University Libraries Newsletter
February 2019
Library Resources & Events
Carol Ellis, Director of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Retires
  Carol Ellis, Director of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, retired February 1, 2019. In 2010, Ms. Ellis was appointed Director of the University of South Alabama Photographic Archives. During her directorship, she oversaw the receipt of a number of collections, including the McCall Papers for which the Archives was named in 2011. Compiled by Doy Leale McCall, Sr., 1896-1971, this important series of collections documents the history of the Alabama Black Belt from 1806 to the middle of the 20 th century. Donated by McCall’s three grandchildren, the papers are valued at more than $3.1 million.
  In 2016, Ms. Ellis organized the move of the McCall Library to the university campus after the Julien E. Marx Foundation Trust donated $1 million for renovations to Marx Library to house the collections. Ellis’s careful records of the move indicate that it involved packing up and transferring over 25,000 books and paper manuscript items, more than 1 million photographs, including 11,000 glass plate negatives, and some 7,000 boxes of archival materials. By her calculations, packing the collections required the use of four miles of packing tape and three miles of packing foam.
  In 2018, the McCall Library celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding. Many thanks to Carol Ellis for her years of service to the University of South Alabama, and for her stewardship of the McCall Library and its collections, a mark of distinction for the university, for Mobile, for the State of Alabama, and for the Gulf Coast Region.
Barbara Jackson, LTA I Government
Documents Department, Retires
USA Libraries congratulates Barbara Jackson, who retired February 1, 2019. Hired in 2002, Ms. Jackson served for seventeen years as Library Technical Assistant I in the Serials and Government Documents department, working with periodical and newspaper collections, and assisting with the university’s collections of government documents. The University of South Alabama is one of twenty-two depository libraries in the state of Alabama, serving the citizens of the 1 st Congressional District of Alabama with an emphasis on Mobile and Baldwin Counties. USA Libraries celebrated the 50th anniversary of the university’s membership in the Federal Depository Library Program in 2018.
Thanks to Barbara Jackson for her many years of service to the University of South Alabama and its libraries. 
The University Libraries Announce the Following Appointments Effective January 1, 2019
Dr. Angela Rand, who was appointed at the University of South Alabama in 2008, has been appointed Director of the Marx Library.
Geneva Staggs has been appointed Director of the Biomedical Library. Ms. Staggs was appointed at the University of South Alabama in 1979.
Clista Clanton, who was appointed at the University of South Alabama in 2002, has been appointed Assistant Director for Strategic Initiatives in the Biomedical Library.
Mary Duffy, who joined the University in 2011, has been appointed Associate University Librarian for Systems and Collections for the University Libraries.
Kathy Wheeler, who was appointed at the University of South Alabama in 1997, has been appointed Assistant University Librarian for Collections for the University Libraries. 
USA Libraries Sponsors Little Blue Roof Library
USA Libraries sponsored a little library for the Boys & Girls Club of South Alabama during the 2019 Martin Luther King, Jr. Week of Unity and Service. USA Libraries employees gathered with the Office of Community Engagement and volunteers to paint and decorate the little library in the USA student amphitheater on January 17th, where Heather Hoven Glass, Biomedical Library Night Supervisor, provided design and direction.
The library will be placed at a location on the Blue Roof Library Trail in Mobile county, making free books easily accessible for children in the area.
Featured Resource: National Geographic Virtual Library
In our campaign to provide as many resources as possible in digital format, the University Libraries subscribed to the National Geographic Virtual Library through Gale Cengage. This resource includes the entire run of the magazine, cover to cover (including advertisements), from 1888 to the present. Articles in the NGVL are in full color, and content can either be read or listened to. Individual articles can be printed; although there are no download or save options, there is a print button and pages can be printed to either a printer or to PDF. Issues can be browsed or searched for both keywords and images.

Browse or Search the National Geographic Virtual Library.
Have you visited the Marx Library Free Lending Library?
Are you looking for leisure reading without the worry of a due date? Have you noticed the books in the Marx Library atrium, near the Circulation desk, with the red jaguar paw sticker on them and wondered about them? These books are part of the Marx Library Free Lending Library and are free for the taking. No checkout is required; library staff do not even need to be notified that you are taking one.
Browse the shelf and pick up some fun reading any time you're in the library, and feel free to donate books you no longer want to the MLFLL. Give any donations, along with the applicable form to the staff at the Circulation Desk and specify that they are for the free library.

Download the Gifts-in-Kind form if you'd like to donate to the Marx Library Free Lending Library.
Rock Springs by Richard Ford
Location: Marx Library
Call Number: PS 3556 .O713 R6 1987
Recommendations from the Stacks
February's book recommendation comes from Mike Itaya,
Library Technical Assistant at the Marx Library.
"I love this book, Richard Ford's narrators are criminals, and when you feel his characters lost between how they see themselves and their place in the world, it cracks your heart wide."
Joseph Bloch Exhibit Helps Springhill Avenue Temple
Celebrate its 175th Anniversary
The traveling public history exhibit Joseph Bloch: Father of Mobile's Music was installed at Springhill Avenue Temple just in time for the congregation's 175th Anniversary Celebration. Bloch himself was a member of Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim (Gates of Heaven) which today makes its home at the Springhill Avenue Temple. The project was a grant funded collaboration among University Libraries faculty Deborah Gurt and Paula Webb, along with History Professor David Meola. The exhibit will remain at the Temple through February, and future locations will include Spring Hill College Library."
University Libraries Recent Professional Development
Deborah Gurt - participated in an Oral History Association webinar called  Documenting Your Community: Planning Skills for Oral History Projects.  She will be participating in a project with Honors College students and faculty to research and document the experiences of residents of the Mobile-Tensaw delta. The area is home to a diverse population and a unique natural environment. These features distinguish the region and make it a rich resource for exploring folkways and culture using an oral history methodology.

Kristina Polizzi – attended a 2 day workshop in Montgomery sponsored by the NEDCC called  Preservation Management and Collections Care to develop her skills in handling and preserving fragile collection materials.

Amy Prendergast – Prendergast, A.C. "Innocenzi, Plinio. The innovators behind Leonardo: the true story of the scientific and technological Renaissance."  CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries , Jan. 2019, p. 632.

Paula Webb – Webb, P. L., Martin, L. E. (2017). Hunt for the Elusive: Finding and Utilizing the History in Government Documents. Government Information Essentials . Chicago, IL: American Library Association - won the Margaret T. Lane/Virginia F. Saunders Memorial Research Award. The prize money will be donated to the Larry Romans Mentorship Award and the Karen M. Russ Memorial Award. 
Current Exhibits in the Marx Library
January/February 2019
My Black is Beautiful
TaKharii Williams
January/February 2019
Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery of Art
Dependence
Anna Wheeler
January/February 2019
Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery of Art
Kenley Harvard
Artist
February 2019
2nd Floor Student Gallery
Critical Consumerism
Modified Screen Printing Products by University of South Alabama and University of Georgia Printmaking Students
January/February 2019
Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery of Art
Quincy Roundtree
Artist
January/February 2019
Gallery Hall
Deciduous She
A three artist show at Gallery 181
Kim Lovvorn
Emilee Luke
Samantha Seghers
Gallery 181
Tuesdays: 9:30 am - 12 pm
Wednesdays: 12 - 2 pm
Fridays; 4 - 6 pm
Abe Partridge Exhibit
Artist
March/April 2019
Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery of Art

Abe Partridge Concert
April 25th @ 4 pm
Marx Library Auditorium
Reception Following in the Rodning Gallery
Trey Oliver Exhibit
Artist
March/April 2019
Gallery Hall
Artist Talk: March 27th
5:30 pm Rodning Gallery
I've Been to the Mountain Top Exhibit
Portraits of Civil Rights Activists
March/April 2019
2nd Floor Student Gallery
MuffinJaw Designs - Tres Johns Exhibit
Glass Artist
March/April 2019
Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery of Art
Artist Talk: March 12th
5:30 pm Rodning Gallery
Joshua Burford of Invisible Histories Project
April 11, 2019
Details to be announced.