As I write this column, eleven days have passed since the tornado struck Americus. The amount of damage done is mind-boggling but even more impressive is the way the community has come together to assist those stricken and to begin the task of rebuilding this city of which we all are so proud.

The Library was open at the time so it was with immense relief that I received a phone call assuring me that staff, users, and even the building itself had been spared. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were less fortunate.

The highlight of the Spring semester so far was the Library’s successful Luncheon in the Library program featuring Dr. Amy Porter, of GSW’s History Dept., who gave an analysis and led a discussion on the fascinating book Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. We hope to continue Luncheons in the Library with at least one program per semester. We encourage participation by the community and hope you will join us for the next luncheon. One of the objectives of this program is to bring together, with interesting programs in an informal setting, all members of the GSW and surrounding community.

This semester we also welcomed our interim President, Dr. Kendall Blanchard, and his wife, Dr. Connie Blanchard, to GSW. We are grateful for their support and interest in the Library. At Dr. Blanchard’s suggestion, a direct link to the Library’s web-site has been installed on GSW’s home page (on the bar between "Financial Aid" and "Athletics"). With a quick click, the user can now reach the Library’s home page. We hope you will all avail yourselves of this user-friendly link to check out our web-site and the many services and access to information it provides.

This semester is also marked by three searches to fill our vacancies: Sr. Tech Ass’t., Reference Librarian, and Access Services Supervisor. Mrs. Claudia Black, who has served this Library as Student Assistant, Circulation Supervisor, and for the past 8 years as Access Services Supervisor, has announced her retirement, effective May 4th. Her contributions are too many to be summarized in a column, but, I do want to note that she capped her career here with the successful development of the GSW Historical Collection and the refurbishing of the Macy Bishop Gray room in which it is housed. She played a pivotal role in the organization and implementation of this Library Centennial project. She will be missed.

  

Vera Weisskopf
Dean of the Library
vjw@canes.gsw.edu

 

During the Fall 2005 semester, Georgia Southwestern State University created the Southwest Georgia Oral History Center. On Monday October 16, 2006, Secretary of State Cathy Cox presented GSW with the 2006 Outstanding Archives Award for Excellence in Archival Program Development awarded by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board. In attendance were: former President Dr. Michael Hanes; Dr. Glenn Robins, Director of the Oral History Center; Vera Weisskopf, Dean of the Library; Dr. David Garrison, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; and Wes Sumner, Director of University Relations.

The Southwest Georgia Oral History Center was funded by the Charles L. Mix Memorial Fund and provides transcription machines, recorders and duplicators, and other supplies. The Department of History Internship Program includes the Center as a training option for students. Throughout the 2005-2006 academic year, more than thirty-five students devoted more than 250 hours to the Center in such areas as transcribing and conducting interviews and cataloging documents.

The Center is already engaged in several projects. The Sumter County Oral History Project currently consists of twenty-eight interviews with Southwest Georgia community leaders. The collection is racially and culturally diverse and includes interviews with civil rights activists, local politicians, religious leaders, and businessmen. It also covers Jewish culture in the South.

In January 2006, GSW was selected as a Partner Archive for the Veteran’s Oral History Project of the Library of Congress. Several of the interviews that have been conducted were with Georgia veterans. As part of this project, the Center has digitally recorded approximately forty Vietnam War era photographs of three Georgia veterans and digitally recorded the letters of a Vietnam veteran written to his parents in 1967-1968. There are more than one hundred and twenty-five letters in the collection.

February 2006, the Center also hosted the Black History Month Program, Lessons from the Past: Reflections on the Civil Rights Movement in Albany and Americus. Participants included Charles Sherrod, SNCC field secretary in Albany, Georgia from 1961-1967; Robertiena Freeman Fletcher, student activist and one of four students to integrate Americus High in 1964; Juanita Freeman Wilson, student activist, one of the first African Americans to graduate from GSW and retired principal of Americus High; and Reverend J.R. Campbell, former pastor of Allen Chapel AMR Church and protest march organizer in Americus. The event was held in the Jackson Hall auditorium at GSW. The general public as well as students attended the event and the program has been broadcast numerous times on the GSW television station.

These programs are an indication that the students, faculty, library staff, and administrators at Georgia Southwestern State University are committed to collecting, preserving, and archiving Georgia’s history. The James Earl Carter Library is pleased to provide a home for the Southwest Georgia Oral History Center. The Center is open to the public.

Amy Wise & Kristi Peavy
aew@canes.gsw.edu
kpeavy@canes.gsw.edu

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