Month: August 2019

In Memoriam: Kent Keeth and Tom Charlton (From the 2019 ITS & Libraries Magazine)

Since 2018, the Libraries and ITS saw the passing of two influential members of the Baylor family, each of whom played an important role in the history of the University Libraries. Kent Keeth, longtime director of The Texas Collection (1973-2003) passed away at age 79, and Dr. Thomas Charlton, founding director of the Institute for Oral History, passed away at…

Poage Library at 40: A New Director and A Bright Future (From the 2019 ITS & Libraries Magazine)

On September 21, 1979, dignitaries from around the nation gathered on a sunny Waco afternoon to dedicate a new $1.5 million 25,000 square feet facility on the Baylor campus. The new library was built to house an office for the recently retired Texas Congressman W. R. “Bob” Poage, his extensive archives, several new political collections, a reading room, and the…

Ecology and Religion Conference Breaks New Ground with “Flightless” Model (From the 2019 ITS & Libraries Magazine)

From September 18-21, 2019, scholars from around the world will gather for the Ecology and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference. However, unlike traditional academic conferences, nobody will travel by plane or more than 500 miles on the ground to enjoy the international conversation. Avoiding flights matches the spirit of the conference, taking seriously the ecological impact of the time-honored tradition…

Readers and Writers Unite: Welcoming the University Writing Center (UWC) to Moody Memorial Library (From the 2019 ITS & Libraries Magazine)

Baylor University strives to provide its students with a diverse, well-rounded education — one that sets it apart from other learning institutions. One cornerstone of this objective is the nourishing of the written word. Required writing and English classes provide the foundation, but for many students and faculty, help is needed beyond the classroom. For writers — both burgeoning and…

Still “Our Voice:” The Keston Institute Celebrates 50 Years (From the 2019 ITS & Libraries Magazine)

This fall, the Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of Keston College to be the voice of the voiceless for those experiencing religious persecution under communism and other totalitarian regimes. In the heart of the Cold War, Michael Bourdeaux, a young Oxford student, became enthralled with the majestic beauty of Russian…

A Bigger Voice for Research: Institute for Oral History Becomes Part of University Libraries (From the 2019 ITS & Libraries Magazine)

On June 1, the Libraries welcomed the Institute for Oral History into its organizational structure, greatly expanding the reach and depth of the Libraries’ research and scholarship activities. The move unites the IOH’s pacesetting work in the area of gathering oral history memoirs with the strength and expertise of the Libraries and its team of expert faculty and staff. “We…

Support for R1 Status, Illuminated: Baylor Libraries Acquire Heritage Edition of Saint John’s Bible (From the 2019 ITS & Libraries Magazine)

When calligrapher Donald Jackson sat down with a group of Benedictine monks at Minnesota’s St. John’s Abbey in the mid-1990s, he could not have dreamed that his idea to create the first medieval-style, illuminated version of the Bible in almost 500 years would one day impact scholars at Baylor University. But that’s exactly the kind of impact the vision of…