Congressional Collection of Bob Barr Opening with May 15 Reception

A drop-in reception to mark the opening of the papers of former U.S. Congressman Bob Barr will be held Wednesday, May 15, from 2 to 3:30 pm in the Thomas B. Murphy Reading Room of Ingram Library at the University of West Georgia. The event celebrates the completion of a two and a half year project by the Special Collections department to process Barr’s collection and make it available for research.

Barr and Dr. Beheruz Sethna will make opening remarks at 2 pm as well as Dr. Daniel Williams, Associate Professor of History, who will talk about the conservative Congress of the 1990s as context for Barr’s collection. Light refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public.

Barr served four terms from 1995 to 2003 representing the 7th District. During his tenure, he was a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, vice chair of the Government Reform Committee, and member of the Committees on Financial Services and Veterans Affairs.

One of his lasting legacies came from his activities on the Judiciary Committee in developing a case against President Clinton for impeachable offenses. More recently, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the legality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which Barr authored while in Congress. Barr donated his Congressional papers to the Annie Belle Weaver Special Collections in 2010. He recently has announced his intention to run for the Congressional seat vacated by Dr. Phil Gingrey this year.

For more information, contact Suzanne K. Durham, Head of Special Collections, at sdurham@westga.edu or 678-839-5350.

The Sethna Years

In honor of Dr. Sethna’s long service and impending retirement, an exhibit in the Thomas B. Murphy Reading Room features the major developments of the University of West Georgia during his tenure as reported through the West Georgian newspaper. Topics include the campus building expansion, name and logo changes, and new degree programs. The exhibit is free and open to the public, and will remain in place until June.

Women’s History Month: Ingram Library’s Annie Belle Weaver

Annie Belle Weaver was born February 6, 1906 in Tupelo, Mississippi, the granddaughter of Confederate ‘Private’ John Allen, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1885-1901. She graduated with a B.A degree in English from the Mississippi State College for Women in 1926 and then attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where she received a B.A. degree in Library Science in 1928. Later she would do graduate work at the University of Chicago and New York University.
Weaver taught at Emory Junior College at Valdosta, Georgia 1928-1931 and was Librarian at Southwestern at Memphis 1931-1933. A fellow student of Weaver’s in the library school at Emory had been Ida Munro, sister-in-law of Irvine S. Ingram, president of the newly created West Georgia College in Carrollton. Ingram was looking for a librarian and offered Weaver the position. Weaver took the job, serving from August 1933 until her retirement in 1969. In 1968 she was named the first Director of Libraries and upon retirement Director Emeritus.
Weaver’s library in 1933 was a classroom located in the west wing of the Administration Building. The collection numbered approximately 1,000 volumes, many of which were duplicate copies of high school textbooks that were of little value in the college curriculum. The book budget for the year was $500 with an extra $50 for periodicals. In 1937, the Sanford Library was completed with a grant from the Rosenwald Fund. A Carnegie Foundation grant helped stock it with books. In 1940 the new library had to be expanded to accommodate the fast-growing college. For a time, the regional public library operated out of the basement of the library expansion.
According to an oral history, Weaver was having thoughts of quitting her job after a particularly trying time and told President Ingram of her intention. Ingram responded that he did not accept resignations on Thursdays and by the next day, Weaver said she had calmed down and changed her mind.
Shortly before Weaver retired in 1969, she oversaw the construction of a new three-story library building later named for President Ingram. In 1981, Weaver was honored with the naming of the Annie Belle Weaver Special Collections in Ingram Library. A bronze plaque designed and struck by the late artist and UWG professor Henry Setter hangs in Special Collections today. Weaver died in Carrollton on January 21, 1991.

Seeking student input on the library!

We are interested in establishing a Student Advisory Panel at Ingram Library. What does that mean? We’re looking for a group of students that are interested in meeting on a somewhat regular basis to discuss issues at the library.

On one hand, we want to hear your ideas on how we could improve the library. What problems are you having with library resources or the library space? What aren’t we around to see? What services do you wish we would offer?

On the other hand, we want a group that we can ask for opinions about our ideas. Do you want video game nights on the main floor of the library? Do you pay any attention to this blog, or would you if we update it more often?

Our first meeting will be on Thursday, March 7 at 2:00 pm.

If you are interested in participating, please fill out and submit the form below.

Want to Get Personalized Research Help From a Librarian?

Are you having trouble navigating GALILEO and all of our online databases? Not sure where to start for your research paper?

With Go PRO (the Personalized Research Option), a UWG Librarian will meet with you one-on-one to assist you in your research.

We can help you narrow your topic, choose the right databases, search more effectively and track down useful materials of all types at Ingram Library and beyond.

A librarian can meet with you any time from 11:30am-5:00pm Monday-Thursday, and you can reserve your spot online.

Click here to sign up for an open time slot

At the time of your consultation, meet us at the Reference Desk on the 1st floor of Ingram Library.

If your question requires specific expertise in your major or field you are studying, you can meet with the librarian who is a subject specialist in that area. Fill out the following form and we will get back to you within 1 business day and set up a time for the consultation.

Click here to meet with the subject librarian in your major (You can also view our list of subject librarians.)

Finally, to get to the page where you can sign up for a GoPro Consultation from the Ingram Library website homepage (not just this blog post), go to Instructional Services:

And click Students: Request a consultation with a librarian

Or you can go directly to Westga.edu/Library/GoPro

Better papers start with better research strategies. Let a librarian give you personalized help today!

“FDR: His Vision, Our Freedoms, Still Alive” opens at Ingram Library on February 11

The University of West Georgia’s Ingram Library will host the national exhibit “FDR: His Vision, Our Freedoms, Still Alive,” which highlights President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s leadership through the Great Depression and World War II and the enduring achievements of his administration.

The exhibit will be on display in the Ingram Library from February 11 through March 8. It is free and open to the public.

The exhibit combines historic photographs, documents, cartoons, and posters from the collection of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, to tell the story of the president who led the United States during two of the gravest crises in its history. Roosevelt’s presidency successfully combated the Great Depression, reducing unemployment by half. In the process, it dramatically enlarged the scope of the federal government. Under Roosevelt’s leadership, victory was gained in World War II and the United States emerged from that conflict as the world’s greatest power. The exhibit chronicles Roosevelt’s style of presidential leadership, major New Deal programs, his role as commander-in-chief during World War II, and his commitment to progressive ideals.

The exhibit will also include a display of objects which highlight President Roosevelt’s lengthy residence at The Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. Roosevelt first came to Warm Springs in 1924 for treatment for the infantile paralysis (polio) which had struck him three years earlier. Later, he purchased land and built a home there which came to be called “The Little White House.” FDR traveled to Warm Springs repeatedly during his presidency. He died at The Little White House on April 12, 1945.  For more on FDR’s residency in Warm Springs, please see the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

As part of the exhibition, Ingram Library is also sponsoring a talk by Allan M. Winkler, Professor of History at Miami University in Ohio and author of “Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Making of Modern America.” He will speak on Thursday, February 21, at 7:00 p.m. at Ingram Library. Special public parking will be available in the Townsend Center gated lot, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

“FDR: His Vision, Our Freedoms, Still Alive” is a traveling exhibition developed by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and is presented by Ingram Library’s Penelope Melson Society. The project is supported by the Georgia Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities and through appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly. Funding is provided, as well, by the Carroll EMC Foundation.

Parking on the UWG campus is unrestricted on Saturdays and Sundays (other than handicapped, reserved, yellow curb, and red curb spaces). For further information, visit http://www.westga.edu/library or contact Catherine Hendricks at chendric@westga.edu or
(678) 839-5337.

Images:                                                                                                                                Painting of FDR by Steve Penley, 2012.           

Photo of FDR, his dog Fala, and Ruthie Bie in Hyde Park, February 1941.   One of two known photographs of him in a wheelchair.  Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York.

Good Librations Workshop for faculty & staff, January 11

Welcome back to campus! Happy New Year! Happy Spring Semester!

To celebrate the new semester, join us on Friday January 11 at 3pm in Ingram Library’s “Aquarium” Classroom (3rd floor) for Good Librations. This month’s session will teach you how to use EndNote Web to manage your citations and to make your life easier (well, at least parts of it).

What’s EndNote Web? It’s a web-based software you have access to through the library’s subscriptions. In EndNote you create a list of sources you use for your research. We’ll show you how to import the citations directly from the subscription databases the library provides. When you are writing, EndNote cooperates with MS Word to insert the bibliographic information from your sources list into your Word document. We’ll show you that, too. Need to change your citation format from Chicago to APA? EndNote will do that for you. Yes, you read that correctly, it will change the format of your endnotes, footnotes, and works cited list for you. You’ll learn all of this and more in the pleasant company of your colleagues, in beautiful Ingram Library, while enjoying refreshments. There will also be door prizes including a jar of Anne’s homemade habañero jelly.

For more details go to http://libguides.westga.edu/goodlibrations.