Special Collections News

Free Home Movie Digitization Offered by UGA Libraries’ Brown Media Archives

Submitted by Camie on

Have an old VHS that captured the childhood moments of basketball games and camping trips but no way to actually view the memories? Thanks to the University of Georgia Libraries, community members are invited to “Free the Tapes” with free digitization services to bring the images back to their screens.

The event is sponsored by the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Archive, one of three special collections units at UGA Libraries and one of the largest publicly available audiovisual archives in the country. 

“We believe that home movies are meant to be treasured, but with advances in technology, too many families are left with old tapes and no way to play and preserve them for the next generation to see,” said Ruta Abolins, director of the Brown Media Archives at UGA. “For Free the Tapes: Home Movie Edition, let us cover the expense of digitization, so you can enjoy rewatching your childhood memories.”

AI Legal Expert to Present Workshop for UGA Researchers, Librarians

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Modern research tools such as artificial intelligence and text and data mining can open up data in ways that researchers are only beginning to imagine. Yet the complex and intense legal landscape can be so daunting that some projects are stifled by concerns of copyright and restrictive terms of use.

On April 11, the UGA Libraries will host one of the nation’s top experts on the fair use of AI and text and data mining to help researchers and librarians understand how to avoid the pitfalls. The 90-minute workshop will be led by Dave Hansen, executive director of Authors Alliance and co-principal investigator of the Text and Data Mining: Demonstrating Fair Use Project, which is supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Prominent Women Educators Headline Women’s History Month at UGA Special Collections Libraries

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The University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries will host a Native college president and a lauded Black history professor during Women’s History Month this March.

First, Dr. Sandra Boham, president of Salish Kootenai College and an accomplished leader in American Indian higher education, will present the annual Jeannette Rankin Legacy Lecture in honor of the nation’s first women in Congress. The free event will be held Wednesday March 13 at 3 p.m. and is sponsored by the Jeannette Rankin Foundation and the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.

New UGA Libraries Agreements Expand Open Access Publishing Opportunities

Submitted by Camie on

New University of Georgia Libraries’ agreements have expanded free open access publishing opportunities for UGA researchers, now covering more than 3,000 titles from prominent academic journal publishers.

Increasingly, researchers prefer open access options in order to expand the visibility, use, and impact of their work, and federal funding agencies require that grant-funded research be made openly available. UGA Libraries’ agreements with eight publishers cover the open access charges normally passed to researchers. These new arrangements are called “publish and read” agreements, as they address terms both for subscriptions to a publisher’s e-journals and support for open access. 

UGA Libraries Seed Grants Support Scholarship in the Humanities

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Three UGA professors have been named the inaugural recipients of UGA Libraries’ Fairchild-Holcomb Awards for Innovation in the Humanities. The seed grants, totaling $8,600, will kick-start projects aimed at creating educational materials and a podcast or documentary drawing upon archival materials from UGA’s Special Collections Libraries.

UGA Special Collections Archivist Recognized by Georgia Association of Museums

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UGA Special Collections Libraries were highlighted as part of the Georgia Association of Museums Conference, held in Athens this January.

Bearded man smiles, receives applause from audience

In addition to several workshops and tours hosted by our archivists, the conference featured Ryan Lewis, the Georgia Music Exhibit Coordinator for the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, as the keynote speaker for the event. 

UGA Libraries Welcomes New Leaders

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The University of Georgia Libraries are pleased to announce the naming of three new leaders who join University Librarian and Associate Provost Toby Graham in providing direction-setting and oversight for the libraries.

Newest to UGA is Sara Wright who started her role as Associate University Librarian for Learning Services and Academic Engagement in January. Wright formerly served as director of Cornell University’s Mann & Science Cluster Libraries, and her career at Cornell included stints as Academic Technology Librarian; Head of User Services and Engagement; and Head of Learning, Spaces, and Technology.