Special Collections are on the rise in the DC Community. We saw a 120% increase in image galleries in 2013, as well as numerous collections of oral histories, folk music, archival manuscripts, and other primary sources being displayed in book galleries and basic series. We’re excited to see the diversity of the collections in your repositories, and thought you might appreciate a look at what your peers are up to as well.
Butler University scanned in full annual reports and course catalogs from its predecessor, Northwestern-Christian University, which cover years 1855 through 1904. Graduates from Boise State University are encouraged to take a trip down memory lane by finding their class in the collections of full commencement programs dating back to 1934, when Boise State was known as Boise Junior College. The Papers on the History of the College at Brockport collection contains just what it sounds like—a wide swath of materials about the history of the college including student works, official histories, faculty lists, alumni names, and more. At Cedarville University, they’re preserving important campus history with their extensive yearbook collection, which dates all the way back to 1915 and features gorgeous images of the original covers alongside each item.
Maine Folklife Center (MFC) at the University of Maine is “committed to document, interpret, preserve and present the traditional culture and living lore of Maine and the Maritime Provinces.” The extremely rich collection in UMaine’s Digital Commons repository features materials about folk singers Pete Seeger, Addie Weed and Blye Spencer, and Edward D. Ives, among many others. Carroll Collected, John Carroll University’s repository, makes a perfect home for The Carroll News, John Carroll University’s student newspaper, which first began publishing in 1925 and is still going strong today. The Photographic Images of Historic Architecture in the United States collection in the University of North Florida’s Digital Commons were taken during the years 2005-2012 by photographer and UNF Chief George Lansing Taylor Jr., and are broken up into categories like athletic venues, bodies of water, bridges, cemeteries, and so on.
For more information and examples about Special Collections in Digital Commons, stay tuned for our webinar about the topic coming up this July, or contact our Consulting Services team at support@dc.bepress.com.
Pete Seeger in the Maine Folklife Center collection