University Libraries

The switch to digital telecasts is on, and to mark the occasion the Iowa Digital Library has released the W9XK Experimental Television at Iowa collection celebrating the birth of American prime-time TV more than 75 years ago.

This “birth” didn’t happen in a laboratory at AT&T, General Electric or RCA, however. Instead, regularly scheduled TV programs were launched on The University of Iowa campus, in a building at the corner of Iowa Avenue and Dubuque Street in Iowa City.

W9XK, as the experimental TV station was then known, went on the air in 1933. For six years the station presented a two-nights-per-week schedule of “sight and sound” lectures, musical performances, and drama…

Read the full press release here.

While the kitsch award in our new collection of digitized Lincolniana probably goes to a photograph of a horse with markings resembling the president’s profile, the 1959 promotional comic book “All aboard, Mr. Lincoln!” published by the Association of American Railroads comes in a close second. Stilted dialogue aside, the comic’s premise is valid — railroad expansion to the Western U.S. remains one of Lincoln’s most important legacies. This connection is explored in our Abraham Lincoln umbrella site, providing integrated access to artifacts from three digital collections about the president and his era: the James W. Bollinger collection of Lincoln memorabilia; Civil War Diaries and Letters, featuring first-hand, contemporary accounts written by Iowans; and the Levi O. Leonard Railroadiana collection, documenting railroad history in the U.S.

The Libraries staff has been all aboard this project to an unprecedented degree. In order to participate in the celebration of Lincoln’s Bicentennial, DLS has been working on the digital collection for the past year, coordinating with staff from Special Collections, Preservation, and Central Technical Services to select, reformat and provide access to the 1000-plus items in the collection. Not least of all, the Web Services team created the beautifully designed collection home page that will be used as a template to bring a more consistent look to the Iowa Digital Library.

Read more about the Abraham Lincoln Digital Collection in our press release.

–Jen Wolfe
Metadata Librarian, Digital Library Services

As we prepare to make a fresh start of new projects in 2009, we’re featuring a few New Year’s-related items from past collections in Iowa Digital Library, ranging from a Jan. 1 diary entry in 1864 to a presidential campaign video captured 144 years later.  

Thank you to all of the Libraries staff who have helped us make so much progress in 2008, and to everyone reading this blog for giving us a reason to do so.

Happy New Year!

–DLS staff

 

“A fresh start,” Jan. 1, 1941
Editorial Cartoons of Ding Darling Digital Collection

 

 “…Spent New Years Day in camp. Weather very cold. Ice sufficiently strong to bear a man’s weight. We have good reason to believe that the present year will wind up the Rebellion.”
George M. Shearer diary, 1864
Civil War Diaries Digital Collection

 

“The New Year of 1968 offers NAACP Branches another chance to tie national items into programs on the local and state levels which will deal with the problems faced by the people. The civil rights movement is by no means over…”
NAACP newsletters, Fort Madison Branch, Fort Madison, Iowa, 1968
African American Women in Iowa Digital Collection

 

Barack Obama: New Year’s Day in Des Moines
Presidential Campaign Videos Digital Collection

 

“To the best of Len’s recollection, he met Charis on New Year’s morning…”
Fruit of the Month, 1988
University of Iowa Press Digital Collection

 

“A happy new year,” 1912
Noble Photographs Digital Collection

Thanks to a $32,700 grant from the National Archives, DLS wil be working with the Libraries’ Preservation and Special Collections departments to digitize the microfilm edition of the Henry A. Wallace Papers.

Iowa native Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965) was a geneticist, author, economist, businessman, U.S. vice president, and third-party presidential candidate. A wartime V.P. under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Wallace had more involvement in administrative and foreign policy than any of his predecessors; according to the Senate Historical Office, he was a forerunner of the modern vice president, who now fill a role as the president’s executive assistant and international representative.

Wallace’s socially liberal ideals — he advocated universal government health care, an end to segregation, and cooperation with the Soviet Union — sometimes branded him as a crackpot, as shown in this editorial cartoon from our Ding Darling digital collection. But to the million citizens who voted for him during his unsuccessful 1948 bid for president as the Progressive Party’s candidate, this visionary politician was the best choice to lead the way in post-war America.

By putting Wallace’s correspondence and related papers online and full-text searchable, DLS is pleased to increase access to primary source material on this important and controversial figure.

–Jen Wolfe
Metadata Librarian, Digital Library Services

This Fall, DLS and Central Technical Services staff have been working on scanning and providing metadata for materials from the Libraries’ Special Collections Department related to the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and the building of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The Civil War documents include diaries and letters written by soldiers and female aid workers describing their experiences on the war front –- most of them had never traveled out of their state before, and several of them died before reaching home. One set of correspondence is that between Myron Underwood, a young rural Iowa doctor sent to Vicksburg, Miss., with the 12th Regiment of the Iowa Infantry to serve as a surgeon’s assistant, and his wife Sophie, back in Iowa with their infant daughter. In a long letter sent to Sophie as Christmas nears and he feels keenly his separation from his wife and daughter, Dr. Underwood apologizes for the lack of polish and eloquence in his correspondence, which he attributes to what he assumes is its ephemeral nature:

“I should have written with the same care that I would, if I had known that they were to be published, and then it might have been worth the while of preserving them. And again, they might have been of interest to you in the future and a benefit to our little girl. And by which she could have studied my true character, and known who her father is if any accident should befall me. And further that I was a thoughtful man, and that he looked forward to her education with an intense desire; and every word that he penned was weighed carefully and as though all my soul was in what I have written.”

Check back next month to view similar artifacts when the Libraries launches this collection to coincide with the Lincoln Bicentennial.

–Christine Tade
Library Assistant, Central Technical Services

“This is at once a celebration of the literary riches and resources of Iowa City and a spur to action. We look forward to working with our new partners in the Creative Cities network — to forging dynamic relationships with writers, artists and others committed to the life of discovery. This is a great day for Iowa City.”
–University of Iowa International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill

In celebration of Iowa City’s designation as UNESCO’s third City of Literature, we’re featuring three of the Iowa Digital Library’s literary collections. As the University’s writing programs and communities continue to grow in prominence, DLS is committed to providing stewardship to their output — collecting, preserving and transmitting digitized texts, readings and other media, with a goal of securing long-term access to Iowa City’s cultural heritage.

 

University of Iowa Press Digital Collection
Features digitized texts of national Iowa Short Fiction Award winners, given annually to first collections of fiction and juried through the Iowa Writers’ Workshop

 

 Iowa Writes subcollection of The Daily Palette Digital Collection
Curated by the staff of The Iowa Review, Iowa Writes is a two-year project showcasing the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of Iowans

 

 

Virtual Writing University Digital Collection
This work-in-progress site includes digitized audio from literary readings, panel discussions, and lectures around The University of Iowa and Iowa City

 

DLS is pleased to announce a new digital collection in the Iowa Digital Library featuring the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council. As one who worked closely with these video presentations, SLIS Digital Librarianship Fellow Chris Ehrman provides some background on the collection:

The Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presentations is a collection of 71 videos, spanning 2004 to the present, of presentations given to the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council by experts from around the world on a extensive range of subjects, available through the Iowa Digital Library. The Iowa City Foreign Relations Council is a non-profit organization that is interested in learning about U.S. Foreign Policy, world affairs and current global issues. Each year the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council invites experts in these fields who are visiting The University of Iowa or Iowa City area. The Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presentations collection provides access to this interesting and unique resource to a wide on-line audience.

A highlight of this collection is presentations given by participants in the University of Iowa International Writing Program. These presentations contain insight into their writing process and how they interpret the world around them.

-Chris Ehrman
Digital Librarianship Fellow