcasts, documentaries, books, and more,” said Brenda McClurkin, department head of Special Collections. “We want to share the extraordinary collections that have been built and nurtured over the past 50 plus years with our community, and will continue to expand the Digital Gallery for years to come.”

The Gallery’s previous iteration had been built using the Omeka platform, which the Libraries’ extensive collections outgrew. Work on the new website, which is powered by Drupal for design flexibility and stability, has been in progress for about a year.

Some of the upgrades that users can expect include:

• The items are now arranged in user friendly categories, such as Labor and Politics, Sports and Recreation, and World Events.
• There are more, larger thumbnail images provided for categories and collections to give users an immediate sense of what they might find.
• Each item contains links to related categories and subjects so that users can easily discover similar images and documents.

Jeff Downing, Digital Projects Librarian and lead on the Digital Gallery upgrade, says the goals of the site remain the same.

“By placing these images online, we're giving global access,” Downing said. “Anyone can access the Gallery from anywhere in the world, and at a time convenient for them.”

In addition, the new Director of Open Archives and Discovery Somaly Kim Wu says she hopes the Digital Gallery provides opportunities for course integration.

“Special Collections already works alongside researchers and faculty to incorporate archival materials into the classroom—I would like to expand this effort further and meet the users at their point of need,” Kim Wu said. “To achieve this, the team will work to engage researchers and scholars this academic year to increase awareness and use of the Digital Gallery and how technology can eliminate barriers to discovery.”

Users can explore the Digital Gallery or one of the Libraries’ other digital collections today.

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries has administered a call for materials related to the coronavirus crisis for its COVID-19 pandemic archive project.

The Libraries is collecting both digital and physical materials with the intention of adding them to permanent archival collections to document this historical time for the benefit of future generations.

“This is a critical moment in global history, and we want the experiences of our community to be documented,” said Rebecca Bichel, dean of UTA Libraries. “We believe that archiving these materials will empower those who come after us with first-hand knowledge of the pandemic’s impact on our students, faculty, staff, and beyond.”

Michael Barera, University and Labor Archivist, is overseeing the project. Barera says the project is necessary to develop a broader, richer understanding of the impact of the novel coronavirus.

“Whether you are submitting a physical diary, digital artwork, or oral history—you are helping us preserve a piece of the COVID-19 experience here at UTA,” Barera said. “We invite everyone in the university community to contribute to this project to help make our collective memory of this time as complete and representative as possible.”

Those interested in submitting their materials for the COVID-19 pandemic archive project can visit the Special Collections submission page.

The first phase of this project will be focused on the UTA community, including students, alumni, and faculty/staff. The second phase of this project will be expanded to include the broader community, beyond the boundaries of the university.

UTA Libraries has acquired five collections of digital primary resources focused on minority histories, race relations, and social justice from Adam Matthew Digital.

“This purchase was a great opportunity—both for the Libraries as well as our users,” said Rebecca Bichel, Dean for UTA Libraries. “We are always looking for new ways to elevate the narratives of diverse communities while investing in primary resources that strengthen our scholars’ work.”

Peter Zhang, UTA Librarian, recommended the acquisition.

“These incredible collections have a lot to offer our students and faculty,” Zhang said. “This acquisition was necessary to support the Libraries’ mission to provide access to high-quality, in-demand resources.”

The following collections were included in this purchase:

• African American Communities
• Gender: Identity & Social Change
• Race Relations in America
• American West
• American Indian Histories and Cultures  

The Texas State Library and Archives (TSLAC) awarded University of Texas at Arlington’s Library $25,000 to digitize thousands of materials for inclusion in the Texas Disability History Collection (TDHC) web portal. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). 

“The TDHC highlights UTA’s half-century commitment to making college accessible for students with disabilities," said College of Liberal Arts Dean Elisabeth Cawthon. “UTA was the first school in the country to offer full-ride scholarships for adapted sports—only one of the many ways Texas has helped to lead the nation in disability rights.” 

The TDHC was established in 2013, a partnership among the UTA Disability Studies Minor, the UTA Libraries, and the Public History graduate program. One of just five such dedicated repositories in the country, TDHC contains maps, material objects, personal papers, organizational records, photographs, audio and video recordings, and oral histories. TSLAC and IMLS helped fund the 2016 launch of The TDHC web portal and the digitization of hundreds of items. In keeping with the Collections’ mission, subjects, and audience, the project team included as many accessibility features as possible to accommodate site visitors with a variety of disabilities. 

“UTA Libraries’ partnership with the Disability Studies Minor and Department of History creates tremendous momentum in moving the Texas Disability History Collection forward,” said Brenda McClurkin, UTA Libraries’ Special Collections Department Head and principal investigator for this project. “This Tex-Treasures digitization grant allows us to continue to tell the story of Texans with disabilities and provide broad access to these materials.” 

The collection highlights Texas’s key place in the disability rights movement and reveals the impact of disability rights on ordinary people’s lives.  “Texans have played central, even outsized, roles in driving the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the development of assistive technology, and the growth of adapted sports nationally and internationally,” said Sarah Rose, associate professor of history, director of the UTA disability studies minor, and faculty advisor for the TDHC. “We’re trying to get at stories that haven’t been told yet, such as why Texans such as Lex Frieden, Bob Kafka, and Justin Dart claimed such a preeminent place in disability rights, but also the experiences of transgender Texans with disabilities, patients in tuberculosis sanatoriums, and grassroots accessibility activists.” 

The 2018 TexTreasures grant will fund the digitization of thousands of newly acquired items, providing accessibility to materials for historians, disability professionals, and people with disabilities across the globe, including oral histories and records from leading national disability rights activists such as Bob Kafka and Stephanie Thomas of ADAPT and Pat Pound and Larry Johnson of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities.  This project will also fund digitization of relevant materials from already existing collections, including the papers of Texas politicians who had disabilities, such as James Sewell, Warren C. Cohen, and Sanford Thomas.  

Also scheduled for digitization are records from Student Congress and Office of the President that reveal the process of making the campus more accessible, along with the papers of Jim Hayes and Movin’ Mavs records. 

“Movin’ Mavs and Jim Hayes records show how what was happening at UTA was driving adaptive sports nationally and internationally,” Dr. Rose said. “Something like 37 Paralympians have come out of UTA.” 

Another goal of the 2018 project is to provide more accessibility features on the TDHC website. Metadata will be enriched, such as the alternative text that provides image information to visually impaired site visitors. Another addition will be a project with the Disability Studies Minor and UTA Theatre Arts faculty to provide audio description for videos like Movin’ Mavs basketball games, so that viewers with visually impairments will be able to follow along with the action. 

Rose said that disability history is important for everyone, because most people have at least one family member with a disability. 

“Disability is a normal part of human life,” Rose said. “One in five people have a disability; it’s the only minority that everyone can join.” 

Image credit:  Fort Worth Star-Telegram Photograph Collection

Richard Johnson, age 11, was one of 32 visually impaired children to interact with animals at the Stock Show in Fort Worth (1983).

UTA Libraries received three awards funded by grants from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. These include an Impact Grant, a Special Projects grant, and the TexTreasures grant. 

“For years, the generous funding from IMLS and TSLAC has helped provide worldwide access to our unique digital content like the disability history collection,” said Rebecca Bichel, UTA Dean of Libraries. “This year, IMLS and TSLAC are also helping us deliver innovative services that will transform students’ experiences at UTA. By giving students access to leading-edge technologies, we are preparing them to thrive in the workplace of tomorrow.” 

Impact grants focus on business/workforce development, digital literacy, family and early childhood literacy, and electronic access to information. UTA Libraries received $10,000 to build a virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) station to help students prepare and participate in the growing VR/AR game development industry. 

“Virtual and augmented reality, along with online gaming, generated in excess of 100 billion dollars in revenue in 2017,” said Library Systems Department Head and principal investigator Bob Samson. “UT Arlington and the city of Arlington have made significant advancements in support of online gaming and eSports. This project will provide our students with access to technologies which will allow them to learn critical skills as they prepare to enter this fast-growing field.” 

Special Projects grants supports expanding library services to underserved groups in the library’s community. TSLAC awarded UTA Libraries $74,994 to partner with two elementary schools to implement universally accessible makerspaces and STEAM labs for elementary students with learning disabilities. Dr. Priscila Cacola from UTA Kinesiology will study students’ motor proficiency while they interact with technology. 

“This grant is tackling three issues at once: how can children with learning differences effectively participate in makerspaces; what kinds of physical accommodations might be needed for this audience; and where can pre-service and current teachers go to test makerspace technologies before purchasing them with limited school funds?” Said Bichel, who is principle investigator for this project. “The generous funding by IMLS and TSLAC will support data-driven discovery relating to how children with learning differences interact with makerspaces and how teachers and schools can best use their resources to promote innovation and creativity.” 

TexTreasures is an annual grant program designed to help libraries make their special collections more accessible for the people of Texas and beyond. UTA Libraries’ Special Collections was awarded $25,000 to digitize additional materials for the Texas Disability History Collection (TDHC) website, which was funded by a TexTreasures grant in SFY 2016. The site showcases Texas’s central role in the disability rights movement and reveals the impact of disability rights on ordinary people’s lives. 

“As a result of the UTA Libraries’ partnership with the Disability Studies Minor and Department of History,” said Brenda McClurkin, UTA Libraries’ Special Collections Department Head and principal investigator for this project, “there is tremendous momentum in moving the Texas Disability History Collection forward, covering exciting new ground in documenting the impact that Texans have had on both the local and national stages in disability rights advocacy.”