On Friday 4/18, Karyn Norwood and Erenst Anip visited The Woodstock Historical Society to attend Exhibit Workshop organized by the Vermont Historical Society. They offered five sessions of this workshop in Bennington, Middlebury, Barre, Woodstock, and Brownington. These full day sessions are free of charge thanks to a grant from the Patrick Foundation and each are followed by a reception for Cultural Heritage Professionals. Continue reading Preparing for the Vermont History Expo 2014
We’re nearing the end of newspaper page collation for Phase II. Our final title that our team of Michael Breiner, Mary VanBuren-Swasey, and Karyn Norwood, have been hard at work examining issue by issue on microfilm is the Orleans County Monitor, a weekly published out of Barton, Vermont, serving Orleans County from 1872-1953 (we’re only digitizing up to 1922, as it is the cut-off date for copyright).
While examining a reel from 1910, I stumbled upon a fascinating and innovative marketing campaign by the Orleans County Monitor that by all accounts was a huge success. “Monitor’s Great Popularity and Prize Contest,” was a popularity contest for the ladies of Orleans County–prizes included a grand prize of a $500 Brush automobile, four $50 diamond rings, a couch, dresser, 112-piece dish set, and a center table. The premise of it was very simple: write down the name of a lady that you think should win (and it could be yourself) on a voting certificate and turn it into the Monitor office. The trick of it was, of course, you needed to buy (or get your friends to buy) to a copy (or better yet, a subscription) of the paper to get the certificate to vote. You could, of course, vote as many times as you wanted; men could also certainly vote–but it had to be cast for a woman. The contest went on for seven weeks between September and October 1910.
Continue reading A Capital Campaign: The Orleans County Monitor Circulation Contest
I sat down with Brennan Gauthier on a chilly (and snowy) February morning at UVM’s Special Collections in Bailey-Howe Library to discuss his discoveries on Chronicling America. And, goodness, did he ever have some good stories to share!
Gauthier is the VTrans Archaeologist for the Vermont Department of Transportation (VTrans), and he was quick (and excited) to reveal that he uses Chronicling America on a daily basis with his work as an archaeologist in the field. For every project that the Department of Transportation undertakes in Vermont, such as building a bridge or expanding a road, Gauthier and his colleagues in the Cultural Resource Team at VTrans must closely inspect and research the site to assess the potential for effects on cultural resources in the area surrounding the site. To this end, therefore, Chronicling America provides an accessible and easily searchable method to research historic activity in the area up to 1922. Continue reading User Spotlight Series: Brennan Gauthier, VTrans Archaeologist
We would like to dedicate this television appearance to Birdie MacLennan, our Project Director and Principal Investigator, who passed away earlier this week. For this television episode, and as with all else she did, she dedicated a great deal of time, inspiration, and enthusiasm into making this program appearance be the success it is. As with the project itself, it would not have happened without her integral leadership and dedication to Vermont’s history and its historic newspapers. There is so much to be thankful for. We hope you enjoy the episode.
***********************************************************************
The Vermont Digital Newspaper Project traveled to Rutland, Vermont, a few weeks ago to be guest presenters on the Rutland Historical Society’s public access television show, Historically Speaking. Every month, the Rutland Historical Society produces a new program on their local public access television station, PEGTV, on various historical topics.
Director and Principal Investigator Birdie MacLennan, Project Librarian Erenst Anip, and Digital Support Specialist Karyn Norwood, met with the curator of the Rutland Historical Society and host of the show, Jim Davidson, to introduce the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project, Chronicling America, and highlight some intriguing local history stories, as well as offer some helpful search tips.
Photo by Erenst Anip of the PEGTV main office space.The half-hour episode can be viewed on tv now until the end of the month on PEGTV, Rutland’s Community Access television channel Public 15, on Wednesdays at 4 pm, Thursdays at 1:30 pm, and Fridays at 7:30 pm.
The video can also be viewed on demand online here: Historically Speaking Episode #132 Continue reading Historically Speaking Rutland TV Appearance
With immense sadness, we write to inform of the loss of our Director and Principal Investigator, Birdie MacLennan. Without Birdie’s leadership, expertise, dedication, and passion for Vermont’s history and its historic newspapers, our project would not be the great success that it is today.
Below, we share the announcement made today by the University of Vermont’s Dean of University Libraries and Resources, Mara Saule. Please join us in celebrating Birdie’s life, contributions, and achievements. She will be greatly missed.
Very Best,
Karyn Norwood, Erenst Anip, and Prudence Doherty
***************
It is with great sadness that we share that our colleague, Library Professor Birdie MacLennan, passed away after a brief illness on March 10, 2014.
Birdie began working in the Libraries’ Cataloging Department in 1990, after working at Harvard University and Merrimack College and receiving a Master of Library Sciences from Simmons College. Since 2008, she served as Director of the UVM Libraries’ Resource Description and Analysis Services Department. Her service to the library profession resulted in widespread recognition from her peers around the world. She was also an active member of the UVM faculty, with many years of service on the Faculty Senate’s Professional Standards Committee.
In 2005 she received a Master of Arts in French from UVM; these studies greatly informed her teaching and scholarship. She was the Libraries’ subject liaison to the Romance Languages department, where her growing proficiencies in French and Italian benefited faculty and students and satisfied her deep intellectual curiosity. Birdie was an accomplished and internationally recognized scholar, with particularly strong ties to Québec. Her in-depth research on the Grande Bibliothèque of Québec resulted in published works on libraries and cultural identity. She was an active member of the Burlington Italian Club and the Alliance Française Lake Champlain Region Chapter.
Birdie leaves behind a powerful and passionate legacy as a steward of Vermont history. Through projects funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, she helped to ensure preservation copies and digital access for Vermont’s historic newspapers. Most recently, she served as Project Director and Principal Investigator for the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project, securing multiple rounds of funding and overseeing the creation of 250,000 pages of digital content, much of which is now available on the Library of Congress Chronicling America website.
Birdie was a devoted colleague and mentor, dedicated to serving students, faculty, staff, and librarians-in-training. She was compassionate, generous, and supportive to all who knew her. She will be profoundly missed in the faculty and staff of the University Libraries and as a valuable faculty member at the University of Vermont. She is survived by her sister Anne MacLennan Perkins, her niece Dominika Perkins, and her brother-in-law Donald Perkins of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
The Libraries are establishing a fund to further Birdie’s work preserving Vermont’s newspapers and will create a local digital collection in her name. Checks can be made payable to the UVM Foundation and directed to the UVM Libraries, in honor of Birdie MacLennan (The University of Vermont Foundation, 411 Main St., Burlington, VT 05401). Memorial services are pending and will be announced soon.
Sincerely,
Mara Saule
Chief Information Officer and
Dean of University Libraries and Learning Resources
