Category Archives: Uncategorized

Calling All Nominations! Last Call for Library Awards

cheerleaders1.jpgAward Details: Totten

Students are eligible for either the Totten Graduation Award ($750) or one of six Totten Scholarships ($250).

Totten Graduating Student Award

  1. Nominated student must have been employed by the OSU Libraries for at least two academic years.
  2. The student must have demonstrated outstanding work performance.
  3. The Recognition Committee will also consider leadership skills, initiative, ambition, a strong customer service ethic, and reliability.
  4. Students must be graduating seniors or graduate students (graduating or graduated fall, winter, spring, or summer of the current academic year).

Totten Scholarships: Six $250 Scholarships

  1. Nominated students must have been employed by the OSU Libraries for at least three consecutive terms (spring term can be the third term).
  2. Students must have at least one full term remaining after spring term in which to use the scholarship.
  3. The Recognition Committee will also consider leadership skills, initiative, ambition, a strong customer service ethic, scholarly attitude, and reliability.

Award Details: Performance

There will be 3 categories of awards given: Classified, Faculty, Project. Up to 5 awards (total) will be given out, allowing for multiple awards in each category.

Outstanding Faculty and Outstanding Classified Employee Nominees should have:

  1. worked to exemplify and advance one of the three goals of the library;
  2. developed a new project or program or simplified a process; or
  3. fostered and promoted a collaborative work environment.

Outstanding Project Nominations should have done at least one of the following:

  1. Worked to change the information landscape at OSU by providing faculty and students with the information they require– wherever and whenever it is needed.
  2. Partnered with OSU colleges and programs by contributing to the academic success and life-long learning of OSU students.
  3. Partnered with Oregon communities to foster economic development.
  4. Developed an innovative program, activity, or service; provided a dynamic or distinctive solution to a problem; or reached a special population through a unique program.
  5. Completed a project, a new initiative, or any other distinct activity that results in improved services or increased efficiency.

Outstanding Project Nominations should have been initiated, worked-on, or completed during this academic year.

Recipients are ineligible for two years following their awards.

Any member of the OSU Libraries may nominate another person or project that fits the criteria.

Individuals may choose to nominate someone or a project from their own department or another department within the Library.

New Exhibit in the Archives

home-management-house.jpgPlease visit the Archives Reference room on the 3rd floor of the Valley Library to see the new exhibit featuring the “home management babies.”

It is estimated that 50 children served as “practice babies” for the roughly 1,500 students enrolled in the six-week mandatory Household Administration Program of the College of Home Economics from 1926 to 1947. The OSU Archives has collections of photographic prints and records relating to the Kent and Withycombe Home Management Houses, which were operated as the practice homes for the Household Administration Program.

OSU’s program was part of a larger movement in the field of Home Economics. It was thought that by establishing these “practical home laboratories” for young women, the universities could give the students a “chance to practice at homemaking before she tries it on her own with a husband” (Oregon Sunday Journal, Jan. 25, 1949).

In 1919, the University of Minnesota started a pilot program in the Home Economics Department that introduced “real life” child care into the home laboratory. The program quickly spread to twenty other universities across America; within a few years, places like OSU, Cornell, Drexel, Iowa State, Tennessee, the Carnegie Institute, New York State Teachers College, and others followed the University of Minnesota’s lead and established their own programs. These schools set up dozens of home management cottages, houses, and apartments; hundreds of babies became teaching tools.

As part of this effort to teach female students about child care, babies were taken from orphanages or single mothers and moved to the home management house. The children usually remained at the house until they were two; at that time, they would be returned to the orphanage, adopted, or, in rare cases, given back to their biological mothers. In most programs, the girls would act as the child’s caregiver for a week; when their week was finished, responsibility for the care of the child would shift to the next student in line.

Welcome Back to Corvallis! Archives & Maps Reference Desk: Spring Term Hours

apples-on-a-tree.jpgDespite the chilly weather, spring term has finally arrived and our regular business hours have returned for the University Archives.

We are open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m-5:00 p.m. Our 3rd floor desk also provides reference services for maps, microforms, and government documents Monday through Thursday 9am – 9pm, Friday 9am – 5pm, Saturday 1pm – 5pm, and Sunday 1pm – 9pm.

The OSU Archives encourages the use of University Archives’ collections in graduate and undergraduate classes. Instructors interested in using the Archives in their classes should contact us at (541) 737-2165, archives@oregonstate.edu, or the “Ask An Archivist” form. Please allow several weeks for us to make arrangements.

Additionally, we are also available to provide general instruction to faculty, staff, and students on how to use archival materials, as well as specialized tours, classes, and orientations for K-12 students.

Newly Digitized: Corvallis College Articles of Incorporation

corvallis_college.jpgThe OSU Archives has added the Corvallis College Articles of Incorporation to its digital resources! Included are the

  • Articles of Incorporation of Corvallis College: August, 1868 (filed October 2, 1868)
  • supplementary Articles of Incorporation of Corvallis College: December 30, 1875 (filed January 3, 1876)
  • report of the committee upon the title to the college farm: August 9, 1884

For more information on the birth of Corvallis College, please visit the OSU Archives Chronological History page, the OSU Alumni Association page, or Wikipedia’s History of Oregon State University page.

Congratulations to ScholarsArchive@OSU!

ScholarsArchiveScholarsArchiveThe Webometrics Ranking of World Universities has ranked OSU’s digital archive, ScholarsArchive@OSU, as seventh among all digital repositories in American universities and No. 29 in the world.

ScholarsArchive is a digital service of the OSU Libraries and provides a permanent place for faculty members to store their research and teaching output, as well as a place for students store their research. The primary goal of the database is to make this information widely available, for OSU to maintain its historical record, and to provide long-term access to both the historic and contemporary intellectual work of our acclaimed OSU faculty and students.

To learn more, see the March 12, 2008 article in The Daily Barometer or visit the ScholarsArchive@OSU website.

Locating Primary Sources Online: Exploring Resources Outside OSU for Research Projects

rotunda.jpgWe have wonderful archival materials the OSU Archives, but we don’t have it all … This list contains some interesting primary source collections outside the walls of the Valley Library.

The Digital Scriptorium is an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research. It bridges the gap between a diverse user community and the limited resources of libraries by means of sample imaging and extensive rather than intensive cataloging.

The Nike Archives: Public museums were founded in part to help societies hold onto their cultural and historical memories, but businesses collect, too. The documents, products, and records a company keeps in its archive help create institutional memories; sometimes those memories are of products that worked, sometimes not. The Nike Archives has over 23,000 pieces of sports memorabilia, nearly every shoe produced. Their goal is to collect at least one of every item Nike has produced. If you’d like to see what is missing, there are still about 50 models missing.

The Women and Gender Project: The Archives for Research on Women and Gender (ARWG) project specializes in acquiring, preserving, arranging, describing, and providing access to primary source materials that document the lives of women, constructions of gender, and expressions of sexual identity in South Texas.

The Carnegie Melon: History of Medicine Library site.

The Web of Healing: This exploration of healing in eighteenth-century Philadelphia was developed and brought to life by a group of graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania’s department of History and Sociology of Science. Initially developed to be used as a teaching tool for undergraduates, this site is designed to serve as a pedagogical and public history resource.

Erosion of a Sea Stack Over 100 Years: The photographs on this site show the demise of Jump-off Joe, a sea stack at Nye Beach, Newport, Oregon.

Coastal Engineering: research, consulting, and teaching, 1946-1997: Full-text book on the Internet Archive.

One Step Closer: OSU as a National Historic District?

gill-image.jpgFollowing a unanimous vote Friday by the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation, Oregon State University may become the first Oregon university to have its own National Historic District. The historic district would encompass 83 buildings and four lawn areas, including the Memorial Union and its quad, Benton Hall, Strand Agricultural Hall, and Gill Coliseum.

According to Vincent Martorello, Facilities Services, “Once we are a district, it will really help us capture the beauty and tradition of this campus and help us preserve the character that you see out across campus as we have new development.”

Corvallis already has roughly 500 properties listed on the national register. These properties are registered individually or as part of the two national historic districts, the Avery-Helm Historic District near downtown and the College Hill West Historic District north of campus.

To read more, please visit the Gazette Times site for Kyle Odegard’s weekend article.

New Collection Highlighting Forest Service History!

g_williams_seaside.jpgPhotographs, films, and research materials illuminating the history of the U.S. Forest Service and related topics such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, Gifford Pinchot, logging in the Pacific Northwest, and the Smoky the Bear campaign form the core of a recently acquired collection reflecting the work of Forest Service Historian Gerald W. Williams.

Encompassing a wide variety of materials which include oral histories, maps, road signage, and lithographic prints, these papers document over 35 years of historical research by Williams. Nearly half of this collection is made up of photographs (about 24000 images in total) that mostly date from the early 20th century and depict national parks and other natural landscapes in Oregon, Pacific Northwest lumber operations, the U.S. Forest Service, Civilian Conservation Corps camps, and Native Americans. In addition to authoring the official centennial history of the Forest Service, Williams wrote over 75 other publications and conference papers on subjects ranging from the U.S. Army Spruce Production Division to the Native Americans’ use of fire in managing their environment. This collection also reflects Williams’ research of the origins of place names in the McKenzie River region of Oregon.

A graduate of Southern Oregon University, Williams began his career with the Forest Service in 1979 at the Umpqua National Forest. From 1998 to 2005, he served the National Historian for the Forest Service.

Welcome Back!

modern-dance.jpgJust a reminder, we are located on the 3rd floor of the Valley Library.

The University Archives is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m-5:00 p.m. The 3rd floor desk also provides reference services for maps, microforms, and government documents Monday through Thursday 9am – 9pm, Friday 9am – 5pm, Saturday 1pm – 5pm, and Sunday 1pm – 9pm.

The OSU Archives encourages the use of University Archives’ collections in graduate and undergraduate classes. Instructors interested in using the Archives in their classes should contact us at (541) 737-2165, archives@oregonstate.edu, or the “Ask An Archivist” form. Please allow several weeks for us to make arrangements.

Additionally, we are also available to provide general instruction to faculty, staff, and students on how to use archival materials, as well as specialized tours, classes, and orientations for K-12 students.