Access & Use of Library Collections
Grace Towns Hamilton, 1st African American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly
As increasing numbers of African American women are pursuing elected office, it is important to reflect on the legacy and experience of the pioneers who laid the foundation for efforts today. Grace Towns Hamilton (1907-1992) was the first African American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1965. She along with seven others, were the first African Americans to be elected to the Georgia legislature since Reconstruction. She served in the General Assembly from 1965-1984, and was acknowledged by her peers as "the most effective woman legislatorthe state ever had." 
 
The Grace Towns Hamilton Papers are now open for research in the Archives Research Center. The collection spans the period 1950 to 1985 and contains campaign materials, copies of bills she sponsored including the abortion rights bill and the Fair Employment Practices Act, as well as legislative and committee materials related to the Atlanta Charter Commission, the appropriations committee, and the Citizens' Advisory Council for Environmental Quality. Of note  are maps of Atlanta, the West End, and Vine City related to her work on the reapportionment committee.   In collaboration with the Clark Atlanta University Geographical Information Systems lab, over 170 maps have been digitized and will be made available to the public for online research.  In addition to legislative materials there are personal and professional items including  correspondence with individuals such as  W.E.B. DuBois and Jimmy Carter,  and photographs of Grace Towns Hamilton, her family, friends, and colleagues. The materials in the collection complement other holdings of the Archives Research Center, such as the George A. Towns Collection, the Atlanta Urban League Papers, and the Voter Education Project Organizational Records.

A graduate of Atlanta University (class of 1927), Hamilton taught psychology at Clark College and the Atlanta School of Social Work.  She also served as Executive Director of the Atlanta Urban League from 1943 to 1960.  The Hamilton Papers are part of ARC's initiative to increase research access to archival materials from underrepresented groups, including African American women.  For more information about the collection visit: http://findingaid.auctr.edu/arc/view?docId=ead/auctr.edu/grace_t_hamilton.xml
Spelman College Historical Photos Accessible Digitally
Over 600 historical photographs of Spelman College are now available online through AUC Woodruff Library's eScholarship Repository, Digital Commons.  The photographs date from 1887 to the present and include images of Spelman College Presidents, commencement ceremonies, campus buildings and grounds, and performances from the Department of Drama and Dance.  http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/spelmanimg/

This is the first installation of digital materials from the three-year $400,000 grant-funded project, Our Story Digitizing Publications and Photographs of the Historically Black Atlanta University Center Institutions." This is a collaborative effort between the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, Spelman College Archives, Morehouse College, and the Digital Library of Georgia.  It is funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) initiative to broaden access to hidden collections.  

Upon the project's completion, more than 700,000 pages of material will be digitized and made available online for faculty, students, alumni, scholars, and the national and international public.   The materials document the Atlanta University Center schools - Atlanta University, Clark College, Clark Atlanta University, Gammon Theological Seminary, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College.  Included are photographs, academic catalogs, yearbooks, newspapers, newsletters, magazines, journals, theses and dissertations.  Announcements will be sent as additional materials become available for research and study.   

Over 1,000 Audio and Video Works of African American Religious Sermons, Lectures and Interviews Online
The three-year digital access project, Spreading the Word: Expanding Access to African-American Religious Archival Collections of the Atlanta University Center Robert W.  Woodruff Library is concluded.  Through this project 1,146 audio and video assets are now available on line, including sermons by Bishop John Howard Bell, Church of God in Christ, a pioneer in mass media ministries; and interviews with Malcolm X and Minister Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam. In addition there are 2,950 photographs, and inventories to f ourteen archival collections all available through AUC Woodruff Library's e-Scholarship Repository Digital Commons. http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/sword/ Complementing these new resources is a digital exhibit on the History of the Interdenominational Theological Center ; and an online research guide that categorizes the digital collections by subject - Homiletics, Education, Theology and Church Life; and provides citations for related published books. To date, these digital collections have been accessed by over 2,248 institutions in 185 countries, and content has been downloaded over 9,000 times.  
This project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of its initiative to provide access to archival collections documenting the religious history of African Americans and to broaden access to under-represented humanities collections.


The 15th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
The 15th Annual  Walter  Rodney  Symposium  was held in the AUC Woodruff Library March 23rd and 24th. The symposium honors the work of Dr.  Walter Rodney (1942-1980), Pan-Africanist historian,  educator, scholar, and political activist widely known for his seminal work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. The symposium is a collaboration with the  Walter Rodney Foundation, the AUC Woodruff Library, and other local educational institutions and organizations. As a co-sponsor, the Library has hosted the symposium 13 of the 15 years. The symposium began in 2004 to celebrate the opening of the Walter Rodney Papers. The papers are available for research in the Library's Archives Research Center. For more information visit  http://www.auctr.edu/archives .
 
Each year the symposium focuses on a designated theme that provides a forum to discuss current issues on social justice and human rights and reveals the continuing relevance of Walter Rodney's writings and teaching. This year's theme was "1968-2018: Reflecting on 50 Years of Struggle." The keynote speaker, John Carlos, is a civil rights activist and noted Olympic track and field athlete. During the 1968 Summer Olympics, while on the podium receiving the gold and bronze medals, Carlos and his teammate Tommie Smith bowed their heads and gave the black power salute to protest injustices in the U.S. Their protest, 50 years ago, is part of the continuing legacy and sacrifices made by African American athletes to use their celebrity to stand for equality and justice.  
 
Other presentations included the Atlanta premiere of the new documentary film, "The Past is Not Our Future: Walter Rodney's Student Years"; panelists reflect on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Walter Rodney's , Groundings with My Brothers; a discussion the status of 50 years of Black Studies programs in U.S. colleges and universities; and a critique of social justice as portrayed in the newly released and highly proclaimed Black Panther Marvel Comics movie.     For more information about the symposium visit  http://www.walterrodneyfoundation.org/


 
Enhanced Learning through Teaching with Objects:  The AUC GLAM Center for Teaching & Learning
Object-based learning (OBL) is the focus for the AUC Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) Center for Teaching & Learning, located at the AUC Woodruff Library.  OBL is an experiential learning technique in which students work with objects such as artwork and historical documents to facilitate deep learning.  It provides a stimulating experience across multiple senses leading to enhanced analytical skills, increased visual literacy and improved learning outcomes at both the undergraduate and graduate level .  OBL has shown to lead to better knowledge acquisition than the more traditional lecture format. 
 
Ten faculty members from Clark Atlanta University (CAU), Morehouse College, and Spelman College, were selected to participate in first-year GLAM Center initiatives.  Representing a cross section of academic disciplines including African American Studies, English, History, Physics, and Religion, the faculty will participate in bi-monthly workshops to learn OBL techniques to incorporate in their teaching.  The first workshop was held at the Spelman Museum of Fine Arts on February 8th, using artwork from the Museum's current exhibition "Deborah Roberts: The Evolution of Mimi."  Future workshops will explore artwork, historical documents, photographs, and other objects from the CAU Art Museum, and the AUC Woodruff Library's Archives Research Center. 
 
The AUC GLAM Center for Teaching & Learning is a $400,000 Andrew W. Mellon-funded collaborative project of the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library. Partners include the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum and the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. For more information about the AUC GLAM Center and future activities, contact: Martina Dodd, Museum Education Curator mdodd@auctr.edu   404 978-2161.


Dr. Maurita Poole, Director, CAU Art Museum and AUC faculty.
Lessons in Diversity: AUC Students Contribute to Wikipedia
The Wikipedia, consulted by millions of people daily, is the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet. The information seekers are diverse, encompassing all ages, races, ethnicities and nationalities. Yet, those who generate content are a fairly small and homogenous population , with few women and people of color within its editorial base, creating an inherent racial and gender bias in the range of topics and points of view included. 
 
To address this issue, as well as teach students how to research archival materials and use technology  to author Wikipedia arti cles, staff from the Library's Archives Research Center (ARC) and E-Learning Technologies Unit partnered with faculty from Clark Atlanta University (CAU) and Spelman College to develop a semester-long assignment combining research and technology. Initially, an archivist identified archival collections about individuals, primarily African American women, who were not in the Wikipedia or on the internet. Students used those historic figures as research topics and learned how to interpret archival finding aids and conduct archival research, enhancing their archival and primary source literacy skills.
 
E-Learning Technologies staff instructed AUC students on the technology needed to create, edit and organize information for Wikipedia articles. Students learned how to use Wikipedia tools to generate individual accounts, create new entries, add citations and references, organize sections and add internal and external hyperlinks. This collaboration among faculty, librarians and archivists provided a unique educational experience with multiple benefits for students and the online community. Students learned how to research archival materials, validate information and create, edit, organize and publish on Wikipedia. The project also raised the visibility of hidden and underrepresented communities on the site, expanded subject coverage and increased the diversity of contributors and editors.  
 
New Demand-Driven Streaming Video Service @ AUC Woodruff Library
The AUC Woodruff Library is pleased to introduce a new demand-driven online video streaming service, Kanopy.  Kanopy's video collection includes thousands of award-winning documentaries, training films and educational releases.  AUC faculty, staff, and students can now stream thousands of carefully selected films from hundreds of popular educational producers such as The Great Courses, BBC and PBS, as well as hundreds of independent filmmakers.  Kanopy's films cover all topics including foreign languages, LGBT studies, career development and business skills, environmental sciences, history, astronomy, and much more.  Voted by Library Journal as one of the "Top 10 Databases for 2015," Kanopy streaming video is sure to provide AUC faculty and students with a variety of content that supports diverse teaching, learning and research needs.
 
The AUC Woodruff Library actively engages in best, current practices for information delivery and access, ensuring that the resources desired and required by our students and faculty are available when needed.  The Library has already implemented a demand-driven acquisitions program for eBooks, and multiple purchase-on-demand programs for acquiring journal articles such as ArticleChoice® through Elsevier's ScienceDirect.  The benefit of demand-driven and purchase-on-demand acquisitions programs is that resources are immediately available to the user without waiting for an order and delivery process. The Library saves costs by paying for "just-in-time" use versus purchasing for  "just in case" availability.
 
For more information or to start streaming Kanopy:  
Summer 2018
IN THIS ISSUE
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Atlanta Student Movement
On September 28th, Doug Blackmon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Slavery By Another Name; and November 9th, Dr. Tomkio Brown-Nagin, author fo the award-winning, Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement  were keynote speakers for the 2017 programs promoting the exhibit "Start Something: Activism and the Atlanta Student Movement." These programs were co-sponsored with the AUC Woodruff Library and Georgia Humanities. For more information about exhibit "Start Something" and accompanying public programs visit: 

http://research.auctr.edu/AtlantaSt
udentMovement


Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin

Doug Blackmon
AUC Authors Series: Showcasing Scholarship & Creativity 
The AUC Author Series is a production of the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library librarians. The series began in 2011 when a Woodruff librarian interviewed Dr. L.H. Whelchel of the Interdenominational Theological Center about his newly published book, The History & Heritage of African-American Churches: A Way Out of No Way. Since then, librarians have interviewed 24 staff and faculty from Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and the AUC Woodruff library.  The idea came out of a presentation at an American Theological Library Association conference where a presenter spoke about interviewing faculty on their recent works and then posting the audio of those interviews online. The Library's Reference Librarian took the idea back to the Library and began interviewing AUC community members.
 
To date, there have been over 1,660 views of the 24 interviews. They were recently placed on the Library's search-optimized Digital Commons platform and include stylized credits and a "B-roll". Users around the world will have greater success in discovering these interviews on this platform. What started from a mere kernel of an idea has grown into a global platform highlighting AUC scholarship and creativity to the world. 
Woman of Excellence Award
Parham honored as 2018 African American Woman of Excellence by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. 

Loretta Parham
CEO & Library Director

Employee Excellence
Each year, the Library recognizes those employees who consistently go above and beyond their scope of work in order to provide the best service to our users.

In December 2017, during our annual employee recognition awards ceremony, the following  employees were acknowledged for their contributions and hard work:


Leadership Award  
Justin De La Cruz


Employee of the Year Award
Karen Jefferson



Team Building Award
Finance & Human Resources Depts.


External Customer Service Award
Tiffany Atwater


Internal Customer Service Award
Oscar Daniel
Upcoming Events & Attractions
  • New Woodi Cafe & Coffee Bar Coming this Fall!!
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