Dark Side of the Archives


Archives sustain civilization. Civilization is the total of human experience. Archival repositories hold the records of that experience, good or bad, gained over time. Archives orient people in society, and create a foundation for profiting by historical context. Archives touch peoples’ lives when individuals are introduced or connected to the documents we hold in our collections. Sometimes it is finding information about an ancestor that brings joy. Other times the documents bring up memories of a darker time in our past. 

As we come to the end of Black History Month, the document featured is one of those records that document a darker time in the history of America. It is a receipt from 1847 for the purchase of a female slave named Silvy. The receipt states that on April 3, 1847, in Union County, North Carolina, John S. Leany paid $213 ($6,000 in 2015 dollars) for a “Negro girl Silvy” who was lately sold as the property of another individual. It further states that she is healthy and in sound condition. In addition, it transfers the title to Silvy to John S. Leany and his heirs and offspring.
    

In this one document, the whole issue of an individual owned by another is summed up. It is clear that slaves had no rights and were thought of as nothing more than a piece of property to be bought and sold as one would do with land.

For more information about slavery from those in bondage, the Dick Smith Library has The Slave Narratives of Texas by Ron Tyler, and from the Federal Writers Project, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States, From Interviews with Former Slaves. This 17-volume set is also available online from the Library of Congress at https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/.
 

The Texas Slavery Project, http://www.texasslaveryproject.org/, explores slavery in Texas in the years between 1820 and 1850.

The Texas State Historical Association has a free eBook on the trials and triumphs of African Americans in Texas at https://tshaonline.org/membership/african-american/.

Full Text Finder and Citation Finder

Tarleton\’s Dick Smith library subscribes to more than 200 databases, which provide access to a multitude of publications. Determining which database contains the particular source you are looking for can be a daunting task. Fortunately we have Full Text Finder and Citation Finder, powerful tools that can find and link you to specific periodicals or specific articles within our myriad of databases.

Full Text Finder

To use Full Text Finder first go to the library\’s webpage: http://www.tarleton.edu/library/. Then click on the Full Text Finder link highlighted in the screenshot below:

Full Text Finder link highlighted in yellow. 

After you click the Full Text Finder link you will come to a search screen where you can type in the name of a particular periodical title (journal, magazine, newspaper). Below the search box there are links that allow you to browse for periodicals by title or by discipline.

Searching for the Journal of Marketing. 

Your search results will let you know which databases have the periodical  you are looking for, and the date range of coverage provided in each database. There is also a search box, which allows you to search within that periodical.

Search results. 

Citation Finder 

Another useful tool is Citation Finder. This is helpful when you are trying to track down a specific article. For example, you are reading a source and you want to find an article that is listed in that source\’s references.

Example citation.

After reading an article I found the citation above, and decided to use Citation Finder to see if this article was available through a Tarleton library database. To use Citation Finder first go to the library\’s website: http://www.tarleton.edu/library/. Then click on the Citation Finder link highlighted in the screenshot below.

Citation Finder link highlighted in yellow.

After you click the Citation Finder link you will come to a search screen where you will need to input the article\’s bibliographic information. That information is found in the citation (see example above).

Input as much information as you can. If there is something you don\’t know, then leave it blank. The more information you provide, the more likely you will be linked to the correct source. At a minimum you should provide the journal title, article title, date, and author\’s last name. 

Fortunately, the article I\’m looking for is available in the JSTOR database. Clicking on the link in the screenshot below took me directly to the article.

Link to full text of the article in the JSTOR database. 

If you need assistance using Full Text Finder or Citation Finder then contact the library at 254-968-1898 or [email protected].

OverDrive Romance Novels

Just in time for Valentine\’s Day, head over to OverDrive to read some of our romance novels.
https://texasam.libraryreserve.com/

Here are 5 popular titles that we have on overdrive. However, OverDrive has over 200 romance genre titles to choose from. The checkout periods are for 21 days and can be renewed as long as no one has placed a hold on it. Otherwise, you can also place a hold on a book and it will automatically appear in your account once it is returned.

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. Jane Austen shows us the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.

2. Ink by Amanda Sun
On the heels of a family tragedy, Katie Greene must move halfway across the world. Stuck with her Aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels alone, lost and disconnected since she barley know the language. When Katie meets aloof but gorgeous Tomohiro, the star of the school\’s kendo team, she is intrigued by him. But, Tomo is connected to the kami, powerful ancient beings who once ruled Japan—and as feelings develop between Katie and Tomo, things begin to spiral out of control.

3. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
 Seventeen ­year-old Mia got into a horrible car accident; she can only recall what happened afterwards, watching her own damaged body being taken from the wreck. Little by little she struggles to put together the pieces- to figure out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult choice she must make. Heartwrenchingly beautiful, this will change the way you look at life, love, and family.

4. The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

5. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
No one knows why Juliette\’s touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she\’s finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she\’d lost forever.

book summary sources

https://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Jane-Austen/dp/0141439513/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486969514&sr=1-1&keywords=pride+and+prejudice
https://www.amazon.com/s?field-keywords=ink+amanda+sun
https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Stay-Gayle-Forman/dp/014241543X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1486969256&sr=8-2&keywords=if+is+stay
https://www.amazon.com/Fault-Our-Stars-John-Green/dp/014242417X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486969281&sr=1-1&keywords=the+fault+in+our+stars
https://www.amazon.com/Shatter-Me-Tahereh-Mafi/dp/0062085506/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486969401&sr=1-1&keywords=shatter+me


Throwback Thursday-Dean Cox\’s 1918 Annual Report

In November of 1918 Dean Cox presented his first annual report to the A&M System. In his report you can hear Cox\’s pride in the progress Tarleton has made in a years time from being a private local college to a member of a state system.The previous year John Tarleton College was in dire financial straits and Dean Cox knew the only way the college could survive was to join a State system. At the time time the college was having trouble paying their faculty and in fact had little faculty at all. 

Cox notes that by an act of the 35th Legislature the institution was made a branch of A&M College and the State took control of the property September 1,1917. Cox continues that a \”good faculty was secured, some advertising was done and the institution was opened for students Sept. 18th.\” In the first year 261 students enrolled. \”Of these 174 were enrolled in the literary department and 87 in the Music.\” Summer enrollment was125 making a total for the year of 386 students. Students from Stephenville numbered 110, with 122 from other parts of Erath County. Students from counties adjoining Erath County made up 35 per cent of the remaining students.Of the 386 students 137 were working in Home Economics and 83 in the School of Agriculture. The enrollment for 1918 increased by 50 per cent to 273 students. Clearly John Tarleton Agricultural College was growing.

Dean Cox goes on to note challenges of changing from a local institution to a State institution and branch of the Agricultural and mechanical College of Texas. He notes that more than 200 students were turned away due to lack of means or lacking the required educational requirements. However, the school is crowded as it is needing more class rooms, offices, and laboratory space. Cox wanted to make sure that the courses taught at Tarleton were academically equal to those at the parent institution. He also felt the role of the junior agricultural college in Texas was to bridge the gap between the rural high school and the junior year of a standard college. Cox additionally felt the junior college should strive to serve those in the neighboring community first. 

Looking forward to the future Cox states that steps have been taken to establish affiliations with the rural high schools of Erath County and Tarleton. He believes this would be beneficial to the schools and Tarleton. He hopes that a program can be developed that would allow these students to enter Tarleton without examination. he closes the report by stating that the $75,000 raised by the citizens of Stephenville for a student loan fund will be very helpful and that due to severe drought the farm was not an asset.

So as we celebrate our Centennial of joining the A&M System read Dean Cox\’s report below and think of what the future held  and holds for Tarleton.

 

TeachingBooks.Net

A great new resource for any assignment involving children\’s or young adult books is TeachingBooks.net.  This is a new TexShare database that is available to academic, school, and public libraries in the state of Texas that participate in the TexShare program.

From the home page, you can search for resources for books by title, grade level, core curricular area, genre, or cultural area.  In the example below, I searched for books in the math curricular area, and then used the limiters in the left-hand column to further narrow my results by grade level (in this example, grades 1-5):

The results show the types of resources available  Author resources include audio name pronunciation guides, interviews (some audio, some video), and links to the author’s or illustrator’s websites or blogs, Book resources include lesson plans (some of which have the relevant TEKS), award information, book trailers (videos), and readings (such as excerpts read by the author, or from audiobook versions).

The page for a book has even more resources, such as links to other books in the same genres or subject areas.  Text complexity measures may include Lexile levels and ATOS (Accelerated Reader) reading levels.

If you create an Educator Login, you can create custom book lists to save and share, such as these (if you are off-campus, you\’ll be prompted for your NTNET user name and password):

Tarleton Centennial Display



 

100 years ago Tarleton joined the Texas A&M system and will be celebrating all year. The first celebration is taking place this week in the gallery of the Clyde H Wells Fine Arts building. The gallery consists of photos and artifacts spanning the last 100 years.

I recently spent an hour in the gallery and it wasn\’t enough time to take it all in. Thanks to a television in the corner, I was immediately immersed into the 1940\’s and 1950\’s. My eyes were drawn to a large desk with an antique typewriter and a wicker table with a bejeweled box and hand-held mirror. I was able to imagine myself living in the girl\’s dorm while viewing a photograph of the parlor room.

I encourage you to visit the gallery and learn about our past. I also encourage you to answer these questions:

  • When were female students allowed to stop wearing uniforms?
  • Who was the librarian in the top photograph?

But you\’ll need to hurry because the exhibit is only available this week!

Exhibit hours are:
Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m.

Chinese New Year – January 28th

The biggest holiday of the year for Chinese families will soon be upon us: Chinese New Year (also known as Spring Festival) is happening this Saturday January 28th (New Year\’s Eve is the 27th). To compare the significance of this holiday for the American context, it would be like combining Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year\’s all in one. Click here to learn more about Chinese New Year. 

There are many different foods that are typically eaten on this occasion, and they are often symbolic of  increasing your chances of long life or wealth. One favorite is dumplings (like the ones pictured below), eating them on New Year\’s is supposed to bring increased wealth.

Dumplings (shui jiao 水餃) – Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2015.

Chinese New Year is based on a lunar calendar, and therefore doesn\’t happen on the same day every year on the solar calendar that we use. It fluctuates between mid-January to mid-February. According to the Chinese zodiac the new year will be the year of the chicken, and we are leaving the year of the monkey.  The Chinese zodiac consists of twelve animals, so the same animal reoccurs every twelve years. Click here to learn more about the Chinese zodiac. 

A common part of the Chinese New Year holiday is for the adults of the family to give red envelopes full of money to the children of the family. 

A Red Envelope (hong bao 紅包) – Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2017.
Roughly translated the words on the envelope mean \”wish you prosperity, money is coming your way\” (gong xi fa cai, gun gun er lai). 

A legend associated with the Chinese New Year is that of the Nian monster (nian shou 年獸). This creature comes out of hiding on New Year\’s Eve to eat people. Luckily, this monster is afraid of firecrackers and the color red, and that\’s why you see plenty of both this time of year. Typically, families will stay up late into the night to guard against the nian shou. According to some, this monster can eat a whole village in one bite. 

Some Chinese phrases for New Year\’s: 

  • Xin nian kuai le (新年快樂) – \”Happy New Year\”
  • Gong xi fa cai (恭禧發財) – A common expression heard during Chinese New Year, roughly translates to \”Wishing you increased prosperity.\” A comical reply to this phrase is hong bao na lai (紅包拿來) which means \”hand over the red envelope.\” 

If you want to learn Chinese or another language, then you should check out the Mango Languages database. It\’s available on the library website\’s A-Z database page. 

The library has several books about Chinese New Year in the Curriculum Collection, which is located on the lower level at our Stephenville location: 

Click here to listen to some Chinese New Year\’s music. That link takes you to the library\’s catalog, from there click on the \”Online Access Click Here\” link. 

Click here to watch a documentary about how modern Beijing families celebrate New Year\’s. 

International Programs will be hosting a Chinese New Year celebration on Friday January 27th from 6PM – 8PM at the Thompson Student Center. There will be food and activities. Click here for more details. 

What is the Electoral College?

For only the fifth time in US history (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, 2016) the candidate who received the most popular votes will notbe elected President of the United States. Why is this? Because the US doesn’t elect Presidents by popular vote, but by a process known as the Electoral College. Whichever candidate wins a majority in the Electoral College becomes President regardless of the popular vote. Although Clinton is ahead in the national popular vote, Trump has won the  popular vote in enough states to win 306 electoral votes. Which is much more than the 270 needed to win. 
[Here you can see the popular vote totals nationwide and broken down by state. These numbers are compiled by David Wasserman an editor with The Cook Political Report.]
Meeting of the Ohio Electoral College in 2012. This photo is in the public domain.

Article II Section 1 of the US Constitution says: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress…”  

Since 1832, all states except one began allowing their electors to be chosen by popular vote (South Carolina began in 1868).If you voted on November 8th you weren’t actually voting for a Presidential candidate, instead you were voting on which electors will vote for President on behalf of the state. 

Donald Trump won the popular vote in Texas, therefore electors chosen by the Texas Republican Party will be voting in the Electoral College. If Hillary Clinton had won Texas, then electors chosen by the Texas Democratic Party would have been attending the Electoral College.  

Each state is guaranteed a minimum of three votes in the Electoral College, because each state has two Senators and at least one Representative. States with larger populations get more votes because they have a greater number of Representatives. Texas has 38 votes.

The Presidential election of 2016 hasn’t actually happened yet. The members of the Electoral College will vote on December 19th. On that day the electors will gather in their state capitals and write down their choice for President and Vice President. They are supposed to vote for whoever won the popular vote in their state. However, they don’t have to. Some (but not all) states have penalties for electors who don’t follow the popular vote of their state. Occasionally, there are faithless electors who don’t vote the way they are supposed to. However, there have never been enough faithless electors to change the outcome of an election. A Texas Elector has made news recently saying that he will not vote for Donald Trump. 

On January 6th, 2017 the ballots from the Electors will be sent to the President of the Senate (who is also the current Vice President of the US Joe Biden) and they will be counted before a joint session of Congress. 

The library has several books about the Electoral College if you want to learn more:

After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College edited by John C. Fortier
Proposals for Presidential Election Reform: National Popular Vote and Electoral College Options by Maureen Stone
Taming the Electoral College by Robert W. Bennett
Who Will Be the Next President: A Guide to U.S. Presidential Election System by Alexander S. Belenky
Wrong Winner: The Coming Debacle in the Electoral College by David W. Abbott and James P. Levine

Air Raid Pearl Harbor X This Is Not A Drill


Today is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The events of that day would become a seminal event in American history. America lost some of her innocence that day. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt rightly called this a \”day that will live in infamy\”. Archives play a role in our remembrance of Pearl Harbor and World War II. The image is a broadside created in 1942 by Allen Sandburg issued by the Office of War Information in Washington D. C., and is courtesy of the U. S. Naval Historical Center. The quotation is from Lincoln\’s Gettysburg address.

One of the most iconic images of the attack is that of the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) on fire and sinking. James Buchanan Reed, Jr, Tarleton class of 1933, was a storekeeper first class on board the Arizona. He did not survive the attack and his body lies with that of more than 900 of his shipmates inside the hull of the Arizona.
 

The National Archives (NARA) has digitized many of the images and documents related to Pearl Harbor and World War II. By searching NARA\’s Archival Research Catalog(ARC) for digital copies one can find images of the attack and its aftermath. Included are the familiar images and those of battleships that had rolled upside down due to damage being righted. Documents include the famous Air Raid Pearl Harbor X This is not a drill radio message. The Library of Congress American Memory Today in History page has numerous links to documents and sources. These sources include man on the street interviews that conducted on December 8, 1941 to capture the public\’s initial reaction to the bombing. The Library of Congress also has a Veteran\’s History Project that preserves oral history interviews with World War II veterans\’ and those of latter wars.

The Oregon State Archives has on online exhibit that features the experience of the Willamette University football team at Pearl Harbor. The team was in Hawaii to play a post-season game. They had played the previous day and were waiting for a sightseeing tour of the island when the attack occurred. I will not tell the whole story, but the team was inducted into the Army and placed on sentry duty, and did make it back to Oregon.
 
American forces would not attack the Japanese homeland until April 18, 1942. In a daring plan using land based B-25 bombers to take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). The pilot of the number three plane was Tarleton graduate Robert Gray. His crew’s mission was to bomb a steel mill, a chemical company, and a gas company, all in Tokyo. The crew hit all their targets. Unable to make an airfield, Gray and his crew bailed out over China. All of his crew members survived the bailout and made their way back to United States forces. 

 


Gray was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the Doolittle raid. He was born in Killeen, Texas and a member of the 1940 class of Tarleton majoring in Civil and Aeronautical Engineering. Robert Gray was killed in action in a B-25 crash during a combat mission six months to the day of the Doolittle raid on October 18, 1942 near Assam India. Robert Gray airfield at Fort Hood Texas is named in his honor. Today there is only one surviving member of the Doolittle raid In the image on the right Robert Gray is the second person on the left. (Official USAF photo) 

While it the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry was certainly the big news story nationwide. For Tarleton the big news story in the December 9, 1941 J-TAC was winning the bugle at the first Silver Taps ceremony. A smaller article noted that Hawaii and the Philippines were attacked by Japan and the President and Congress had declared war on Japan, that all national resources would be turned to national defense and that a number of causalities had been reported in the fighting in the Pacific. 

"Real-Time Computer Availability"

Just in time for finals week, come check out new \”Real-Time Computer Availability\” at the Dick Smith Library located at the circulation desk. It will show you which computers are available by each level. The computer spaces that are in green show the computers that are available for use, the ones in red show the ones that are currently in use and unavailable.

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