Colgate University Libraries News and Events

The Library Catalog will be unavailable briefly on Saturday night at 9:00PM - 9:30PM while we put on our spring finery.  Look for a change of (inter)face!

The new book lists are available for the month of February.  New videos added during February have also been processed.

Due to budget cuts, the Getty is ceasing to support the BHA (Bibliography of the History of Art). As of March 31, all access to the online version of BHA will cease. They are working to find partners or buyers for the product but have not had any luck with that so far. This event, happening as it does to a resource that we always considered to be stable, is really indicative of just how volatile the traditional publishing market is right now. It's disheartening for the BHA to cease to be as it has such a long history and represents content that we currently have no other way to access (no other group is indexing some of it and/or it is not available online/full-text). 
 
Here is the link to their announcement:
 
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/bha/
 
So, to reiterate, after March 31 the BHA is no more. We're keeping an eye on the situation to see if there's a last minute reprieve but we should all assume and plan to no longer have this important resource available.
 

Welcome to the first of what I hope to be monthly entries highlighting a new and/or interesting U.S. federal document in the Colgate Libraries Collection. I'll start with a new arrival: Oriskany: a Place of Great Sadness: a Mohawk Valley Battlefield Ethnography. Call number Case Docs I 29.2:OR 4.  The Mohawk Valley Ethnography Project was designed to document the relationships between contemporary Native Americans and Europeans/Americans in the mid to late 18th century, focusing on Fort Stanwix (just up the road in Rome, NY). Fort Stanwix was the site of several critical treaties between the British and the Iroquois and, after the Revolution, the U.S. and the Iroquois. The region is the homeland of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, whose neutrality or military support was desired by both the Brisith and the "rebels" during the Revolution.
The Project was particualrly interested in finding and documenting any oral traditions that survive among the descendatns of particpants in the Battle of Oriskany (8/6/1777). Although none were found, archival research and consultation with current Native Americans resulted in this document, which includes mangement and planning for the Fort Stanwix National Monument.
Enjoy,

Due to severe winter weather conditions involving heavy snow, increasing winds late this afternoon and through the night, and the expectation of near blizzard conditions, Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology will close at 10:00 pm tonight.   
 
At this time, Cooley Science Library in McGregory Hall is planning to remain open until midnight. 
 
Joanne A. Schneider, University Librarian

Titles in Rotunda's American Founding Era collection have been added.  The collection includes the digital editions of the papers of a number of early presidents which are now searchable by keyword or browsable in context and cross-linked.  Collections include -

• The Documentary History of Ratifications of the Constitution
• The Papers of George Washington
• The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
• The Adams Papers Digital Edition
• The Dolley Madison Digital Edition
• The Papers of James Madison (forthcoming)

The new book lists are available for the month of January.  New videos added during January have also been processed.

The Olympics are here! Every 4 years, just when college work starts to get heavy, the winter Olympics come along to distract you. For those of us fortunate to live close to the Canadian border, we have at least 2 ways to watch: NBC (Time Warner channels 3 and 863 in Hamilton) and streaming online through NBC partnerships with various cable providers. The best way to find out what's on when is to consult our Winter Olympic 2010 guide. My favorite event: curling, that "funny" sport where you throw rocks at houses and sweep with brooms. Of course, I'm biased. I'm the Colgate Curling Club faculty advisor!

The African American historian, Carter G. Woodson, first conceived of the idea of a Negro History Week (which later became Black History Month). He envisioned a celebration of black history and achievement as well as an educational forum. The first annual celebration took place in 1926. It was held during the 2nd week of February in honor of the birthdays of African American scholar Frederick Douglass and former United States president Abraham Lincoln.
 
The Colgate University Libraries have numerous resources for learning about African American history and experience. Some examples include:

Encyclopedias
Oxford African American Studies Center
Civil Rights Movement: People and Perspectives
Africana : the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience, Case Ref - DT14 .A37435 2005
Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history: the Black experience in the Americas
Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture
Slavery in the United States: A social, political, and historical encyclopedia
Harlem Renaissance
 
Newspapers & Magazines
Ethnic NewsWatch
African American Newspapers: the 19th Century
African American Newspapers - 1827 - 1998 (Newsbank)
 
Scholarly Articles
America: History and Life
Africana Periodical Literature Bibliographic Database
 
Primary Sources
African American frontiers : slave narratives and oral histories
Black Literature Index
Oxford African American Studies Center
Antebellum slave narratives : cultural and political expressions of Africa, CASE Main - E444 .A73 2009  
 
Many other resources are available from the Libraries' African American Studies page or by searching in the Library Catalog.
 
Note: The text was adapted from an article by Marian Aguiar in the Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. The photo is by Robert Scurlock, Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. The text and photo are available from the Oxford African American Studies Center.

 

We will have a brief outage of the Library Catalog Friday morning at 8:10AM.  We expect it to take only 10 minutes.