Special Collections News

A documentary presented by the University of Georgia Libraries has earned a regional Emmy Award. 

INSIDE The Warren Commission, a project that has aired on public broadcasting across the United States throughout the past year as part of the 60^th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was selected as a Southeast Emmy Award recipient. 

The documentary delves into the inner workings of the Warren Commission, the blue-ribbon Congressional body charged to investigate Kennedy’s assassination.

Due to an ongoing construction project, there will be limited access to the exhibition galleries on the second floor of the UGA Special Collections Building between July 23 and August 6, 2024. Please keep this in mind if you are planning a visit to the building during this time. 

Books about past and present racial injustices in the Southern cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma and Charleston, South Carolina are the winners of the 2024 Lillian Smith Book Awards, a University of Georgia Libraries-based award recognizing the best writing on social justice topics in the United States.

This June, the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries will host two free film screenings about past struggles with equality that echo headlines of today.

A Tuesday, June 4 screening of Love Free or Die will mark 21 years since Gene Robinson’s consecration as the first openly gay person to become a bishop in a Christian church. Held at 5:15 p.m. at Cine, the screening is sponsored by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection.

The screening will feature a discussion with director Macky Alston and Robinson, who wore a bullet-proof vest to the consecration ceremony of the Episcopal Church Diocese of New Hampshire and faced death threats during his tenure. The events caused a split in the Episcopal Church similar to the fracturing of the United Methodist Church occurring today.

Nine­ University of Georgia faculty members are preparing new classes this May as 2024 Special Collections Faculty Teaching Fellows, a program designed to help instructors incorporate UGA Libraries’ archival materials and active learning strategies into courses.

"UGA Athletics in Your Town," a traveling exhibit of materials from the University of Georgia Athletic Association archives, will be coming to cities and counties around the state of Georgia this summer. The exhibit will begin on May 20 in Cedartown and continue through Aug. 2 along the way visiting Whitfield County (Dalton), Columbia County (Evans), Johns Creek, Pickens County (Jasper), Rabun County (Clayton), Screven County (Sylvania) and Glynn County (Brunswick).

Jason Hasty, Athletics History Specialist for the UGA Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, will bring a collection of historic Georgia Bulldogs athletics artifacts to the Cedartown Library as part of a statewide summer tour of public libraries across Georgia.

When Savannah Chruszcz took on a project to research the Georgia Museum of Natural History, she knew that it would take a lot of time and focus. But with help from UGA librarians and archivists, she figured out how to make the work interesting and rewarding… and in the end, she earned a cash prize for her efforts.

The second year history and geology major earned an honorable mention in the 2024 Libraries Undergraduate Research Awards this month.

“I learned that I just have to have a lot of patience because sometimes a document will have a treasure trove of information, sometimes not, but there will always be something else to look into,” she said. “Research is a very long, tedious process, but a rewarding and fulfilling one.”

The University of Georgia Libraries have sponsored the Libraries Undergraduate Research Awards each year since 2007 as a way to connect students with resources, faculty, and librarians as they pursue projects of their choosing.

A University of Georgia doctoral student will focus on stories of Athens’ diverse communities this summer during the inaugural term of the Hargrett Library Fellowship in Local History.

Theodora “Tedi” Light, an Athens native who is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in history at UGA, will help grow and increase public access to the Athens African American Oral History Initiative during her fellowship, a new opportunity available thanks to a donor to the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

As part of the annual Congress Week celebrations, the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies will host former U.S. Representative Steve Driehaus (D-OH) and former USG Chancellor Steve Wrigley. The speakers will discuss democracy building, international development, and the continuing importance of civic engagement and public service. The event is scheduled for Thursday, April 11 at 6:00 p.m. in the Special Collections Libraries’ auditorium and is free and open to students, faculty, and the community.

“We look forward to Congress Week every year. It's an opportunity to provide significant programming that promotes a better understanding of the branch of government closest to the people, said the director of the Russell Library Sheryl Vogt. “Our experienced speakers promise an engaging discussion on building and sustaining democratic institutions at home and abroad.”

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.”