The work will begin Thursday, May 17, and should last approximately three weeks.

One half of the upper floor will be blocked from public access at a time, while the other side will stay open for use. Library staff will page materials from closed areas upon request. All other areas of the Undergraduate Library will remain open. Other UNC libraries also remain open on a summer schedule.

Please contact Suchi Mohanty in the Undergraduate Library for additional information.

Download event flier (pdf)

Saturday, June 2, 2012
Wilson Special Collections Library
9:30 a.m. Coffee and Pastries | Main Lobby
10 a.m. Program | Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Free and open to the public.
Information: Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

Civil War currency will be the topic of a June 2 program at the Wilson Special Collections Library. Participants who bring samples of Civil War currency will also have the opportunity for experts to evaluate their items.

The free public program will begin at 10 a.m. in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room. Registration will open at 9:30 a.m.

Wendell Wolka will deliver the keynote speech, “And the World Turned Upside Down: The Effect of the Civil War on the Paper Money of the United States both North and South.” Wolka writes and teaches about numismatics. He is a governor of the American Numismatic Association and is governor and past president of the Society of Paper Money Collectors.

Other topics and speakers will be:

• Fractional paper money, issued by the federal government to ease the shortage of circulating coins (Dennis Edens, vice president of the Raleigh Coin Club);
• Printers who produced Civil War paper money, with a focus on North Carolina’s state and private issues (Jerry Roughton, co-publisher of the North Carolina Numismatic Scrapbook, and author of several books about North Carolina numismatics); and
• Counterfeiting and its effects on the war and the Southern economy (Bob Schreiner, past president of the North Carolina Numismatic Association, and author of several articles on obsolete paper money).

At 1 p.m., local experts, along with some of the speakers, will examine notes, coins, and other Civil War money items brought by attendees. The experts will evaluate currency, but not provide appraisals.

The event is sponsored by the North Carolina Collection, the Friends of the Library, the Society of Paper Money Collectors, the North Carolina Numismatic Association, and the Raleigh Coin Club.

The program continues the Wilson Special Collection Library’s series of programs related to the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War. In 2012, Wilson Library launched The Civil War Day by Day, a blog that presents one document each day related to the corresponding day of the war. An exhibition about the Civil War in memory is planned for 2015.

Related Links

• North Carolina Collection

Early Dolly Parton publicity photo, from the Goldband Recording collection in the Southern Folklife Collection.

Dolly Parton’s first recording is among the items that the Southern Folklife Collection (SFC) in the Wilson Special Collections Library will preserve, thanks to a new grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The $131,765, three-year grant is called “From the Piedmont to the Swamplands: Preserving Southern Traditional Music.” It will help the SFC digitize and make available more than 1,650 hours of rare sound recordings and 4,500 photographs of musical figures from the 1920s to the 1980s.

The Parton recording dates from 1960, when the 13-year-old Dolly traveled by bus from Tennessee to Lake Charles, La. There she recorded “Puppy Love” for the Goldband Recording Corporation. The SFC holds the original master tape for the recording.

Other rarities to be preserved include:

• Studio and field recordings of musicians B.B. King, Elizabeth Cotten, Hazel Dickens, Bob Dylan, Iry LeJune, and Tommy Jarrell;
• African-American musician “Boozoo” Chavis’s “Paper in My Shoe,” the first commercial recording of Zydeco music (1954); and
• Early photographs of the musical Seeger family, whose members include musician and folklorist Mike Seeger and his sister Peggy and half-brother, Pete.

“This grant allows us to preserve national treasures and provide online access to our collections for the first time,” says Steve Weiss, curator of the Southern Folklife Collection.

The SFC will use the grant to preserve materials from four of its most significant collections:

Goldband Recording Corporation Collection, 1930 – 1995 – The Goldband Recording Corporation has played a key role in documenting American musical traditions and shaping tastes since 1944. The grant will digitize the Parton recording and an additional 550 hours of recordings and 1,500 photographs from the Goldband collection.

William R. Ferris Collection, 1910s – 2003 – Ferris is professor of history at UNC and a former director of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Ferris collection, consisting of music and oral history interviews that he conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, is one of the most comprehensive archival collections documenting the music of the Delta.

Mike Seeger Collection, 1955 – 2002 –  The Seeger collection contains photographs, interviews, performances, and studio and field recordings that document Southern traditional musicians; Seeger’s group, the New Lost City Ramblers; and unedited masters for some of Seeger’s commercial recordings.

John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records, 1960 – 1988 – The SFC acquired the collection of the Foundation dedicated to American folk music in 1983. Its photograph holdings document key figures in Southern traditional music, including artists such as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers.

Once digitized, the materials will be accessible online through the UNC Library website.

Related Links

• “Grant to preserve rare American music recordings and photos” (from UNC News Services)
• Southern Folklife Collection

Merge Records was founded in 1989 in Chapel Hill by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan, of the indie band Superchunk. Headquartered today in Durham, N.C., Merge Records has grown to include artists from around the world and has reached the top of the Billboard record charts.

“We’re deeply honored to work with Merge to preserve and provide access to their archives. The Merge Records Collection is an invaluable resource for the study of music, art, and culture of our region.” said Steve Weiss, curator of the Southern Folklife Collection.

The Southern Folklife Collection opened in 1989. It holds more than 250,000 sound recordings in all formats, making it one of the nation’s largest repositories for Southern music and culture.

Related Links

• Merge Records website
• News release from Merge Records 
• Southern Folklife Collection website

John Smalls (right), chair of the Penn Center Board of Trustees, presents the Center's 1862 Circle award to Tim West, curator of the Southern Historical Collection. (Photo: Bob Sofaly)

The Penn Center of St. Helena Island, S.C., has named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a member of its 1862 Circle. The Center presented the award on April 29 to recognize the University’s stewardship of the Penn School papers at the Southern Historical Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

The Penn School began in 1862 as an experimental program to educate and provide services to thousands of African Americans who had been freed by U.S. troops early in the Civil War. The Center today preserves and serves as a resource for the history, culture, and environment of the Sea Islands.

The Center deposited the Penn School papers with the Southern Historical Collection in 1962. The collection contains more than 32,000 letters, journals, and official documents from the school’s history. The diary of Laura Towne, a Philadelphia abolitionist and one of the school’s founders, is among them.

The collection also includes approximately 3,000 photos, some dating to the 1860s. Oral history interviews and later documents relate to the Penn Community Services Center, which opened in 1948 after the school closed.

“The Penn papers document a groundbreaking effort to help newly freed people,” said Tim West, curator of the Southern Historical Collection. “Eventually, it became an effort of the people themselves. Researchers use these papers to study topics ranging from the Gullah culture of the region, to African American education, to race relations.”

As part of its citation, the Penn Center recognized the ongoing active partnership that it maintains with UNC. As a result of these efforts, more than 10,000 pages of the Penn School papers are now available online through the Southern Historical Collection.

Related Links

• Penn School Papers finding aid
• Digitized Penn School content
• Penn Center

Update (May 14, 2012): Deletion of old records has now been completed. The Library was able to retain all requests submitted after July 1, 2006. System upgrades will continue through May and may result in temporary down times.

The Library will upgrade software and system hardware for the Carolina BLU Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services during the month of May 2012.

Carolina BLU services may not be available at certain times during the upgrade. Down times will be posted to Carolina BLU webpages. Users may also experience slow response times.

Once complete, the upgrades should improve system speed and will eventually allow for an easier request interface.

Deletion of Old Records

As part of the upgrade, the Library must delete loan requests submitted prior to July 1, 2007 2006 from its database. Once deleted, these requests will not appear in any of the “View” lists in your Carolina BLU account.

If you wish to retain your older request history, you should log in to your account and view “All Requests.” Print the list or copy and paste it into a spreadsheet for your records.

If you have questions about this upgrade or about retrieving a copy of your previous requests, please contact Geneva Holliday, head of Interlibrary Services, at ghollida@email.unc.edu or (919) 962-0077.

Download event flier (pdf)

Saturday, May 12, 2012
1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Free and open to the public
Information: (919) 962-0104

The Wilson Special Collections Library will take Commencement visitors to UNC’s past with an open house on Saturday, May 12, from 1 to 5 p.m.

A selection of yearbooks and other materials from Wilson Library’s historic collections will be on display.

The exhibits are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Special archival exhibits in the lobby will include:

• A photographic slide show with music, highlighting the class of 1962, in honor of the class’s 50th reunion;
• Yearbooks and other memorabilia from the classes of 1952, ’57, ’62, ’67, and ’72;
• “Treasures from Alumni,” a Rare Book Collection exhibit of early printing and significant literary editions;
• A collection of University-related materials from the Southern Historical Collection

In addition to the lobby display, visitors are also invited to view the following exhibitions in Wilson and Davis libraries:

• A Dialogue Between Old and New: Notable Buildings on the UNC Campus (North Carolina Collection Gallery, main floor)
• Nature and the Unnatural in Shakespeare’s Age (Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room, 3rd floor)
• Southern Roots, Enduring Bonds: African American Families in North Carolina (Southern Historical Collection, 4th floor)
• Knowledge Building(s): The Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Davis Library Gallery, 1st floor)

Wilson Library is located on the south side of Polk Place, opposite South Building. It is home to the North Carolina Collection and North Carolina Collection Gallery; the Rare Book Collection; the Southern Historical and Southern Folklife collections; and University Archives and Records Management Services.

The exhibits are sponsored by the Wilson Special Collections Library and Friends of the Library.

Download event flier (pdf)

Thursday, Apr. 26, 2012
1-4 p.m
Davis Library periodicals room (main floor)
Free and open to the public
Information: Ardys Weiss, (919) 962-1324

Hitting the books for finals? Take a break and make one of your own with the Library’s Preservation Department.

On the afternoon of Apr. 26, preservation staff will have all of the materials you need to create a small pamphlet that you get to keep. Look for them in the periodicals room, to your right as you enter Davis Library. The sewing process will only take about ten minutes.

Preservation staff will also offer tours of the binding and repair lab.

The event is in honor of national Preservation Week, sponsored by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services.

For more information, contact Ardys Weiss, Preservation Department, (919) 962-1324.

Related Links

• UNC Library Preservation Book Care and Handling Guidelines
• Preservation Week
• Photographs from 2011 Make Your Own Book event

Campus libraries will remain open during the president’s visit. However, the UNC Department of Public Safety warns of road closures, limited parking, and transit delays. Please plan accordingly.

The libraries expect to show streaming of the president’s policy speech at the following locations:

• Wilson Library – Pleasants Family Assembly Room (main floor)
• Undergraduate Library – Room 205
• Davis Library – Periodicals Reading Room (main floor)

Related Links

• President Obama at Carolina April 24
• Parking and Transportation for the April 24 Presidential Visit to UNC

Most libraries have extended hours during finals.

Some of the most popular locations are:

• Davis Library (hours)
• Undergraduate Library (hours)
• Wilson Library, with hours as follows:

April 26 and 27:  9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
April 28:  9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
April 29:  1 – 9 p.m.
April 30 – May 2:  9 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Wherever you choose to make your home away from home, we wish you every success with your finals!