Collections & Connections Fall 2004

WKU Libraries is the first library in the state to have TDNet, a powerful electronic journal management system. Over the summer we increased our A-Z e-journal list from under 200 titles to over 17,000 titles! This system has four features:

The A-Z list can be retrieved through a regular click on e-journals on the library home page or through TIP. Journals that are in aggregator databases like Project Muse and JSTOR are now listed individually as part of those 17,000 titles.

WKU Libraries staff is very excited about this enhancement to its online capabilities. We hope that students, faculty, staff and the user community will see immediate benefits and potential to ease of use for a maze of electronic journal resources. We hope you like this arrangement, and we look forward to hearing from you as we try to improve systems and services for you.

During times of national stress, people often write letters or begin diaries to record their thoughts and keep their loved ones informed of their safety, anxiety, and locale. The Kentucky Library and Museum’s Manuscripts and Folklife Archives houses dozens of collections containing correspondence written during national and international wars. Pat Hodges, coordinator of Manuscripts and Folklife Archives, was interviewed about the war letters in the collection on Memorial Day by Neal Conan of National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” program. Conan’s show is carried over 200 public radio stations and has an estimated audience of over three million.

The story of how Conan heard of the Library and Museum’s collections is interesting. Knowing that future historians would one day want documentation about soldier experiences in the Iraqi war, Hodges and Libraries Special Events Coordinator, Earlene Chelf, penned a press release asking soldiers and the people at home to send copies of their letters to her. Also aware that much of this correspondence is now conducted by e-mail, Hodges asked for copies of these electronic exchanges or to be added as a recipient on e-mails. Several local newspapers picked up the story, and the Courier-Journal’s Byron Crawford devoted one of his columns to this unusual collecting venture.

Soon after Crawford’s story, collections and e-mails began to arrive. A colleague of Neal Conan’s in Washington, D.C. saw the Crawford piece and suggested that an interview with Hodges would make a unique Memorial Day segment. NPR staff contacted Hodges and quizzed her about the collections and asked for copies of certain letters and e-mails that had already been received; afterwards a telephone interview was arranged.

While on air Hodges and Conan talked about the scope of Western’s war letters, stretching from the nation’s founding to Desert Storm, and now letters from the war in Iraq. The same method of publicizing the collecting of war letters was used during the Persian Gulf War over a decade ago. That effort resulted in the addition of a number of fascinating small collections. The new technology at that time was the fax machine.

Conan also read portions from several of the letters over the air during the twelve-minute interview, which reflected the overall humanitarian spirit that the soldiers felt toward the Iraqi people. Letters also contain fascinating details about eating meals in one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces, seeing exotic animals in one of his zoos outside a palace, and describing living conditions in the war-torn country.

This “cutting edge collecting” is working. To date Hodges has received almost two boxes of letters and e-mails from about 13 individuals and has a number of leads to follow-up on later. Besides e-mails and correspondence, the Library and Museum has also received a complete Iraqi Republican Guard uniform, an Iraqi flag, Iraqi currency and a number of photographs. Although the emphasis of the interview was about the current war, other wars were mentioned as the scope of Western’s collections were discussed. The interview has helped glean another collection of WWII correspondence and four Civil War letters. Hodges is excited about the results and noted that the Library and Museum now has enough documentation about the Iraqi war for a student to execute an interesting term paper.

WKU Libraries has inaugurated a Popular Film collection, which has been available to the university community since the spring semester. This collection of films on DVD and VHS format does not attempt to duplicate the types of films usually found in a commercial video store or those films that are shown in local theaters.

Rather, the collection focuses on films that may have had a small release, had limited distribution, or that are from foreign sources. It also includes those films now deemed classics of the silver screen. The classic films, both silent and in sound, will also be used to support the new academic program in Film Studies.

The library also tries to acquire those films that have won awards in a wide range of countries and cultures. In its initial stage, the Popular Film collection has been well received by the university community, including our international students and those members of the local community who make use of the library’s services. Its success has insured its continuance for the future.

The films are available for browsing in bins across from of the circulation desk, though the discs and VHS cassettes themselves are stored behind the circulation area.