With one change in leadership and a slight shift in the schedule, planning for next year's Southern Kentucky Festival of Books is well underway. It's shaping up to be bigger and better than the 2000 event, which was deemed very successful.

In mid-September, Jayne Pelaski, who has extensive experience working with the Frankfort Book Fair, became the festival's assistant director. Pelaski brings a wealth of knowledge and experience planning special events, particularly book fairs, and we're delighted to have her on "the team."

The Southern Kentucky Festival of Books is scheduled for April 6 and 7, 2001, with related activities taking place throughout the week as we celebrate National Library Week. To better accommodate groups of school children from around the region, this year's activities will begin on Friday. The weekend-long event will include more than 100 authors, mostly authors of children's books, to meet the public and autograph books; "make and do" activities for children; writing workshops for both children and adults; and poetry readings. Costumed literary characters will be on hand for storytelling and interaction with children, and celebrity readers will be featured as well. Pre-festival poetry and essay writing contests will involve children from South Central Kentucky, and contest winners will be recognized at the festival. Antiquarian booksellers will also be on hand, and some will provide appraisals to the public on items of interest.

As in the past, the goal is to attract about 100 authors who have written books representing many genres. We also will be seeking three to five headliners, antiquarian booksellers, plus author presentations, workshops, etc.

The past two book festivals have been highly successful, involving about 300 volunteers and many local and regional corporations providing monetary and in-kind support. To maintain our goal of making the book festival the outstanding educational and cultural event in the region, help is needed. If you want to be a part of the Southern Kentucky Festival of Books 2001, please call (270) 745-5263 or e-mail jayne.pelaski@wku.edu

We're counting on you!

~Robbin Taylor and Earlene Chelf, Director, Southern Kentucky Festival of Books

Japanese Sister City Library Agreement

On May 5, 2000, Eldon J. Renaud, Mayor, on behalf of WKU Libraries, the Kentucky Library and the Bowling Green Public Library, and Susumu Shibao, Mayor, on behalf of the Kawanishi (Japan) Public Library, signed a Sister City Library Agreement. The agreement calls for the promotion of intercultural awareness though an exchange of books and other published forms of information. The Japanese delegation included the Mayor of Kawanishi, prominent businessmen, and members of the Kawanishi Library Board. Dean Michael Binder presented the delegation with a collection of Kentuckiana books and videos. In return, Mayor Shibao presented a collection of materials for placement in WKU Libraries, including his own "When You Clear Your Eyes," an account of the devastating earthquake which hit Kawanishi several years ago. While in Bowling Green, the delegation toured the Kentucky Building and Felts Log House before going on to Louisville to attend the Kentucky Derby. Future exchanges of people and materials are planned. Kawanishi is a city of approximately 150,000 people located 12 miles NW of Osaka.

~Brian Coutts

Search Archives via the Internet!

Have you ever thought how wonderful it would be to have keyword searching capabilities for the finding aids of manuscript and archival collections across the state of Kentucky? This summer Western, along with the Kentucky Historical Society, the Filson Club Historical Society and seven other universities, began this process through participation in the Kentuckiana Digital Library.

As a part of the Kentucky Virtual Library, the Kentuckiana Digital Library is making the finding aids accessible via the internet. Researchers now have the opportunity to identify the diaries, letters, and other records which will benefit their studies prior to visiting the Kentucky Building and other repositories across the state.

Initially the state funded Kentuckiana Digital Library outsourced the web markup, utilizing Encoded Archival Description (EAD). Quickly becoming a recognized standard around the world, EAD is a set of rules for designating the intellectual and physical parts of archival findings aids which allows the information to be searched, displayed and exchanged in a predictable platform-independent manner. After a detailed review of each finding aids' EAD markup for accuracy by Western and the Kentuckiana Digital Library, the finding aids are being loaded onto the web. In September, Library Special Collections were trained to incorporate EAD encoding into the processing of collections in Manuscripts and Folklife Archives, as well as University Archives.

It is a very exciting time for Library Special Collections as we enhance the accessibility of our finding aids both within the Kentucky Building and to researchers with internet access. Bookmark the Kentuckiana Digital Library at http://www.kcvl.org/kentuckiana/digilibcoll/digilibcoll.shtml and check it frequently as it continues to bring additional finding aids to you!

~Sue Lynn Stone, University Archivist and Records Officer

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