The UK Libraries National Advisory Board presents the 2016 UK Libraries Spring Gala

130 people attended the second annual UK Libraries Spring Gala on May 10, 2016, in William T. Young Library. The Gala, presented by the UK Libraries National Advisory Board, included the presentation of the Dean's Awards for Outstanding Staff Performance and the Paul A. Willis Outstanding Faculty Award. Dr. James C. Klotter received the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement.

Josh Monroe, Beth Reeder, and Kopana Terry received the Dean's Awards for Outstanding Staff Performance, presented by Dean Terry Birdwhistell. Read more about Josh, Beth, and Kopana here.

Josh Monroe receives his award

Beth Reeder

Kopana Terry

Dr. LuAnnette Butler, president of the UK Libraries National Advisory Board, spoke on behalf of the Board. The National Advisory Board sponsored the 2016 Gala.

Dr. LuAnnette Butler

Special Collections Research Center Learning Lab Intern Abigail King, a sophomore history major at UK, spoke on the importance of opportunities for students.

Abigail King

Frank Davis, Medical Center librarian, received the Willis Award, presented by UK Provost Timothy S. Tracy. Read more about Frank here. 

Provost Timothy S. Tracy, left, and Frank Davis

President Eli Capilouto presented the Medallion for Intellectual Achievement to Dr. James C. Klotter. Dr. Klotter is the State Historian of Kentucky, the author of twenty books on Kentucky history, and a professor at Georgetown College. Read more about Dr. Klotter here.

President Eli Capilouto, left, and Dr. James C. Klotter

Gala guests enjoyed a catered reception in the first floor atrium of William T. Young Library.

Below is a video highlight reel of the Gala, courtesy of the UK Media Depot:

 Thank you to all who joined UK Libraries for this special night of celebration.

Lecture and tasting event celebrates European food culture

Some people argue that bourbon is not bourbon unless it comes from Kentucky. But did you know that real Parmesan cheese can only come from Parma, Italy? Champagne grapes can only come from France, and true Cheddar from England. Many European food names are protected by law, although the U.S. produces its own versions of these products.

A UK Libraries event will explore how and why these regional food names are trademarked, and how the American versions stack up against their European forebears. Attendees will learn – and taste – what makes European food products authentically different from their American counterparts.

On Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at 1:30 pm, Dr. David Freshwater of the UK College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment will speak in the Alumni Gallery of William T. Young Library on “Food in Europe: Regional Brands and Regional Identities.” The lecture will be followed by a taste test of European foods and their U.S. versions, to see if participants can tell the differences. The event is free and open to campus.

"Men of Note" concert creates harmony between archives and the arts

The "Men of Note" were a prominent fixture on the Lexington jazz scene for decades.

On March 31, 2016, at 7 p.m. in the Singletary Center on the University of Kentucky campus, the UK Jazz Ensemble led by Miles Osland and the UK Repertory Jazz Band led by Brad Kerns will play a concert from historical arrangements by the “Men of Note," a band that played a leading part in the Lexington jazz scene for many years. Special guest performers will be surviving members of Men of Note. The concert is free and open to the public.

UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center holds a rich archive of materials on the Men of Note. Archival materials include the band's book of arrangements, an historic collection of charts dating back to the early 1940s. In 2014 Dick Domek, professor emeritus in the UK School of Music and member of Men of Note, and Gail Kennedy of SCRC began recording oral histories with band members for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. The interviews focus on recollections of band members and the history of jazz music. The collections also include the personal memorabilia of Byron Romanowitz, noted Lexington architect and jazz musician who anchored the Men of Note beginning in the 1980s until the band's dissolution in 2009. 

Reel World String Band archives dedication at Special Collections Research Center

The Reel World String Band

The celebration and presentation of the Reel World String Band archives will be on Wednesday, March 23, 2016, 7 p.m., in the Great Hall of the Special Collections Research Center, Margaret I. King Library. The Reel World String Band spans 39 years and its history represents a body of cultural and feminist activism that has influenced and supported dozens of social movements in Kentucky and the Appalachian region. Since 1977, the band has toured all through the United States, Canada, and Italy, played on picket lines, women’s festivals, square dances, and thousands of other venues including many memorable events at the Singletary Center for the Arts. 

To christen the archival work and to celebrate the Kentucky Foundation for Women’s 30th Anniversary, the band along with Kentucky Poet Laureate George Ella Lyon, author Silas House, and other guests will sing some Reel World songs, feature highlights of that history in tributes and an exhibit, and enjoy a reception of dessert and coffee.  The program will take place from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. followed by a reception and exhibit opening. The event is free and open to the public, and sponsored by the Kentucky Foundation for Women and University of Kentucky Libraries, Special Collections Research Center.

For more information contact Deirdre A. Scaggs, Associate Dean, University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center. 

UK Libraries Event: Save the date for the UK Libraries Spring Gala

The 2016 UK Libraries Spring Gala presented by the UK Libraries National Advisory Board will be Tuesday, May 10, 2016, at 6 p.m. in the William T. Young Library. Dr. James C. Klotter, professor of History at Georgetown College and Kentucky State Historian, will be presented with the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement by Provost Tim Tracy.  The recipient of the Paul A. Willis Outstanding Faculty Award will also be announced.  A reception will follow the program.

UK Libraries event: UPK author speaks on the American South and the Vietnam War

A reminder that historian and University Press of Kentucky (UPK) author Dr. Joseph A. Fry will visit campus to deliver a lecture on how the South's response impacted America's participation in the Vietnam War. Fry will speak 4 p.m. Monday, March 7, 2016, in the Great Hall of Margaret I. King Library on the University of Kentucky campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Fry's talk, “Place Matters: Domestic Regionalism, the American South, and the Vietnam War,” explores how place matters in how Americans have responded to and sought to influence U.S. foreign policy. The dynamic of domestic regional influence on U.S. foreign relations was especially apparent in the American South’s role in the Vietnam War.

From the general public to soldiers, college students and crucially placed political leaders, the South supported the war more strongly and longer than any other section of the country. As had been the southern practice since the 1780s, the South’s bellicose foreign policy stance was grounded in distinctly regional political and economic interests, racial views, ideological and historical assumptions, and religious values.

Although the South's support helped to sustain an increasingly unpopular war under both Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, many of these same regional interests and values spawned an articulate minority opposition to the war. These antiwar protests, together with the war’s mounting agony, led even the South and its pro-war leaders to tire of the conflict by the early 1970s.

Fry is the author of "The American South and the Vietnam War: Belligerence, Protest, and Agony in Dixie," published by UPK in 2015. His visit to UK is made possible by sponsors UK Libraries and UPK.

Reception to honor Elaine Greene

Elaine Greene, head of custodial services in William T. Young Library, will begin a new position on campus next week and will leave. Please join colleagues in a send-off for Elaine on Tuesday, March 1, at 2:30 p.m. in the Alumni Gallery of William T. Young Library. Light refreshments will be provided. Thanks to Elaine for her service to UK Libraries.

"New Perspectives on Spanish Conquest and Empire" at Special Collections Research Center

Photo by Steve Raymer, "National Geographic" photographer

A new assessment of the lasting impact of Hernán Cortés and the Spanish Empire’s conquest of the Aztec Empire will be discussed at “New Perspectives on Spanish Conquest and Empire: From the 16^th to the 21^st Centuries.” The event begins at 3:30 p.m. Friday, October 23, in the Great Hall of the Margaret King Library, home to the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center.

The event also kicks off a November exhibition of singular photographs by Steve Raymer and event presenter Kathleen Myers. As the name suggests, the exhibition, “In the Shadow of Cortés: From Veracruz to Mexico City,” is a modern pictorial tour of the route Cortés marched from the sea to doomed Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.

The discussion begins at 3:30 p.m. with University of Virginia associate professor of Spanish Ricardo Padrón’s presentation “The Afterlife of the Conquest: From Mexico to the South Sea.” Padrón will discuss the powerful impact of Cortés' expedition on future Spanish explorations to the South Sea from the Pacific shores of Mexico. 

Padrón’s presentation will be followed by Indiana University professor of Spanish and Portuguese Kathleen Myers’ discussion “Who Gets to Talk? 21^st Century Conquest Narratives and Sites of Memory.” What she describes as the “conquest narrative” -- the distillation of more than 100 ethnographic interviews of Mexicans from every walk of life -- has evolved to become an integral part of modern Mexico’s culture and politics. Even today, for those living along the Ruta de Cortés issues of cultural identity and social equity have roots in this conquest narrative.

Myers authored the exhibit of accompanying photos by former National Geographic staff photographer and senior editor and IU photojournalism professor, Steve Raymer.  “In the Shadow of Cortés” will be on exhibit at the King Library through November 30.

The event is sponsored by the UK College of Arts and Sciences and its Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies program and Department of Hispanic Studies.

By Gail Hairston, UK PR & Marketing

Republished with permission from UKNow. 

Professor Roy Foster to speak on Irish Revolution

Roy Foster

Professor Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford, will lecture at the University of Kentucky on Monday, October 26, 2015, at 4 p.m. in the UK Athletics Auditorium of William T. Young Library. He will discuss the history of the Irish Revolution of 1912 - 1922, focusing on the central event of the Easter Rising of 1916 and the motivations that drove the people behind it. His lecture will also consider the agendas, elisions, and implications of commemorating events in history that are at once inspirational and divisive: raising issues such as the changing historical interpretations of revolutionary change, the psychological uses of memory in Irish history, the challenges presented by the current centennial observations of the Irish revolutionary decade of 1912-22, and the possible lessons of Irish history for the larger United Kingdom and European picture.

Foster is the author of the recent and widely-acclaimed Vivid Faces: the Irish revolutionary generation 1890-1923, which has just been awarded a President’s Medal from the British Academy for “transforming the understanding of a period or subject of study.”

University Press of Kentucky Interim Director Dr. Jonathan Allison, professor in the UK Department of English, has been instrumental in bringing Professor Foster to campus. The event is part of the Year of Europe sponsored by the UK College of Arts & Sciences.

Upcoming UK Libraries Events

•          "WE ARE HERE!" is a panel discussion featuring perspectives on African American LGBTQ* experiences. More details available on UKNow. 2 p.m. September 19, 2015, Lexington Public Library Downtown Branch. Free and open to the public. 

Dr. Donald A. Ritchie

•          The Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center presents the 2015 Edward F. Prichard, Jr. Lecture delivered by Dr. Donald A. Ritchie, Emeritus Historian of the United States Senate.  Dr. Ritchie will speak on "Where Is Henry Clay Now That We Really Need Him? Political Compromise in an Uncompromising Era." 3 p.m. September 24, 2015, UK Athletics Auditorium, William T. Young Library. Free and open to the public.