In honor of the upcoming anniversary of the birth of children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (b. July 28, 1866), we’re featuring the Libraries’ digital flip-book version of our first-edition copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. (Be sure to turn on your speaker for page-flipping sound.)
To view more digitized books, please visit Iowa Digital Library and Iowa Research Online.
“With a fantastic and unknown power, the tape recording commanded my imagination to fly and run. That’s why the Peter Nazareth Collection brought back to my life — with all its intensity — one of the most remarkable experiences I’ve ever lived.”
— Venezuelan poet Mariela Arvelo, featured in the Peter Nazareth Collection of digitized audio recordings
The storied history of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program is now available for the world to hear. “The Peter Nazareth Collection,” which consists of 30 years of audio interviews with IWP participants and guests, is digitally archived at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/vwu.
Since 1967, more than 1,000 creative writers from 120 countries have visited the university to attend the IWP. In his interviews with writers connected to the program, Peter Nazareth, a UI faculty member and an advisor to the International Writing Program since 1974, captures the essence of what it means to be a writer at “The Writing University.”…
“Peter and his wife, Mary Nazareth, are the institutional memory of this program,” IWP Director Christopher Merrill said. “His memory is incredible and he has amazing stories to tell.
“His recordings not only are really intelligent and quite moving, but they get at the nitty-gritty of what it means to be a writer. What he does in these interviews is dive into what the writer is all about. Peter really makes an effort to connect with the writer. He tries to understand what motivates a writer to do what they do. That’s at the heart of what writing at Iowa is all about.”
Read the full press release here.
The University of Iowa Libraries has reached five million volumes! To celebrate this milestonetemp, we helped give some special treatment to the lucky five-millionth title, The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa, edited by David Hudson, Marvin Bergman and Loren Horton and recently published by the University of Iowa Press to spotlight prominent Iowans throughout history. The impressive team of scholars and writers who contributed to the book includes The UI Libraries’ own Kären Mason, Curator of Iowa Women’s Archives, and David McCartney, University Archivist.
We in Digital Library Services, along with our colleagues in the Applications & Web Services department, created an online version of The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. It is now fully searchable and freely available to readers and researchers around the world, along with the fifty other titles in the University of Iowa Press Digital Editions. Both the print and online versions will be featured at the Iowa City Book Festival this Saturday, July 19.
–Joanna Lee
Digital Projects Librarian, Digital Library Services
This week, DLS bids farewell to Digital Projects Librarian Anne Shelley, who has accepted the position of assistant librarian with the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota. Anne started her tenure just last June amid the rising waters of the Iowa River flood. Listing all of her accomplishments would cause the blog server to crash, so just a couple of highlights…
She led the Ignaz Pleyel digital collection to fruition, a one-of-a-kind collection of over 200 early editions of Pleyel music scores. The project required a great deal of coordination and planning, which Anne carried out successfully.
Anne also recorded several tutorials on using the Iowa Digital Library, helping users to navigate the sometimes-tricky interface of IDL.
Good luck Anne! We’ll miss you.
–Mark F. Anderson
Digital Initiatives Librarian
In honor of Independence Day, please enjoy these patriotic artifacts, which are among the 250,000 digital objects viewable in the Iowa Digital Library.
“Doodle Dandy of the U.S.A.” promotional brochure, 1920s
Vincent Paints July 4th Fireworks Over Manhattan by Greg Constantine, 1982
“Don’t burn your fingers…” postcard, 1908
“Six Miniatures: Fireworks” performed by Catherine Rowe, 1973
In a parallel universe where the economy is in better shape, it would have been great to have temporary Digital Projects Librarian Shawn Averkamp moved to permanent staff. Alas in this universe, we have to say goodbye, as she leaves today to prepare for relocating to The University of Alabama Libraries, which has been lucky enough to hire her as a Metadata Librarian. From Shawn’s first digital fellowship project building the African American Women Students at the UI collection, to her recent duties helping to implement Iowa Research Online, Shawn has made her mark in DLS, and will be greatly missed personally as well as professionally.
In salute to Shawn, here are some artifacts from Traveling Culture, another collection she’s worked on. If it weren’t for the economy, we would have liked to hire an actual chorus of dancing men to see her off.
This past week, the Iowa Digital Library surpassed 250,000 items. There has been much to celebrate since the 100,000th item was added just a little over a year ago, as several new collections have been released. They range from historical photographs of the UI’s trendsetting physical education program for women to material related to Abraham Lincoln to photographs and oral history accounts of last year’s flood.
The 250,000th item represents an upcoming collection of 18th-century sheet music by French composer and publisher Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831). Most of these scores were published within his lifetime and a handful were issued by Pleyel’s own publishing house.
Printed around 1790, Pleyel arranged this collection of songs for voice and keyboard. These melodies originally appeared in some of his many string quartets.
Welcome to the Iowa Digital Library home page version 2.0! We hope you enjoy the newly redesigned site as much as we do. The old page dated all the way back to 2006, making it 21 in dog years, and virtually ancient in digital library years. Designed in response to our rapid growth since then, the new site features improved scalability and browsability, allowing quicker and easier access to our ever-increasing number of digitized artifacts.
Special thanks to digital library graduate fellow Angela Murillo for spending much of last semester contributing to the project, and also to our colleagues in the Applications & Web Services department for assisting with design and functionality, to our colleagues at other institutions whose work inspired us, and to the users who provided us with valuable feedback. Please keep the comments and suggestions coming by filling out our user survey or e-mailing us at thestudio@uiowa.edu.
This fun video from Digital Preservation Europe (DPE) was passed along this morning by our Preservation Librarian, Nancy Kraft. Who knew that the topic of digital preservation could be so entertaining? Enjoy!
–Nicole Saylor, Head
Digital Library Services
By February in Iowa, ice, snow, and freezing temperatures have dragged on for so long that it becomes hard to remember a time when it wasn’t winter. Luckily, our new Iowa City Flood Digital Collection brings the summer back in vivid detail. As documented in the collection’s photographs and oral history interviews, only a little over six months ago the streets were filled with thousands of overheated volunteers, millions of sandbags and several feet of displaced Iowa River.
It kind of makes us appreciate the cold.
–Jen Wolfe, Metadata Librarian
Digital Library Services
