Any project as ambitious as our Black Gospel Music Restoration Project cannot happen in a vacuum, nor can it succeed without the willing hands and open hearts of a broad range of supporters, and after almost a decade’s worth of work toward preserving America’s black gospel heritage, we’ve made significant progress thanks to the support of literally dozens of people.…
Category: Digital Collections
(Digital Collections) The Freshmen (19)15: When Being Named “Fattest Boy” Was A Sign of Affection
Some people like to think that the proclivities of college students are a relatively recent occurrence. “They wear pajamas to class! They never look up from their cell phones! They give each other ridiculous nicknames! They have their laundry picked up by a service that washes and folds it before returning it to them!” And so on. The corollary to…
(Digital Collections) An Open Letter to Whataburger: Advertising Deliciousness at Baylor Since 1954!
Dear Folks at Whataburger, Did you ever wonder what would happen if you advertised your delicious hamburgers consistently in a university’s publications since 1954? You’d get 186 occurrences of ads and other mentions of Whataburger throughout the Baylor University archives, and pardner, that’s just what we wanted to talk to you about! Of course you’ll recognize the “flavor” (pardon the…
(Digital Collections) On the Impermanence of a Waco Snow
It snowed in Waco on Wednesday morning. Don’t believe me? Check social media – almost everyone in the 254 area code posted something about it. This Vine from colleague David Taylor provides a nice summation: It made for a pretty display, but by noon, the sun was coming out and the snowfall had either melted into the ground or evaporated…
(Digital Collections) Stepping on Board with The Mighty Wonders of Aquasco, Maryland
Since the early days of the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, we’ve been intrigued by a version of “Old Ship of Zion” by the Mighty Wonders of Aquasco, Maryland. Intrigued, because it’s a soulful, a cappella rendering of a song that offers a surefire way to salvation (“Step on board if you want to see Jesus”) and because we knew…
(Digital Collections) A January Mystery: What Was “The Promoters” and Who Was Betsy Bolivar?
Sometimes inspiration strikes in strange ways. Take this week’s blog post, for example: while conducting a simple search in the Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections for terms related to the new year – New Year, January, cold as a well digger’s elbow, etc. – I came across a piece from the Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music titled, In…
(Digital Collections) A New Year, A Major New Collection: “The Baptist Argus” Project Completed, Available Online
Welcome to a new year of digital collections excellence here at the Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections Blog. We’re kicking off 2015 by announcing the completion of a multi-year project: The Baptist Argus / The Baptist World newspaper collection! Through a partnership with the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, we are pleased to present a full run of…
(Digital Collections) Wrapping Up Another Great Year: 2014 In Review
Well, folks, we’ve come to the end of another year of pixels, projects and professional musings here at the Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections Blog. And after three years of weekly blog posts, we are excited to report that 2014 was our biggest ever, with 7,591 unique users accessing the blog more than 9,000 times since January 1!…
(Digital Collections) “Sound in Collections” Episode 3: Giving “Pie Man” The “Serial” Treatment
By now, you’ve likely heard of the NPR-based podcast Serial, a weekly serialization of an investigation into a 1999 murder case in Baltimore, Maryland. Journalist Sarah Koenig narrates the This American Life spinoff that has become a cultural phenomenon, spawning hotly contested activity across the Internet (most notoriously on a very active subreddit) and its own meta-podcasts where people dissect…
(Digital Collections) Spotlight On Graduate Student Scholarship: Digital Exhibits From MST 5327, Archival Technology and Digital Collections Management
One of the great privileges afforded by my work with our digital collections is the opportunity I’ve earned to teach some of Baylor’s finest graduate students from the Department of Museum Studies. Over the past three years, I’ve taught several courses on technology, marketing, historic preservation and digital archival management, and I can say that it’s been one of the…