UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTONLIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS SPOTLIGHT Women’s History Month, Nancy Sims Papers NEWSLETTER SPRING 2021 CONTENTS LETTER FROM THE DEAN DEAN OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES AND ELIZABETH D. ROCKWELL CHAIR ATHENA N. JACKSON LETTER FROM THE DEAN ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AND 1 RESEARCH SERVICES MARILYN MYERS NEWS HIGHLIGHTS ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR Robert Hodge Collage Athena N. Jackson RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 2-3 Dean of Libraries Provost’s Leadership Academy JOHN LEHNER Elizabeth D. Rockwell Chair GIFT ANNOUNCEMENT UH LIBRARIES SPRING 2021 NEWSLETTER 4 Performing and Visual Arts Research Collection, Prince of Players EDITOR I am so pleased to join University of Houston Libraries as benefits for the Libraries and our varied and talented ESMERALDA FISHER (’03, MA ’13) your new dean and Elizabeth D. Rockwell chair. I’d like partners. DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS to thank all of you who support the Libraries, and I look SPECIAL COLLECTIONS forward to getting to know more about you and how you UH Libraries serves scholarship and learning daily. The Women’s History Month, engage with our team, spaces, and services. talent and focus of our team toward increasing research DESIGN / PHOTOGRAPHY 5 at UH and enhancing student success was apparent the I was born in Galveston and grew up in Fort Bend moment I arrived, and I will continue to nurture these MAURICIO LAZO (’11) Nancy Sims Papers County. The greater Houston area is my home and was values. I care deeply about the mission of the institution, SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER my educational formative space. As an alumna of UH and research priorities, and student achievement. Each day, native of the Houston region, I have a deep commitment I continue to be inspired by this important work and the to the advancement and success of the University within commitment all of my colleagues in the Libraries have in this vibrant city and on a national level. Previously, I moving this mission forward. served as director of University of California, Los Angeles COVID ARCHIVES Library Special Collections and have worked in academic This year, it’s all about learning what’s current, what’s UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON LIBRARIES 6-7 libraries across the country. My return to Houston has attainable, and what’s aspirational, viewed through the 4333 UNIVERSITY DRIVE revealed a city and institution that continues to grow as lens of the new University strategic plan, Together, We Rise. a font of diversity, innovation, and achievement. UH has Together, We Soar. I aim to form intentional connections HOUSTON, TX 77204-2000 strengthened its ties to the communities, built a thriving across the UH community and within the Houston area scholarship and learning enterprise, and remains committed that support our initiatives to develop transformative DIGITAL RESEARCH to student success and research excellence. services for our stakeholders, particularly with diversity, Sponsored Projects equity, and inclusion approaches to how we work, how we PHONE 8 I’ve spent my first 100 days at UH Libraries getting to know preserve, how we share, and how we teach and assist others 713.743.1050 the team in half-hour 1-on-1 acquainting chats, meeting at the forefront. This is significant more so considering the with my peer deans, talking with many others across the social, health, and economic challenges the world has faced WEB University, and learning more about the Libraries and those recently. What excites me most is how the entire institution LIBRARIES.UH.EDU we serve, on-campus and in the community. As I continue is also dedicated to facing these challenges together. PROFESSIONAL AND my listening tour, much of my time will be dedicated to setting goals and a strategy for the Libraries that are On behalf of the Libraries, thank you for your partnership. I A DIGITAL VERSION OF THIS PUBLICATION 9 SCHOLARLY SPOTLIGHT meaningful to the many audiences with whom I engage wish you all a happy and safe summer. and work. I believe effective communication is paramount IS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT to creating new partnerships and strengthening existing Go Coogs! LIBRARIES.UH.EDU ones. I am a collaborator by nature and advocate for mutual Athena 1 NEWS HIGHLIGHTS LIBRARIANS SELECTED FOR PROVOST’S LEADERSHIP ACADEMY Two University of Houston librarians were chosen for the 2020-21 UH Cougar Chairs Leadership Academy (CCLA). Rachel Helbing and Ariana Santiago are participating in the program launched by Paula Myrick Short, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at UH, to cultivate leadership talent that will engender student success by scaffolding faculty UH SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RECEIVES COLLAGE FROM THIRD WARD ARTIST achievement. Helbing, who is the director of library services for the health sciences, said the knowledge To commemorate the connection between George Floyd exhibition of artwork and archival material related to DJ learned in CCLA has helped her to better know herself and will ultimately lead to a more and DJ Screw, University of Houston Libraries Special Screw. Hodge also contributed label text to the UH Libraries dynamic and service-oriented library that meets the needs of UH students in new and Collections acquired an artwork by Robert L. Hodge, a exhibition Brothers in Rhyme: Fat Pat, Big Hawk, and the Screwed improved ways. notable artist from the Third Ward. His collage titled8:46 Up Click. will be displayed at the MD Anderson Library in Special “One key takeaway for me is that we can lead with our strengths,” Helbing Collections. Of the Third Ward as inspiration to his work, Hodge said, said. “Everyone has existing strengths that enable them to be leaders. We “The people make the community, and the people are so should find and nurture the complementary strengths in our colleagues in order Houstonian George Floyd rapped on a handful of the diverse. From a jazz musician to a mailman to an addict, each to have a well-rounded organization.” underground mixtapes has a story. This keeps Rachel Helbing created by DJ Screw, me grounded in reality, whose archival collection in my work.” Santiago, open educational resources coordinator, said that CCLA has strengthened her is part of the Houston Hip understanding of leadership styles, emotional intelligence, and teamwork. Hop Research Collection A few of Hodge’s artistic at UH Special Collections. influences include “Applying these lessons to my work with open educational resources, and throughout Following Floyd’s death in Romare Bearden, David the Libraries, helps us continually support students and the UH community,” she said. 2020, Julie Grob, curator Hammons, David “It’s important to think about what people need from leaders–qualities like trust, of the collection, invited McGee, Rick Lowe, compassion, stability, and hope. This has really resonated with me throughout CCLA Hodge to create one of his Jesse Lott, Frida Kahlo, and led me to reflect on how I meet those needs.” signature collages in a way Robert Rauschenberg, Ariana Santiago that would honor Floyd. The Art Guys, Otabenga 8:46 is a vibrant layering Jones, Jabari Anderson, of figures reclaimed from Jamal Cyrus, Kenya REMEMBERING LARRY MCMURTRY old record album covers, Evans, and Robert The Contemporary Literature Research Collection at UH the Houston Post. In addition to early correspondence, short anchored by Floyd’s gaze. Pruitt. Special Collections preserves and makes accessible the prose and poetry, and literary reviews from the period prior personal papers of notable writers with connections to to the author’s success, the Larry McMurtry Papers includes The faces in8:46 represent Hodge has been doing Houston and Texas, including Larry McMurtry (1936 – an extensive collection of primary materials documenting the various perspectives collage work for many 2021). The Pulitzer Prize- his writing life, including handwritten notes and typewritten and reactions to Floyd’s years and it is an art winning author, who manuscript drafts of the novels Leaving Cheyenne, Moving On, passed away in March Somebody’s Darling, Cadillac Jack, The Desert Rose, Lonesome death. What emerges form for which he at the age of 84, leaves a Dove, and Texasville. from the work is a tale holds great respect. His legacy of creative acclaim as of two Americas, Hodge technique is organic and sweeping as the sagas and said, and how we are all involves finding older, settings portrayed in his interconnected. “It’s the lesser-known soul, writing. story of a flawed man who, no matter what you thought blues, and country records and using the album cover art to “Larry McMurtry was about him, is a human being who didn’t deserve to die.” create a new image. “It’s a stress breaker for me,” Hodge said. one of Texas’s great “I love taking an existing narrative and making something literary figures: a novelist, Like Floyd, Hodge was raised in the historic Third Ward new out of it. That’s a lot like hip hop, sampling older records screenwriter, and also neighborhood where UH is located. He has exhibited in and making something new while honoring the past. The notably a bookstore owner,” said Christian Kelleher, numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Slowed layers represent life in collage; there are a lot of things you head of Special Collections. and Throwed: Records of the City Through Mutated Lenses, an see and a lot of things you don’t see.” “There’s a lot that can be discovered in his extensive Items of particular interest are the first draft of The Last body of work. For me there’s a kind of ambition or yearning Picture Show, including handwritten notes, a character list, that may be particularly Texan. McMurtry’s personal archives and synopsis, as well as a copy of the first printing of the 1967 at UH offer students and scholars many opportunities to Dell paperback; and a screenplay for Hud (the film adaptation better understand his work and what is unique about Texas of Horseman, Pass By).