Special Collections News

A $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will allow for the expansion of the Georgia Historic Newspapers website, which provides free online access to more than 1,000 newspapers across the state dating as far back as 1763.

The grant continues a decade-long effort of the University of Georgia Libraries, through the Digital Library of Georgia, to provide online access to a diverse array of journalism chronicling communities large and small, from Atlanta to Americus, and beyond.

As the University of Georgia marks the 100^th anniversary of its first swim and dive, the rich history of the program will be celebrated in a new exhibit on display at the UGA Special Collections Libraries. 

The exhibit “Sustained Excellence: A History of UGA Swim & Dive” explores the program’s decades of dominance in the pool and in the classroom. Viewers will see rarely displayed photographs and artifacts from the UGA Athletic Association archive and the personal collection of retired coach Jack Bauerle.

From UGA Today. 

The University of Georgia is reimagining learning spaces by combining resources that allow students to experiment with their ideas and bring them to life with new technologies. In the new Creative Engagement Wing at the Miller Learning Center, students can record a podcast, embroider a tapestry, 3D print a medical device prototype or rehearse a presentation using a virtual reality headset.

For UGA Libraries, Thomas May’s job centers around film and audiovisual work, but the archivist also enjoys the printed word. In fact, he was named one of the best authors in the state, as a recipient of a 2025 Georgia Author of the Year Award in the science fiction/fantasy category.

May serves as the audiovisual systems archivist and access coordinator with the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, one of three special collections units at the University of Georgia Libraries. He’s also a novelist, who self-published his debut fantasy novel Alan Dreams of Giants in November.

Books about racial inequality in U.S. higher education are the 2025 recipients of the Lillian Smith Book Awards, administered by the University of Georgia Libraries to honor books dedicated to social justice issues.  

Three decades after the original photography exhibit toured the South, David Zeiger’s Displaced in the New South is on display at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries. 

The exhibit traces the stories of Asian and Hispanic immigrant communities in Metro Atlanta in the mid-1990s, featuring quotes from individuals featured in Zeiger’s documentary of the same name. Through black-and-white photographs, negatives, and other artifacts, the exhibit documents the region’s shifting demographics and emerging communities through the experiences of immigrant families.  

Even before three books arrived on shelves this year, UGA librarians were a part of the production. Three faculty members have been credited as author or editor in books published in 2025.

“Librarians do the essential work of acquiring, preserving, and sharing knowledge,” said university librarian Toby Graham, “but our librarians also are university faculty who contribute new scholarship, themselves, as we see from the recent publications by Ruta Abolins, Melody Rood, and Sara Wright.” 

Most recently, Abolins added a chapter to the UGA Press book The Archivability of Television: Essays on Preservation and Perseverance. Edited by Lauren Bratslavsky and Elizabeth Peterson, the book was published June 1.

“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 tour will begin on May 30 in Hart County (Hartwell) and continue through Aug. 1 along the way visiting Fulton County (Alpharetta), Coweta County (Newnan), Muscogee County (Columbus), Cobb County (Marietta), Tift County (Tifton), Laurens County (Dublin), and Stephens County (Toccoa).

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 these public libraries as part of a statewide summer tour across Georgia.

The community is invited to submit their home movies for free digitization, offered by the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards, one of three special collections units at the University of Georgia Libraries. 

Online registration is now open for the third edition of “Free the Tapes,” where audiovisual techs from the archives will digitize up to three old videos in any format — from Super 8 and Betamax to VHS and more — at no cost. Pre-registration is required, and digitization is limited to three items per household/family.