Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Terry Kay has had a lot of ideas in his life, and most of those developed into page-turning novels. But in the summer of 1999, one of his ideas wasn’t about creating books — it was about honoring the authors that came before him.

“I thought Georgia needed to be doing more to honor its writers, to honor its rich literary heritage,” said Kay, whose seventh novel was published that year. “Around the same time, I began to be aware that Georgia literature wasn’t being taught in the schools anymore and I thought that establishing an award that focused not just a particular work by a writer but their whole lifetime of work was a good way to honor the remarkable writers who hail from Georgia or who have made Georgia their home and might encourage teachers of English to see what incredible writers we have right here in Georgia.”

The University of Georgia Libraries and the Center for Teaching and Learning invite full-time UGA faculty from all disciplines to apply to participate in the 2021 Special Collections Libraries Faculty Teaching Fellows program.

Now in its sixth year, the program brings together a select group of UGA faculty to explore archives-based learning as a high-impact learning practice through intensive workshops with specialists from the University’s three special collections units and representatives from the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Three UGA Libraries virtual events featuring film makers and writers have been named to the University of Georgia Signature Lectures series this fall.

The events include celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Brown Media Archive and Peabody Awards Collection and the 20th anniversary of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. The third event, sponsored by the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, introduces the new annual Food, Politics, and Power Lecture series.

In a virtual ceremony, the University of Georgia Libraries, Southern Regional Council, and other partners will honor the top new books exploring social justice on Sept. 6, as part of the AJC Decatur Book Festival, which is set to be held virtually over Labor Day weekend.

On the 100^th anniversary of the certification of the 19^th Amendment granting women in the United States the right to vote, the University of Georgia Libraries will celebrate with a virtual tour of historical artifacts from the women’s suffrage movement.

Yearbooks that chronicle a critical period in the University of Georgia’s history will be available online, thanks to a partnership between UGA Libraries and the Digital Library of Georgia.

A grant project will digitize Pandora yearbooks from 1965 to 1974, a period that includes the transition after UGA’s integration and chronicles increasing diversity at the birthplace of public higher education in America, including movements to increase representation among women and support the LGBTQ+ community.

On Saturday, May 30 the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library will host its first ever Virtual Family Day event.

The event celebrates the exhibit “The Strategies of Suffrage: Mobilizing a Nation for Women’s Rights,” which explores the women’s suffrage movement from 1848 to 1920, focusing on the visual and verbal appeals activists used to promote their message to the public.

Two historical accounts that explore how higher education and the banking industry have influenced civil rights have been named the 2020 recipients of the Lillian Smith Book Awards, which are administered by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia and honor books dedicated to social justice issues.

As history unfolds during the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries are collecting experiences and responses from Georgians to preserve for generations to come.

Georgia residents can contribute to the project by sharing how the crisis has impacted their family, business, education, and well-being. Digital submissions may include personal reflections, photos, poetry, recordings or any other means that demonstrate how the pandemic affects people’s lives.

“Georgians who contribute to the coronavirus collection will help to build our collective understanding of the kaleidoscope of human experience in this unusual circumstance,” said Toby Graham, university librarian and associate provost. “Even as we live through the COVID-19 crisis, we should begin to document this critical time for the benefit of future students and scholars.”

Twelve University of Georgia faculty members have been chosen as 2019-2020 Special Collections Fellows. The fifth cohort of the program represents six schools and colleges with interests ranging from art and education to social work and population health.

Sponsored by the University of Georgia Libraries and the Center for Teaching and Learning, the program guides faculty members as they develop courses that apply archives-centered pedagogy and allow their students to engage with the rich array of materials held in UGA’s three special
collections libraries.