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The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS SPRING 2017 SOONER HORIZON VOLUME 5, NUMBER 1 SOONER HORIZON SPRING 2017 • VOLUME 5, NUMBER 1 CONTENTS 2 Letter from the Dean 3 The Past, Present and Future of the Western History Collections 5 Galileo’s Torch 8 Featured Collection: The Raphael Library 9 Now Open: The Chinese Literature Translation Archive 11 Digitizing Watermarks 12 Preserving Virtual Reality for Research and Teaching at OU Libraries 13 Edition Open Sources 15 Recent Acquisitions 16 ROI: Open Publishing 17 The Musical Side of the WHC The UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA LIBRARIES Special Collections The Bizzell Bible Collection The Chinese Literature Translation Archive The Daniel and Ruth Boorstin Collection The Harry W. Bass Business History Collection The History of Science Collections The John and Mary Nichols Rare Books and Special Collections The Western History Collections On the Cover: Arthur Waley, The Life And Times Of Po Chu-i, London: Allen & Unwin (1949). Blue cloth, fine copy in dust jacket; first edition. 1 • THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA LIBRARIES Letter from the Dean n today’s world where Wrobel has joined our Western History Collections personalized Internet as a part-time Faculty Director. Professor Wrobel is search engines and beginning an assessment to best position our WHC Isocial media information collections as a national leader in the study of the West. consumption is increasingly tailored to our needs and A special thank you is extended to Professor Alan likes, filtering out anything Levenson for his work to bring a prized collection of irrelevant or disagreeable Jewish American Works to OU through the gift of Prof- to us (a phenomenon ==essor Marc Lee Raphael. We celebrate the Raphael labeled a “filter bubble”), Library and look forward to the research opportunities library collections provide this collection brings to OU students and faculty. the resource materials and Also featured in this issue is an interview with ideas that challenge our preconceptions. It is through author and playwright James Reston, Jr. discussing working with primary and secondary materials that the inspiration for his play, Galileo’s Torch, and his students learn to hone their critical thinking skills. decision to have OU as the stage for the world Our special collections are at the core of our mission premiere performance. The performance celebrated the to provide access to information resources. Rare and grand finale for the successful collaborative exhibition, unique primary sources provide first-hand evidence of Galileo’s World. historical or cultural events. Just as art and artifacts in Continuing on the theme of leveraging our experts, museums preserve creative output and cultural context, our Digitization Laboratory is working to capture the primary sources provide an unbiased, unfiltered entirety of primary sources as artifacts to ensure the window into our past. digital presentation remains as representative of the While many stories exist to explain how our special physical book as current technology allows. Another collections have risen to such prominence, the collections feature examines how we are pioneering a path to are more than the sum of their contents. Our master maintain fidelity of research reproducibility with digital curators, subject specialists, librarians, archivists and data as related to our Oklahoma Virtual Academic information experts select, preserve, describe and Laboratory (OVAL) system for scholars to explore display these exceptional resources. Through the eyes original sources in previously unimagined ways. and talents of these experts, our exhibitions provide These stories can only become possible through your a narrative to the artifacts and enable unparalleled generous support and contributions. On behalf of all Sooner Horizons experiential learning. This issue of who benefit from your generosity, I thank you. features examples of our experts making our special collections come alive for our community. In this issue, I am delighted to announce the addition Sincerely, of two leading OU faculty members who are bringing their unique expertise to our team. Through the extraordinary leadership of professor Jonathan Stalling and his global efforts to work with translators to bring several world-renowned collections to OU, we recently Rick Luce opened our Chinese Literature Translation Archive on Dean, University Libraries the 4th floor of Bizzell Memorial Library. I am equally Professor and Peggy V. Helmerich Chair thrilled to announce that OU history professor David Associate Vice President for Research, Norman Campus THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA LIBRARIES • 2 Introducing David Wrobel, Faculty Director of the Western History Collections David Wrobel joined our Western History Collections as the faculty director in January. Wrobel is a native of London, England and is a historian of the West and American thought and culture. He is the David L. Boren Professor and the Merrick Chair in Western American History and teaches graduate courses on the 19th and 20th century West, the introductory U.S. history survey (1865 to present), and upper-division undergraduate courses on modern American history. This semester he is completing a book titled The West and America, 1890-1950: A Regional History for Cambridge University Press, and teaching a cross listed course: ENGL 4013/ HIST 3430: John Steinbeck’s America, which will draw on the rare Steinbeck materials in the WHC. The Past, Present and Future of the Western History Collections he true mark of excellence for a special collections country to study the history and cultures of the trans- archive is not merely how much is there, but how Mississippi West. extensively those materials are used and how Tthey become the foundations for intellectual activity and We have an opportunity to make the WHC the physical community that shapes a field. It is vital for a research crossroads for creative collaborations across these library to build a reputation as a site of intellectual exchange departments, programs, and museums. By doing this, as well as one of individual research. Fortunately, the we can enhance the WHC’s role in the educational foundations for this vision for the Western History mission of the institution, and its reputation as a vital Collections (WHC) are very much in place. physical and intellectual center for the fields of western and Native American history. The WHC can become the OU’s extensive resources for the study of the West future site for an internationally recognized center for include our WHC, the OU Press, the Fred Jones Jr. the study of the West. This new unit could serve as an Museum of Art, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of umbrella organization to further develop the connections Natural History, the Charles M. Russell Center, the Carl between OU’s own resources and to help shape new Albert Center for Congressional Research, the recently directions in the fields of Native American and Western acquired Western Historical Quarterly (WHQ, the flagship American history. journal for western historians), the History and Art History graduate programs, and the departments of To help secure the WHC’s future, OU has invited a Anthropology, English, Geography and Environmental distinguished site review team to campus to evaluate the Sustainability, and Native American Studies. Together, collections with an eye to best practices for preservation, these resources may well make OU the best place in the acquisition of new materials, and enhancement of both 3 • THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA LIBRARIES We have an opportunity to make the WHC the physical crossroads for creative collaborations across these departments, programs, and museums. the web presence and the collections’ centrality to the scholarly fields of Western and Native American history and culture. Peter Blodgett, the H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western American history at California’s The team is comprised of Peter Blodgett, the H. Russell Smith Huntington Library Foundation Curator of Western American history at California’s Huntington Library; Bridget Burke, Director of the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming; and George Miles, Curator of the Western Americana Collection at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The site visit team will be guided by the question: Where does the WHC currently stand in the pantheon of western history archives, and what can it do to better serve the needs of the university and the community, and to become a major center for the study of the West? The team will be tasked with writing a significant report (3,000 to 5,000 words) addressing these questions. We will review the report over the summer and begin addressing its recommendations for how the WHC can become a major center for the study of the West and Native America. Bridget Burke, Director of the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming With the advice of this world-renowned group of curators and directors, the support of the Edward Everett Dale Society, and other friends of the University of Oklahoma, the WHC will become an ever more central part of OU’s educational mission. We hope to provide larger numbers of OU graduate and undergraduate students and Oklahoma’s K-12 teachers with opportunities to develop their research skills and make original contributions to our understanding of Native America and the West. In addition, a program of short and long-term fellowships, workshops, and symposia will bring more leading and emerging scholars to Norman. The WHC is the home to anyone who cares about Oklahoma, Native peoples and the American West—including artists and writers, anthropologists and historians, OU staff, students, and faculty, community members and tribal members. We welcome you all to be a part of this continuing journey to national and international prominence as the WHC enters George Miles, Curator of the Western Americana its tenth decade and begins to consider the approaching Collection at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book centennial of its founding.
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