Welcome to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library blog! As the special collections and archives library at the University of Kansas, Spencer is home to remarkable and diverse collections of rare and unique items. Explore the blog to learn about the work we do and the materials we collect.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
This week on That’s Distinctive! we share an original letter from George E. Young, a survivor of Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence. This Monday, August 21st was the 160th anniversary of the raid, which left much of Lawrence in disarray and burned to the ground. Many innocent people lost their lives, and you can tell in the letter from George to his father that it seemed to be quite a distressing day for those who survived. The letter was written just two days after the raid. The results of the raid will likely never be forgotten.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
“First day of school! First day of school!” Nemo says excitedly in the beginning of Finding Nemo. The return to school is often an exciting time for students around the country. After a lengthy summer break, students are ready to return to the classroom with their new clothes, classroom supplies, and fancy lunch boxes. The night before, old routines are picked back up and much thought is put into the perfect first day outfit. Teachers have spent weeks preparing for the return of students, prepping to provide a safe and welcoming space for all identities.
As it is once again time for students of all ages to head back to school, I thought it would be fun to share some Lawrence Journal-World photos from 1954 and 1955. The folders containing the photos are labeled “Back to School Edition.” The Journal-World Photograph Collection consists of approximately 660 boxes that house photos ranging from the 1950s through 2001. There are about 545 boxes of negatives, and an additional 113 boxes hold physical prints. Many of the photos involving KU have been removed from the collection and re-housed within University Archives.
A boy with his schoolbooks, 1954. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge.
A girl on the front steps, 1954. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge.
A woman, possibly a teacher, with a book, 1955. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge.
A woman, possibly a Lawrence School District employee, typing a budget ledger on a typewriter, 1955. Lawrence Journal-World Photograph Collection. Call Number: RH PH LJW. Click image to enlarge.
Visitors who have used collection materials in person at Spencer are familiar with the process: you create an Aeon account, check in at the reception desk, come into the Reading Room and check in with the librarian, and grab a table. Once that process has been completed, a student assistant (sometimes a staff member) goes into the stacks to retrieve your items and brings them to you.
While this seems like a simple process, many people outside of the library don’t really know what goes on behind the scenes. In fact, there are many internal processes in place to track each item’s every movement in the building and to ensure it is put back in the correct spot.
In today’s blog post we will discuss two related behind-the-scenes processes: paging and shelving. In short, paging refers to retrieving items from the stacks and shelving (sometimes referred to as re-shelving) deals with returning items to their appropriate place in the stacks. A majority of this work is done by our student workers, though staff contribute as well. Why don’t we have researchers page and shelve the materials they use? Well, with materials as distinct as ours, you can never be too careful. Spencer is a closed stacks library, which means that only staff members and student assistants are allowed to access secure collection storage areas known as the stacks. There are five levels of stacks throughout the building to house our materials. Additionally, as you may have seen in Marcella Huggard’s blog post from July 3rd, we use our own unique call number system within the stacks, and items are frequently shelved by size.
The door to a secure stacks, or collection storage, area at Spencer Research Library. Click image to enlarge.
A representative shelf of books in Spencer’s stacks. Click image to enlarge.
A section of Spencer’s stacks. Click image to enlarge.
Paging
To begin paging, a call slip must first be printed. Once the call slip is printed and the item is marked as “being paged” in Aeon, the student uses our stacks locator guide to determine what room the item is in. The stacks locator guide is the document we use to indicate where every item in the collection is located. This detailed inventory, which is updated and revised frequently, helps staff keep track of where items are and when they have moved.
A copy of Spencer’s stacks locator guide. Click image to enlarge.
Once in the stacks, the student grabs a book truck and a charge-out flag. The student then goes through the stacks to the location of the item for retrieval. As the item is pulled off of the shelf, the charge-out flag containing one half of the call slip goes in its place on the shelf. You will notice in the photo below that the most essential parts of the call slip are the item name (title) and the call number. The other half of the call slip stays with the item. The item is then brought back to the Reading Room, marked as “checked out” in Aeon, and given to the patron.
A charge-out flag containing one half of a call slip. Click image to enlarge.
Spencer staff members do not monitor Aeon requests as they come in; all paging is done when the patron arrives. Depending on the location and quantity of requests, paging can take anywhere from five to ten minutes.
Shelving
When a patron is done with an item, it is marked as “to be re-shelved” in Aeon and taken back to the stacks. Shelving is not done immediately. We have an area in the third-floor stacks where we place items to be re-shelved, and students work on it as they have down time.
The re-shelving area at Spencer Research Library. Click image to enlarge.
When a student goes to shelve an item, they hope the student who paged it wrote the item location on that half of the call slip. If not, the student who is shelving must also use the stacks locator guide to determine where the item belongs. Once the location is determined, the student takes the item back to that spot. Before placing the item in the proper location, the student confirms that the two halves of the call slip – the one that remained on the shelf and the other that traveled with the item – match identically. If this is the case, the student puts the item back on the shelf and adds the second half of the call slip to the charge-out flag along with the student’s re-shelving flag. Each student’s re-shelving flag is a different color so staff can determine who shelved an item if something is done incorrectly.
A Spencer Research Library stacks area with re-shelving flags. Click image to enlarge.
After items are shelved, Spencer Operations Manager Meredith Phares goes through the aisles of the stacks and “revises” to double check that items are in the correct space. This is a whole other process that could use its own blog post.
Hopefully, this post helps patrons better understand the processes that happen behind the scenes when using the library. Everything that happens in the library has its own process that goes with it.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
If you haven’t already, you might be starting to wonder just how obsessed I am with Spencer’s Tibbetts collections. The answer is VERY. This week on That’s Distinctive! I am sharing a third collection from John C. Tibbetts: his portraits collection. The finding aid mentions that “this collection consists of over 560 portraits of musicians, writers, actors, and other notable figures, in gouache and pen and ink, done by Tibbetts. Each portrait is signed or inscribed by its subject(s). Tibbetts painted hundreds of portraits of the subjects he interviewed during his time working in television and radio.” The Tibbetts portrait collection consists of twenty oversized boxes and one oversized folder. An article covering Tibbetts’ first accession to the library can be found in the Lawrence Journal-World.
This week we share Tibbetts’ portraits of Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Sigourney Weaver, and Tim Burton. The collection houses signed portraits of many other well-known names and faces from Hollywood. Most portraits show individuals who were active in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Portrait of actor Jim Carrey by John Tibbetts, 1995. John C. Tibbetts’ Portraits Collection. Call Number: MS Q74. Click image to enlarge.
Portrait of actor Robin Williams by John Tibbetts, 1995. John C. Tibbetts’ Portraits Collection. Call Number: MS Q74. Click image to enlarge.
Portrait of actress Sigourney Weaver by John Tibbetts, 1986. John C. Tibbetts’ Portraits Collection. Call Number: MS Q74. Click image to enlarge.
Portrait of director Tim Burton by John Tibbetts, 1989. John C. Tibbetts’ Portraits Collection. Call Number: MS Q74. Click image to enlarge.
Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
This week on That’s Distinctive! we share The Encylopaedeia of Type Faces. Written by W. Turner Berry, A. F. Johnson, and W. Pincus Jaspert, the 358-page book was first published in 1953 and reissued in this revised and expanded edition in 1958. The book shares examples (or specimens) of typefaces.
According to Wikipedia, “A typeface (or font family) is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display.” Many typefaces come with variations of size, weight, slope, and width. Each variation of a typeface (roman, italic, bold, etc.) might be considered a font, within the larger font family. A more in-depth discussion of typefaces and fonts can be found on Wikipedia.
The introduction of the volume explains its purpose:
“This selection of type faces has been compiled to provide a reference book for all those who use type — typographers, printers, publishers, advertisement designers and the business man who takes some interest in the choice of type for his stationery and publicity. It may also be of value to the lettering artist, the signwriter, and the engraver, who in consequence of the limitations of their own books of alphabets, often turn–we trust with a little uneasiness of conscience–to printers’ type for inspiration.”
I found this book simply by walking through the stacks, and I stopped because the title sounded interesting. Come to find out, the book is exactly what the title says. It shares hundreds of typefaces – organized into categories – throughout its pages, which is super fascinating. I’m sharing just a few pages this week, but the entire book can be viewed at the library.
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Selected pages from The Encyclopaedia of Type Faces by W. Turner Berry, A. F. Johnson, and W. Pincus Jaspert, 1958. Call Number: D6048. Click images to enlarge.
