UNLV Launches New Digital Collection: Southern Nevada, The Boomtown Years: 1900-1925

The University Libraries are pleased to announce the launch of a new digital collection:

Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years 1900-1925
http://digital.library.unlv.edu/boomtown

The LSTA-grant funded, Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years 1900-1925 digital collection brings together a wide range of original source materials found in the rich collections of UNLV Libraries Special Collections, as well as items from the Nevada State Museum and the Clark County Heritage Museum.

The project contains over 1500 digitized items; including photographs, correspondence, newspapers, maps, and ephemera from several mining and railroad manuscript collections documenting both large historical events, and the more private and social lives of individuals and their communities during the mining boom in Southern Nevada.

Notably, this collection also promotes the use of primary source materials by K-16 educators by providing a wide variety of standards-based teaching activities for elementary and high schoolers.

UNLV Launches New Digital Collection: Nevada Test Site Oral History Project

Finally finished another collection!

The University Libraries are pleased to announce the launch of a new digital collection:

The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project

The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project documents the remembered past of persons affiliated with and affected by the Nevada Test Site during the era of Cold War nuclear testing. Through the Libraries' partnership with the UNLV College of Liberal Arts, a wide range of oral history interviews were organized to be presented in an digital collection representing diverse points of view including: scientists and engineers; labor and support personnel; military personnel and corporate executives; Native American leaders; peace activists and protesters; Nevada ranchers and communities downwind of the test site. The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project was directed by Mary Palevsky from September 2003 through July 2007 with funding from U.S. Depts. of Energy and Education. For the academic year 2007-2008 work on final interviews, the digital collection, and project website was supported by the University Libraries and the Department of History.

Nearly 200 full-text searchable transcripts and audio clips are now available in this digital collection. Project URL:http://digital.library.unlv.edu/ntsohp/.

One Day at a Time

Nevada Test Site
Originally uploaded by doubleaphotoalbum

So, I have been really busy with work. Since I started last May I have been really working hard to learn everything I can so that I can try to do a good job in my first professional position as a capital "L" librarian. On average last year I was traveling every other month and I ended up completing five presentations at national conference and collaborating on a crazy but ultimately published book chapter. For reasons I won't go into here, my job has been quite the uphill struggle. It didn't help that the president of the university as well as state senator Harry Reid happened to be interested/involved in my first digital collection. These challenges at work in combination with adjusting to life in Las Vegas has made for a interesting past 2 years.

But, things are finally coming together. At the end of March we should have a project that I can honestly say that I worked on start to finish and that I am really proud of. The grant I helped write might actually get funded. I just got notified that the first real article I've worked on has been accepted for publication, and I even got a silly, minor, but appreciated award at work.

On the personal front, I feel cautiously optimistic. Las Vegas is never going to spontaneously combust and reincarnate as Portland. I am always going to be out of place here and I need to just accept it. But, I am starting to feel like maybe we have made a few friends that we actually trust and who somewhat share our values. I like my yoga teacher. There is a decent burrito place nearby. And I got a bike so I can get out of my car for a change.

If I can just hang in there and get this project at work finished I think that I will be able to take a deep breath and feel like the work has paid off. We booked a campsite for Memorial Day at Kodachrome Basin in Utah and we found a new hot springs to explore this summer. I hope to be able to hang out with my sis a little more often in California. Next year we are having our family get together in Sedona, which will be great fun. Mount Whitney will be awesome, if we get the permit. I just need to take it one day at time...and hang in there.

Who Are These Blogging Librarians?

Well, I'm coming up on one year and four months employed as a professional librarian. I find that people still have some pretty wacky ideas about who librarians are and what we do as a profession. Here are some facts that most people don't know about librarians:

• Being employed as a librarian typically involves completion of an undergraduate degree, an ALA-accredited masters degree in library or information science, and in many cases a second masters degree in a subject specialty. That's a lot of schoolin' (and student loans).
• At my institution, librarians are classified as assistant, associate, or full professors. Yes, we are academic faculty with the same responsibilities as the rest of the teaching faculty. We are expected to excel in the three areas of teaching, service to the library/campus/community, and to publish to meet the requirements for tenure. And we have to do this working 12 months a year, 40 hours a week. (Sadly, even tenured faculty librarians do not get summers off!)
• Librarians are your voice on the front lines of information policy. We have a code of ethics as a profession to defend your open and free access to information in any format without judgment. We defend intellectual freedom, fight censorship, and protect privacy. Heavy stuff.
• The next generation librarian is hip, focused on transforming libraries into the future, and very tech-savvy. We also tend to be blogging our experiences. Several librarians in my graduating class are at the cutting edge of technology and libraries and maintain fascinating blogs (Pegasus Librarian, Goblin in the Library) covering everything from copyright to Ruby on Rails, marketing to paper preservation.
  
• A recent survey of the "biblioblogosphere" reports on the demographics of blogging librarians. Apparently, the majority of us are: female, 31-40, Midwestern, MLIS degreed, work in academic libraries, and are blogging for the first time.

Interesting stuff! So, now that you know more than you ever wanted to about my chosen profession, I ask: "have you hugged your librarian today?"

I love a city that's not afraid of a couple stairs

I love a city that's not afraid of a couple stairs
Originally uploaded by zenhikers.

The librarians have probably returned home and left Seattle in peace. ALA Midwinter was an interesting experience for me as a new librarian. I met a ton of vendors, a variety of other types of librarians from all over the country and I got to explore a new and wonderful city. I heard experts talk about the future of libraries (yes "digital" is a key word, no books aren't dead), the prevalence of new technologies (like how can we push content to iPods?), and the societal changes in how we consume, distribute and repurpose information (anyone for a presidental election?). Someone mentioned today that because Nancy Pearl (of Librarian Action Figure fame) is from Seattle that the city is a sort of Mecca for librarians and it isn't too far from the truth. The city has a multitude of coffeeshops filled with laptop-toting hipsters and with all that coffee even I could probably plow through Ulysses. Mixed in with the snazzy and stupifying Seattle Public Library architecture there are skyscrapers and an artfully developed waterfront. It wasn't uncommon to hear whispers about Microsoft if you sat around to eavesdrop long enough. I liked the Public Market and the Olympic Sculpture Park and the Elliott Bay Bookstore best. I didn't make it to the International Market but I did find an awesome Thai place and had doughnuts at the Top Pot. They even have a Patagonia store and will be debuting the new Nau clothing line in the next few months for those of us who love the outdoors! I'll definitely be back to Seattle, but until then June isn't too far away... I'll see all you librarians at Annual in DC!