Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection

Fourteen University of Georgia faculty members will collaborate with UGA Libraries archivists this May to design learning opportunities for students using historical materials, as part of the 2021 Special Collections Libraries Fellows program.

From finance to film studies, the sixth cohort of the program reflects the broadest range of academic disciplines in the program’s history, reaching faculty from eight schools and colleges and 13 academic departments. The group exemplifies the wide range of materials that students and researchers can explore in the Libraries’ three special collections units.

Even in black and white with no audio, a home movie of families gathering and men playing trombones and marching to the beat of bass drums through the streets of Augusta, Georgia, present a vivid picture of a community often underrepresented in archival and historical materials.

It’s one thing to read and study medieval stories, but it’s another for students to touch, translate and research 600-year-old manuscripts. Thanks to an innovative series of classes called The Hargrett Hours Project hosted at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries, students had that opportunity, and now their work is on display in the building’s galleries.

An exhibit, “The Hargrett Hours: Exploring Medieval Manuscripts,” presents the insights students gained while investigating medieval manuscripts in the collections of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The display includes original items from the collections, dating back centuries, as well as the findings from the students’ in-depth study of a Book of Hours.

In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of the University of Georgia, the Main Library at UGA is hosting an exhibit that chronicles the historic events of 1961, when Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter (now Hunter-Gault) became the first African American students admitted to the university.

Honored guests, including the Holmes family and members of the UGA Black Alumni Council, were among the first to tour the exhibit, entitled Georgia Trailblazers: Honoring the 60th Anniversary of Desegregation at UGA, on the day it opened, Jan. 9, 2021, the 60^th anniversary of Holmes’ and Hunter’s enrollment.

Students and faculty in the University of Georgia community can continue to take advantage of library services after the Thanksgiving transition to online classes, whether in Athens or at home in another state.

In addition to online resources and virtual consultations with librarians and archivists, library facilities, including the Miller Learning Center, will remain available to students, faculty, staff, and the community through the remainder of the year and into the spring semester.

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.

The University of Georgia’s Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection will celebrate the importance of home movies with a weeklong series of virtual events, including family activities and a rarely seen private look at the early days of Athens rock band The B-52s.

Stephanie Jenkins and Salimah El-Amin describe their jobs as “Indiana Jones, but for nerds.” The archival researchers for Ken Burns’ Florentine Films go on searches for the “Holy Grail” of still and moving images that can help build a documentary that touches and teaches viewers.

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.

The University of Georgia Libraries will celebrate the 25^th anniversary of one of its special collections this fall with a series of virtual events that highlight the Walter J. Brown Media Archive & Peabody Awards Collection’s contributions to media preservation, scholarship and film-making.