American University Library is pleased to announce the opening of Special Collections’ exhibit of early printed texts. The works of history, mathematics, religion, and rhetoric on display date from 1468 through 1500 and show the nature of incunabula, books printed before 1501. They feature hand-colored initials, unique bindings made of wood and leather, and wood cut illustrations. This exhibit will be on display on the third floor of the Library through the end of the fall semester.
Category Archives: News
Currently on Display: AU in the 1970s: A Snapshot
Were you a student at AU in the 1970s? Are you curious at what campus was like back then? Check out the library’s newest exhibit, AU in the 1970s: A Snapshot. Newspaper articles, photographs and publications from the University Archives depict the student scene at AU. Highlights of the exhibit include information on football at AU, examples of student activities ranging from charity fundraisers to political protests, and dramatic moments such as a plane hitting the radio tower. The exhibit will be on display on the first floor of the Library through the end of the semester.
Streaming video of American University events and programs are now available via our online catalog
Among the recently digitized videos are a historic film featuring images of American University (AU) from the 1930s, the investitures and presentations of AU Presidents Richard E. Berendzen, Joseph Duffy and Benjamin Ladner, AU commencement ceremonies (1988-1994) and opening and honors convocations (1990-1997), and the programs featuring Coretta Scott King, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Jehan Al Sadat, and Barbara Walters from AU’s Women Changing the World Series.
A complete list of digitized videos will be provided upon request. You can access the videos from our online catalog by searching for the title and clicking on the link that says: “Click here to access the full program.”
Effective March 1, 2010, Archives and Special Collections began charging fees for Digital Reproductions. The fee schedule is as follows:
Low resolution scans (300 dpi and under): $2/scan + $10/hr. after the first hour of staff time
High resolution scans (greater than 300 dpi): $5/scan + $10/hr. after the first hour of staff time
Item already scanned (requires copying only): $1
CD-RW: $1 per disk
Researchers with valid student IDs will be provided with two images per order at no cost. We accept the following payment types: cash, check, credit card, and Eagle bucks.
American University’s Web Harvesting Project: A Work in Progress
As we recently completed our first year of web harvesting, it seems a fitting time to make a progress report. The original scope of this project was to document the online presence of student organizations and to collect web only publications. We presented our proposal in the fall of 2008 just as AU was finalizing plans to launch its new website the following spring. In light of this, we expanded our scope to cover the University’s entire website. American University selected the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service for this project. Archive-It has a user friendly web interface through which you can set up and schedule crawls. The Internet Archive stores the web sites collected, generates reports, and offers technical support. Because of the evanescent nature of the web, it is important to review the reports generated by Archive-Its crawler. These reports document the success/failures of the crawl. By reviewing this data, we can identify crawler traps and write code to prevent future problems. Over the course of the last year, we have conducted four major crawls and several smaller ones. We reaped the benefits of this project within several months of starting. We have already received inquiries from students seeking copies of articles they had written for an online publication. The publication’s web site was temporarily down and the harvested version was the only source of their work. The archived version of AU’s website is available through the Archive-It site. I invite you to browse the archives. Start at the following site: http://www.archive-it.org/public/all_collections and select one of AU’s Collections. For those of you familiar with the Wayback Machine, it only has data for http://www.american.edu/ from 1996-2008.
Archives Reading Room: Summer Hours
Effective Thursday May 7, 2009 – The Archives Reading Room will be open for individual quiet study Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. It will be available for meetings and events on a first-come, first-served basis Monday through Thursday from 5:00pm to 9:00 pm (May 11 – August 6). Individuals interested in reserving the Archives Reading Room should contact Tiffany Hairston at (202) 885-3233 or Elizabeth LaRocca at (202) 885-3847.
Archives Reading Room Opens for Individual Quiet Study
The Archives Reading Room, located on the third floor of the AU Library, primarily exists to support scholarly research in the AU Archives and Special Collections. As part of the ongoing renovations and improvements in the library building funded by the university and library supporters, the Archives Reading Room has been refurbished with new tables, chairs, and electrical outlets. This significant upgrade in equipment allows for a major change in Reading Room usage.
Effective April 6, 2009, the Archives Reading Room will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. for individual quiet study. One or more tables will be designated for use of Archives staff and researchers, and open tables will be available to the community. Consumption of food and drinks is not permitted in the Archives Reading Room. The policy will be enforced, and any evidence of food consumption in the space may result in the reduction of hours.
Stay tuned to the American University Archives and Special Collections blog for news about collections, events, and the Archives Reading Room.