Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Visitors to the new Akins Ford Arena at the Classic Center in Athens can explore Georgia music, thanks to a new display installed Dec. 19 by the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries.

On a larger-than-life video board, The B-52s member and Athens resident Cindy Wilson welcomes visitors to peruse the memorabilia on display, representing more than 200 legendary artists, from Whisperin’ Bill Anderson to Run the Jewels. 

Display cases share memories of concerts, stories about the recording process, fan merchandise and interactions, behind-the-scenes moments, and more. For example, a cold medicine bottle Duane Allman used to make his distinctive slide guitar sounds is on display alongside the Gibson Les Paul he played while recording “Statesboro Blues.”

This article also appears on UGA Today at news.uga.edu/barrows-receive-first-dooley-friends-of-the-uga-libraries-award/.

A new award named after the University of Georgia’s legendary head football coach Vince Dooley and his wife Barbara honors those who share another passion with the beloved family — support for the UGA Libraries.

December deadlines are approaching for UGA Libraries services that will aid in instruction of your Spring 2025 classes.

Libraries Course Reserves

The UGA Libraries’ course reserves services help faculty to provide students with easy, no-cost access to readings and supplementary course materials personalized to class curricular needs whether through electronic materials that can be integrated into eLC or through physical items that can be held on reserve at one of our library locations.    

A University of Georgia Libraries project will enhance access for African American genealogists to learn more about their family histories, illuminating the stories of enslaved Georgians.

The “Finding Their Names” project will allow hundreds of historical records to be digitized, transcribed, and placed online with important details such as names, locations, and dates that help identify enslaved individuals and place their histories within reach of their descendants.

The University of Georgia Libraries and the Center for Teaching and Learning invite full-time UGA faculty from all disciplines to apply

UPDATE: UGA Libraries will resume normal operational schedules at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. The Miller Learning Center, Main Library, and McBay Science Library will reopen at that time, and other facilities will reopen on their normal schedules. For full hours visit libs.uga.edu/all-hours. 

Previously: All University of Georgia Libraries facilities will be closed Thursday, Sept. 26, and Friday, Sept. 27, in accordance with the campus closure due to inclement weather.

The Miller Learning Center and Main and McBay Libraries will close at midnight Wednesday night and, as of now, plan to reopen on Saturday. All events currently scheduled for Thursday and Friday have been canceled, including the Special Collections Libraries' Georgia Writers Hall of Fame event featuring Barbara Brown Taylor and John Bell.

During a two week stretch this September, University of Georgia Libraries will host three acclaimed authors (and some notable musicians) for fun, free events open to the community, as well as UGA students, faculty, and staff.

The first event celebrates Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Brandon Som and acclaimed Jordanian writer Siwar Masannat to campus to celebrate their recent publications with the Georgia Review Books, an imprint by the Georgia Review with the University of Georgia Press. Som's book Tripas was a finalist for the National Book Award before winning the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Masannat's book cue was released in the spring of 2024.

Celebrate the Olympic glory of University of Georgia Athletics this fall by visiting a new exhibit on display at the UGA Special Collections Libraries.

The exhibit Bulldog Olympians takes viewers through decades of the international competition, which has hosted more than 200 UGA athletes competing for Team USA or their home countries. The display includes original Olympic artifacts and rarely seen photographs of Georgia's Olympians, including a look behind the scenes from retired swimming and diving coach Jack Bauerle, who served as an Olympic coach for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

A trailblazing newspaper founder, an influential teacher and poet, and an inspirational author/priest have been selected as the newest members of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

The 2024 class of honorees include Robert Sengstacke Abbott, publisher and editor of one of the most influential Black-owned newspapers of the early 20^th century; Wyatt Prunty, founding director of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Tennessee Williams Fellowship Program; and Barbara Brown Taylor, an author and Episcopal priest.

Prunty and Taylor will inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, administered by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia, at separate events this fall. The celebration of Abbott’s posthumous induction is slated for early 2025.

A Q&A scrawled in marker onto a white record sleeve as well as on the vinyl, a hand-painted message on the back of a shovel, a battered straw hat with fraying pink trim, and photographs of pets. These items and dozens more add to the character of the Athens’ music community on display this fall at the UGA Special Collections Libraries along with colorful portraits of the artists taken at their homes.