Special Collections News

Imagine unearthing something strange from a cold basement. In October, that short description might conjure up a spooky image, although archival work at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries is more enlightening than eerie.

This Halloween season, an event combines the archives with the melodrama during a special screening of a B-horror classic film, along with archival images from the genre preserved within UGA’s Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, the nation’s third largest publicly accessible media library.

In 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak put the brakes on visits to UGA Special Collections Libraries, where an exhibit was set to take Georgians on a road trip through the history and politics of the state’s interstate highways.

Athens-area history buffs are invited to dig in to the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries archives with two free community events planned for Saturday, Sept. 30.

The day begins with a Local History Expo at the Oconee County Library, featuring mementoes from UGA Athletics history, including items associated with the Georgia vs. Auburn rivalry to correspond to the football game scheduled for that day.

Celebrate Georgia writers this fall with a reading from the author of Erasure or with a special Italian dinner with the author of Under the Tuscan Sun.

The University of Georgia Libraries will host the two newest members of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame with special events open to the community later this year. Novelist and cookbook author Frances Mayes will be a featured guest for a plated dinner Saturday, Oct. 28, and poet Percival Everett will read his award-winning work on Thursday, Nov. 2, both at the UGA Special Collections Libraries Building in Athens.

The University of Georgia’s Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library is celebrating the life and career of late Georgia Football Head Coach and Athletic Director Vince Dooley this fall with a new museum exhibit, Legacy: Vince Dooley, 1932-2022. This display will open on Friday, Sept. 1, at the Special Collections Libraries Building on the University of Georgia campus, just in time for fans to celebrate the start of the 2023 football season.

Take a tour through some of the legendary locations of Athens’ house parties, at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries this fall.  

Scholars and advocates working to preserve coastal communities in Georgia for future generations will visit the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries this month.

A biography about a groundbreaking judge and a nonfiction narrative of how Black patients experience racism in the health care system have been named the year’s best books dedicated to issues of social justice, as winners of the 2023 winners of the Lillian Smith Book Awards, presented by the University of Georgia Libraries.

For decades, microfilm stations at local libraries have unlocked history for Georgians. Scanning through the old editions of newspapers preserved on film, a grandmother can find her favorite childhood dessert recipe because she remembered her mother read it in the newspaper, siblings can piece together their family tree and genealogy projects for the next generation, and schoolchildren can look up what happened in their town on the day they were born and how much groceries cost in the advertisements.

Since 1953, the Georgia Newspaper Project at the University of Georgia Libraries has microfilmed more than 100 community newspapers, providing free access to the stories of the state’s small towns, big cities, and close communities. But with an 11-year backlog and outdated equipment no longer in production, the future of the project is in flux, and librarians are seeking partnerships to transform the practice using 21st century technology.