Collections & Connections - Worthy of Note

The Southern Kentucky Book Fest announces the nominees for the Kentucky Literary Awards for excellence in fiction, nonfiction and poetry publications. The winners in each category will receive a commemorative certificate and a cash prize of $1,000. Winners will be announced on Friday, April 16, 2004.

“I'm excited about the quantity and quality of our entries for the 2003 Kentucky Literary Awards,” says Jonathan Jeffrey, Chair of the Kentucky Literary Awards. “The response indicates the consistent, high-quality writing produced by Kentucky authors.”

For more information about the Kentucky Literary Awards, please contact Jonathan Jeffrey at (270) 745-5083 or email Jonathan.Jeffrey@wku.edu

The partners of the Southern Kentucky Book Fest are sponsoring their first Kentucky Writers Conference. This conference will feature many Kentucky writers and their work. The sessions will be on Thursday, April 15th, from 11:00 a.m. – 4:15 p.m., and on Friday, April 16th, from 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

A wide variety of writing genres will be represented. Some of the featured participants on Thursday will be Bill Lloyd and Tommy Womack, both songwriters; Pamela Walker, children’s author; Michael Embry from Kentucky Monthly; Sue Massek from the Appalachian Women’s Alliance; and playwright, Constance Alexander. The Friday sessions include award-winning authors, Lynn Hightower and Silas House; USA Today best selling author, Teresa Medeiros; and Bob Summer of Publishers Weekly.

"This is a big event, both for Western and for Bowling Green's literary community,” says Professor Tom Hunley, Kentucky Writers Conference Co-Chair. “No matter what genre of writing you're interested in, this conference will give you the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the most successful practitioners in the region."

All twenty sessions will take place in the Downing University Center (DUC) of Western Kentucky University and will be open to high school students, WKU students, and the general public. Parking will be available at Diddle Arena. Admission is free.

“Artist Always: Erin Brady Worsham,” an exhibit of nine computer-generated prints, are at the Kentucky Library and Museum through March 28, 2004.

The exhibit opening and reception was held Sunday, February. 8th, with the artist, members of her family, and many friends on hand to pay tribute to Worsham and her wonderfully colorful and creative artwork.

Worsham’s art is amazing in and of itself, but it is even more intriguing when you learn that the artist is confined to a wheelchair, is dependent upon a respirator, and creates her magnificent artwork by using special software with an adapter which she operates by raising and lowering her eyebrows.

Worsham, a classically trained artist, was diagnosed in 1994 with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). While no longer creating art via conventional means, Worsham now uses “electronic paintings” to convey design and color.

The Kentucky Education Reform Act, a piece of landmark legislation, went into effect on July 13, 1990. KERA revolutionized education in the Bluegrass State. Teachers, parents, students, researchers, and the citizens of the Commonwealth have an abiding interest in its provisions and implementation. To make researching a little easier, former WKU librarian, Kerry J. Smith, created a web page gathering together various resources, including citations to articles in newspapers, conference papers, and journals, as well as a list of dissertations and theses. He also linked resources at the Kentucky Department of Education and the United States Department of Education for easier access. Information on educational organizations and statistics, Kentucky Schools and more are at the click of a mouse. Smith left WKU and has now turned over the refurbishment and maintenance of the web site to a team at WKU libraries.

The KERA web site team consists of Brian Coutts, Haiwang Yuan, Roxanne Spencer, Rosemary Meszaros, Deana Groves, Debbie LaMastus, Ellen Micheletti, and Gayle Novick. During the past few months, they have given the old KERA web site a new look, along with a thorough scrutiny of all web links. The result is the new KERA -- Resources on the Kentucky Education Reform Act. Give it a look at www.wku.edu/library/kera/.

Katy Christopherson of Louisville recently donated over 100 printed items related to quilt-making to the Kentucky Library. The items range from children’s books, pattern books, and periodicals to exhibit catalogs. The latter represents the travels of an avid quilt historian, who has curated several quilt shows, including the Logan County quilt exhibit held in the early 1990s at the Kentucky Museum. Christopherson has been an active force in the Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society, whose archives are housed in the Kentucky Building. As she culls through a lifetime of quilt materials, the Kentucky Library will be the beneficiary of even more print items.

In December 2003, the Kentucky Library received its first boxes of speleology materials from William Halliday, an internationally recognized expert on caves and caving. The author of American Caves and Caving, Halliday amassed a large collection of printed materials related to caves worldwide. Much of the foreign language material has been given to the National Geological Association. Many of the books are quite rare, and will be added to the Kentucky Library’s nationally significant collection of Mammoth Cave materials. The materials will allow the Kentucky Library to broaden its scope of speleological research materials to include the entire United States.

The Kentucky Library recently acquired a large collection of letters from the home front during the war with Korea. They give us insight into one Bowling Green, Kentucky, mother's efforts to keep her soldier son's spirits high. Obviously, William Paul Hatcher thought a great deal about the mail received while on active duty in Korea in 1952-1953. Using a Canadian whisky crate, he mailed the letters back to Bowling Green where some 50 years later they found their way to the Kentucky Library & Museum.

Sponsored by the American Library Association and the National Library of Medicine, the Frankenstein exhibit opened on January 21 and ran through March 5, 2004 at the Kentucky Museum’s Garden Gallery. An opening reception was held featuring Dr. Betty Bennett, author of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley on January 24, 2004.

One Campus-One Community-One Book Discussion

by Jayne Pelaski and Haiwang Yuan

Book cover of Silas House' A Parchment of Leaves

The partners of the Southern Kentucky Book Fest and the Kentucky Humanities Council are sponsoring a WKU Libraries' initiative "One Campus-One Community-One Book." This project cultivates reading and discussion by bringing our campus and community together around one great book. Running from January 15 through March 19, 2004, Western Kentucky University’s campus and the Bowling Green community have been encouraged to read a book and participate in discussions. The book chosen is A Parchment of Leaves by the 2002 Kentucky Literary Award winner Silas House.

During the kickoff events at WKU’s Java City and the Bowling Green Public Library, free books were given to the first fifty people in attendance. Barnes& Noble also hosted a kickoff the following day. Java City and Starbucks offered free coffee.

The first round of book discussions were held at the Bowling Green Public Library on February 19th, at WKU’s Helm Library on February 26th, and at Barnes & Noble on February 27th.

Final discussions will take place on March 18th at WKU’s Java City and the Bowling Green Public Library; on Friday, March 19th at Barnes and Noble. Silas House will be present at all the three discussions.

"I'm honored that one of my books has been chosen as the inaugural selection for Bowling Green's 'One Campus-One Community-One Book,'” says author Silas House. “One of the major themes of this book is community and the act of living together in a civil fashion with other people; it seems especially appropriate to me that lots of people will be reading it together, all at once. I love Bowling Green and the surrounding counties and I can't imagine a better group of people to share my work with. I'm looking forward to discussing the book with everyone."

An online forum is available for readers to discuss the book whenever and wherever they want to.

For more information about this project, please call 270-745-5016 or email Jayne.Pelaski@wku.edu. Please visit the www.BGonebook.org web site for details.

Black History Month @ your library

by Jayne Pelaski

Sheila Williams spoke at Barnes & Noble

Western Kentucky University Libraries, Bowling Green Public Library, and Barnes & Noble sponsored "Black History Month @ your library." This event was a celebration of the written word featuring some of Kentucky’s finest African American writers. During the three special evenings, authors read from their work and signed copies of their books.

Sheila Williams spoke at Bowling Green Community College on Thursday, February 5th and Barnes & Noble on Friday, February 6th.

Marie Bradby, author of children's and young adult books, spoke at Bowling Green Public Library on Tuesday, February 17th.

Crystal Wilkinson spoke and signed her books at the Glasgow campus and the Helm Library on WKU's main campus on Thursday, February 19th.

Books were available for purchase at all events.

WILLS Launched

by Bryan Carson

Dr. Robert Dietle, professor of Department of History and Western’s faculty regent (left) and Rob Harbison, Extended Campus Library Services assistant

In the last issue of Collections & Connections, we introduced WILLS (Western's Interactive Live Library Service)—the library's new virtual reference service. This new service allows patrons to chat with a librarian by using their computer. The co-browsing technology available to WILLS allows the patron and the librarian to see what each other is doing on their computer screens.

We held our kickoff for WILLS on February 2, 2004. A mixed group of students, faculty, and staff were on hand for the event, cheered on by Big Red. Dr. Robert Dietle (Dept. of History), Western’s faculty regent, asked the first question, which was answered by Rob Harbison (Extended Campus Library Services assistant). Dr. Dietle asked where John T. Lampe, the retiring CEO of the Bridgestone/Firestone Corporation, went to school and what his previous positions were.

WILLS is available to everyone, whether or not you are affiliated with the university. WILLS will be available from 6 p.m.—10 p.m., Monday through Thursday. To find out more about WILLS, log onto our homepage at www.wku.edu/Library.