The Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library is pleased to announce a compelling new digital collection that is documenting the AUC faculty, staff and students’ response to the global pandemic, COVID-19, through the real-time collecting of materials related to this unique and unprecedented experience. These stories will become part of the Library’s Archives Research Center and will help future students, administrators, and researchers understand how we experienced this unprecedented academic year.

https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.195%3A9999
This collection includes digital photographs, personal reflections, essays and audio/video stories that are created in response to this pandemic that represent changes to campus life and the experiences of the AUC Community.  This is an ongoing project and we welcome additional contributions.

Please spread the word to your AUC networks, to continue to expand this collection.  To submit a story, follow this link to complete the permission form and submit your content,  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7C25SKL.

Online Learning Symposium

Save the date! On Tuesday, March 16 from 9 am – 12 pm, the Library will host an Online Learning Symposium where faculty, staff, and students can discuss their online learning experiences within the Atlanta University Center, including successes and shortfalls, as well as contribute suggestions for future online learning. Contact our Unit Head of Online Learning, Jessica Epstein, at [email protected] to register for this symposium.

Challenge Relaunching as Online Journal

Morehouse College’s peer-reviewed research journal, Challenge, is relaunching as an online journal on the Library’s Open Journal Systems platform.  Challenge is actively seeking new submissions from scholars across multiple disciplines for their first fully online edition, to be published Summer 2021.

Challenge publishes scholarly papers on all issues germane to the African Diaspora. Particular emphasis is placed on African American men, their families, and their communities within this global context. Challenge is an interdisciplinary publication and has published articles within social sciences, humanities, and STEM disciplines.  Challenge also publishes special issues with papers presented at colloquia, conferences, and invited papers on selected themes. Unsolicited papers related to the themes may also be included in these special issues.

GaNCH Website Launched to Aid Disaster Response for Cultural Organizations

In 2019, the AUC Woodruff Library received a LYRASIS Catalyst Fund grant to create a publicly available directory of Georgia’s Natural, Cultural and Historical Organizations (NCHs), allowing for quick retrieval of location and contact information for disaster response.  During the year-long project entitled “Using Linked Open Data for Georgia’s Natural, Cultural and Historic Organizations’ Disaster Response” (GaNCH) over 1,900 entries for NCH organizations in Georgia were compiled, updated, and uploaded to Wikidata, the linked open data database from the Wikimedia Foundation.  Entries include directory contact information and GIS coordinates that appear on a map presented on the GaNCH project website (https://ganch.auctr.edu/), allowing emergency responders to quickly search for NCHs by region and county in the event of a disaster.  For more information, contact Cliff Landis at [email protected] or Christine Wiseman, [email protected].

Selected New Digital Collections Available on the Library’s Institutional Repository

Maurice Pennington Political Cartoon Collection
https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.106%3A9999
The Maurice Pennington political cartoon collection contains sketches of his political cartoons drawn for the Atlanta Inquirer, some original artwork, articles and programs from exhibitions. Most of the works were created during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Maynard Jackson Mayoral Administrative Records
https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.075%3A99999
Selected images from this extensive collection include photographs, general correspondence, Mayoral campaign materials, and printed and published materials and correspondence related to the Atlanta Child Murders. The Atlanta Child Murders subseries chronicles the time period between 1979-1981 when multiple young black children and adults were murdered in the city of Atlanta. The murders garnered national news coverage and caused panic across the country. The records in this digital collection reflect the response to the tragedy that were both created, collected and sent to the Atlanta Mayor’s office during Maynard Jackson’s second mayoral term.

Atlanta University Photographs
https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.001%3A9999
This collection includes photographs of Atlanta University before its consolidation with Clark College, featuring photographs dating from 1858 to 1995, with the bulk of the material falling between 1905 and 1968. The photographs consist of mostly students, alumni, faculty, administrative officers, campus events, and buildings of Atlanta University, however, there are photographs of people and places from all the Atlanta University Center schools.

Hale Woodruff Collection, Audiotapes
https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.062%3A9999
Hale Aspacio Woodruff (b.1900-d.1980) was a renowned artist and educator. Through the encouragement of President John Hope, Woodruff began his teaching career at the Atlanta University Center in 1931. Woodruff helped develop an art curriculum and built a strong faculty that attracted students and brought national recognition to the Atlanta University Center. These audiotapes are of interviews conducted with Hale Woodruff, his colleagues and students by Winifred Stoelting in doing research for her dissertation, Hale Woodruff, Artist and Teacher: Through the Atlanta Years, Emory University, 1978.

Countee Cullen-Harold Jackman Memorial Collection
https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.034%3A9999?page=1
The Cullen Jackman Memorial Collection (1881-1995) documents the artistic and creative nature of those of African descent and includes photographs, correspondence, publications and printed material.

Neighborhood Union Collection
https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/auc.050%3A9999
The records of the Neighborhood Union Collection include correspondence, speeches, financial reports, minutes, committee reports, news clippings, programs, photographs, scrapbooks and additional memorabilia preserving a rich legacy and history of one of the earliest private social welfare organizations founded by African Americans in Atlanta.