The UNL Libraries and the UNL Cather Project are pleased to announce the acquisition of two heavily-edited typescripts by Willa Cather of her short story, “Two Friends,” which was published in her collection, Obscure Destinies. Accompanying one of the typescripts is a short handwritten note by Cather to her typist, Miss Bloom. The story was written in Fall 1931, and at the time was described by Cather as the “best story” she had ever written. Set in Nebraska, this story concerns responses to William Jennings Bryan’s campaign for the Presidency.

On Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009, from 4-5 p.m., a program on the typescripts will be held in the Archives & Special Collections (29 Love Library) as part of the Cather Colloquium series, and the items will be on display. Katherine Walter, Chair of Digital Initiatives & Special Collections, will describe how the typescripts were acquired, and Kari Ronning, an editor of the Willa Cather Scholarly Edition, will speak on the importance of “Two Friends” within the context of Obscure Destinies.

For further information, contact Katherine Walter, Chair, Digital Initiatives & Special Collections, (402) 472-3939.

The panel consists of Michael F. James, Matthew Kirschenbaum and Johanna Drucker, and be moderated by William G. Thomas, III with a reception following.

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“I thought it was pretty exciting that ESPN had found these (Lou Gehrig’s) letters and were able to get permission to do a digital treatment with them,” Walter said. “I’m very interested in baseball actually. And reading through these letters, it was very moving.”

“We hadn’t seen the letters yet, so we didn’t know what physical condition they would be in, but Katherine explained that given the time the letters were written, the paper likely would be of poor quality and that we should be prepared to contend with frail objects,” ESPN’s Jena Janovy said. “She was very helpful in guiding us through the initial process of clearing copyrights, which was our first major obstacle before actually digitizing the letters. She also suggested a procedure for digitization – use of a flat-bed scanner to make an image. She also suggested we integrate contextual information with any presentation, such as photos, essays, biographies, links to organizations/sites, etc.”

To read the entire article from the Scarlet, please click here.
To go to the ESPN website, click here.

Trevor Muñoz is currently a master’s degree candidate in Digital Humanities at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King’s College London. His research interests include text analysis, topic modeling and the implications of traditions of scholarly practice for the use of digital resources. During 2009-10, he will be a graduate fellow for Data Curation for the Humanities at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. At the CDRH, Trevor is working on text analysis for Railroads and the Making of Modern America.

Rachael Carter is starting her second year of the MLS program at the University of Maryland and plans to enter the field of academic librarianship. She is also particularly interested in combining her English/humanities background with librarianship. Projects Rachael is working on this summer include  TEI encoding for the Willa Cather and Walt Whitman archives, OCRing of primary source materials, and learning about other CDRH projects.

Sarah Potvin is currently finishing up her MSIS at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information, where she has completed coursework in the history of the book, archives and preservation, digital libraries, and copyright. As a graduate student, Sarah has worked as the editorial fellow for the academic journal Libraries & the Cultural Record, served as a graduate assistant to an online undergraduate course through the School of Information, volunteered in the Harry Ransom Center’s film department, and interned in the research department of Ithaka in New York City. If you would like to see what Sarah has been up to at the CDRH the link to her blog is below.

http://www.ischooldh.org/network/

Kenneth M. Price, the Hillegass University Professor of 19th-Century Literature and Co-director of UNL’s Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, will discuss how The Walt Whitman Archive allows anyone unparalleled access to Whitman’s work and how digital technology has transformed humanities research, at the spring Nebraska Lecture, Thursday, April 9, 3:30 p.m., in the Nebraska Union auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public, with a reception following. It is sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor, the UNL Research Council and the Office of Research. Additional support for this Nebraska Lecture is provided by the Nebraska Humanities Council. more…

To view the lecture as a quicktime movie please click here.

The Archive homepage and the “Resources” index page have changed slightly as a result of the addition of TokenX. “Tools” is now included as a subheading under “Resources” on the home page. Also, in the past, clicking on “Resources” on the homepage took the user directly to the teaching materials. The “Resources” page now offers links to teaching, tools, or the Archive search.

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“I’m deeply concerned about the digital age that we live in . . . as a scholar, as a teacher, and, in addition, as a parent. . . . ”

His answer was a seed for a new essay, recently published on the Digital History website, edited by CDRH faculty Douglas Seefeldt and William G. Thomas, III.