The Charles E. Bracker Collection Acquired: 30,000 Digital Photographs of Orchids at Ball State University Libraries

The Ball State University Libraries are now the proud home of a collection of more than 30,000 digital photographs and nearly 2,000 prints of orchids. These outstandingly beautiful photographs are the work of Charles E. Bracker, retired professor of botany and plant pathology at Purdue University. The collection of digital photographs is being made available to students, researchers, and orchid-enthusiasts around the world through the Ball State Digital Media Repository (DMR), http://libxi.bsu.edu, a project of the University Libraries.

Dr. Bracker’s wife Anri began their personal collection of orchids in the late 1980s after purchasing two plants on a trip to Hawaii. After his wife passed away in 2001, Dr. Bracker wanted to keep her collection alive and thriving. He installed a basement greenhouse in his home and began adding orchids to the collection. He combined his passion for orchids and photography to create more than 30,000 stunning photographs of orchids.

In 2008, Professor Bracker donated 1,000 orchids to Ball State University’s nationally renowned Wheeler Orchid Collection and Species Bank. Recently, he also decided to give his collection of orchid photographs to Ball State University.

According to Cheryl M. LeBlanc, Wheeler Collection curator, “The combination of the plants and the photographs brings Ball State University to the forefront as having the largest university-based orchid collection in the country.”

The collection of prints and digital images are housed in the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections. More than 300 of the images are now in the Charles E. Bracker Orchid Photographs collection in the DMR, http://libx.bsu.edu/collection.php?CISOROOT=/BrckrOrchd, and the remainder of the 30,000 images are being added to the collection.

The Bracker Orchid Photographs join a collection of rare orchid books held by Archives and Special Collections. One particularly interesting title is the four-volume set, Reichenbachia, a nineteenth century work containing magnificent color prints of orchids. The title comes from orchidologist Heinrich Gustave Reichenbach. Bound in leather with marbled end pages, these large books were published in two series with each volume dedicated to a queen or empress: Queen Victoria, the Empress of Germany and Queen of Persia, the Empress of Russia, and the Queen of Belgium.

Each book includes color lithography, notes on the orchid’s history and cultures, and structural drawings of each flower.

For more information, contact John B. Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Orchid Photographs on Exhibit

A selection of 60 Charles E. Bracker Orchid Photographs are on exhibit outside of the Archives and Special Collections, Bracken Library BL-210, and in exhibit cases on first floor east through December 2009.

The exhibit illustrates the diversity of orchids captured in Dr. Bracker’s superb photography. In a 2006 article in Purdue Agriculture Connections Magazine, Bracker was quoted as saying, “When I take pictures, I take a lot of them.” He said he typically took about 20 exposures for each flower.

Viewers of the exhibit will see that, as a rule, the flowers were only photographed when they were in full bloom. Dr. Bracker’s orchid photographs have been on exhibit in Hawaii, Massachusetts, and various other places in the past.

For more information on the exhibit, contact Lajmar D. Anderson, Archives and Special Collections Supervisor, LDAnderson@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Collaborative Exhibit at Bracken Library Focuses on History of Printed Word

The Ball State University Libraries and the Department of Art’s Visual Communications Program are jointly participating in a collaborative exhibit. Called Archetype: The Social Revolution of Writing, the exhibit runs through April 30, 2008.

Encompassing two floors at Bracken Library, the exhibit includes unique items from the Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections and artwork created by students under the guidance of Prof. Christine L. Satory. Student Casara K. Heaton helped to develop the concept of the exhibition and designed all of the print material.

“This is an example of an immersive learning experience as Casara was a full collaborator during the course of two semesters,” said Prof. Satory.

Students in Prof. Satory’s class created several multi-media works of art for the exhibit, which help to explore the various ways people have historically used symbols, typography, and the visual arts to communicate.

The University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections included illuminated manuscripts, a page from the Gutenberg Bible, a double fore-edge painted book, an illustration by Salvador Dali from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, a chained lectern book from 1506, chapbooks, and hornbooks. Other popular items include an antique typewriter and an early Macintosh computer (circa 1987) complete with a small screen, printer, and mouse.

The Friends of the Alexander M. Bracken Library sponsored an evening program on March 18, 2008, to support the exhibit. Prof. Christine L. Satory and Philip J. Deloria, Archivist for Digital Projects and University Records, discussed the history and development of the printed word from cave paintings through the alphabets and the Gutenberg Press to the invention of the personal computer and the World Wide Web.

Prof. Satory and Philip discussed communication’s role as “… the glue that holds society together” and the disruptive nature of new communication technologies. They believe that people are becoming more visually oriented and less textually oriented.

The exhibit can be seen on Bracken Library’s first floor east and in wall display cases next to the Archives and Special Collections area on the second floor.

Ball State University Libraries Collaborate on Immersive Learning Educational Experience for Students

The development of University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections as a teaching archive continues to expand, providing a new partnership opportunity for an immersive learning experience for 24 students from the Teachers College.

Archives’ personnel are working with Dr. Mark Malaby, Dr. Jon M. Clausen, and graduate student Mr. Chia-Kun Lee on a new and exciting way to prepare pre-service teachers to enter the profession with a broader understanding of factors that affect schools, teachers, and students.

Students in the Educational Foundations 420 class being taught by Professors Malaby and Clausen, and Mr. Lee are taking part in this new immersive concept for the course during the first summer session. The professors intend to continue the concept with two more sections in the fall.

Learning Objectives Involve Muncie’s Community Schools
In addition to Archives and Special Collections, the Center for Middletown Studies and the Muncie Community School system are partners in the endeavor. Dr. Marlin B. Creasy, Superintendent of Muncie Community Schools, and the assistant superintendents for instruction and elementary education are enthusiastic in their support of the project. Data from the research conducted by the students will be used for staff training, to satisfy certain requirements of the No Child Left Behind program, and to recruit teachers.
The goals established by the professors for the class are
· To help understand the social, historical, and philosophical perspectives of people who live and work within the Muncie Community School district
· To provide students an immersive experience, offering a model for actions they should take into their future teaching communities
· To increase teacher education students’ understanding of the potential for meaningful teaching and community engagement
· To inspire more Ball State University students to apply for jobs within the Muncie Community School district
· To model and use technology effectively in both the teaching of the course and the artifacts developed by the students

The school chosen for the summer class is Garfield Elementary School. Course activities include researching materials in the Archives and Special Collections to understand ways in which the neighborhood and school district has been constructed, a school tour, interviews with school personnel and community members, exploring the neighborhood, and guest speakers including the Director of the Center for Middletown Studies and the Director for the Archives and Special Collections.

Students Using Digital Resources as Part of Learning
The students are utilizing digital resources from the Ball State University Digital Media Repository, a project of the University Libraries, http://libx.bsu.edu. They are producing digital stories about the school and neighborhood and creating a multimedia artifact that will incorporate archival data, photographs, audio, interview data, and secondary textual sources.

“The oral histories, photographs, and other digital materials generated by the class will be made available in the Digital Media Repository, a project of the University Libraries,” said Dr. Arthur W. Hafner, Dean of University Libraries. “Providing access to these types of resources is an important role for the University Libraries for facilitating and strengthening new developments in teaching and learning at Ball State University.”

In addition to interacting with Archives and Special Collections personnel and using archival and digital resources, the students are able to take advantage of many other services and resources of the University Libraries to make their projects successful. These include
· Geospatial Resources and Map Collection personnel who are helping them with neighborhood information and mapping
· Library Information Technology Services personnel who are providing students with access to external hard drives and server space for working on their projects
· Metadata and Data Initiatives personnel who provided forms for compiling metadata so that the student products will be searchable in the Digital Media Repository

The role of the Archives and Special Collections and other units of the University Libraries in this innovative, immersive class is an example of a holistic approach to the educational experience, where the convergence of the traditional archives, the teaching archives, and the digital archives is a key element.

Dr. Malaby and Dr. Clausen are to be applauded for their vision in providing this experience to their students. Archives and Special Collections and the University Libraries are pleased to be a part of the experience.

A Vision for the Archives' Role in the Digital World

The students, faculty, and researchers who make up the customer base for academic libraries and archives are increasingly expecting more innovative and value-added services. Inspired by technological advances, they want flexibility, decentralized access, and a convergence of print and digital media to address their research needs.

As the demand grows for better and quicker access via the Internet to unique resources found in archival repositories, archivists with the skills and vision to prepare and make the rich resources of their collections available in digital format are at the forefront of a new professional frontier. The development of the digital archivist is driven by customer expectations and the emerging role of the archives in fulfillment of those expectations.

As archives and special collections continue to be a primary source for research materials to digitize that may generally be made available without worry of copyright infractions, the archival repository will increasingly play a pivotal role in the digital revolution.

At the same time that focus expands from curating paper-based materials to migrating those materials to digital form for increased accessibility, archivists are also concerned with the challenge of preserving and making available the vast universe of “born digital” assets. The creation of large data sets in “real-time” collections presents unique issues for archivists.

All of these challenges and opportunities create a need for forward-thinking professionals with new approaches to the field of archival science. Research shows that the role of the digital professional requires new competencies and skills beyond traditional training. Today’s digital archivist must combine the knowledge of traditional archival practices with expanded technological skills to achieve the vision of the archives as a place where print and digital media successfully converge to meet research needs.

Youngok Choi, Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science at Catholic University of America, and Edie Rasmussen, Professor and Director of the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia, addressed the need for these new professionals based on a survey that they recently conducted of current digital professionals in U. S. academic libraries.

Among several findings, Choi and Rasmussen concluded that the constantly changing digital environment necessitates that digital librarians and archivists “must be able to adapt to change and continue to learn” and that more professionals educated in the area of digital libraries and archives will be required as institutions are digitally transformed. (D-Lib Magazine, September 2006).

As priorities shift due to digital advancements, new dimensions are being added to the archival and library professions. Archivists and librarians face the challenge of acquiring the necessary skills to both strengthen their traditional roles and quickly acclimate to a dynamic and transformative new environment.

A visitor to the Ball State University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections will quickly see how the unit’s personnel are adapting to this dynamic digital environment and are embracing a new vision of our role as digital archivists. As the scanners move across the printed page or photograph, the digital projector illuminates the image of a rare document for a class of students, and the archivists create multiple Web pages of finding aids and online exhibits, the advent of the digital archivist and the progression towards the digital archives vision is evident in this archival repository.

Welcome to the home of special collections AND digital projects, a convergence that will produce new and exciting resources for generations of students and researchers.

For more information, contact John B. Straw, Ball State University Libraries’ Director for Archives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5078.

This newsletter article first appeared in The Library Insider 5(4): 6; April 2007.

Discovering Family Picture in Ball State University Libraries' Archives

Who would have guessed that a routine trip to the periodicals section on Bracken Library’s second floor would result in me discovering a 1958 photograph of my Dad in an Archives’ exhibit?

Last Fall Semester 2006, the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections Research Center displayed a special exhibit, Once There Was a Union Town: A History of Organized Labor in Muncie. As I began walking back to my office, the exhibit caught my eye, and I stopped to look at the photographs and read some of the commentary.

To my surprise, there was a photograph of officers and executive board members from Local 247 United Rubber Workers Union, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Even more surprising was that I saw my Dad, Glynson W. Story, in the photograph!

I was happily surprised, to say the least. Being raised in a hard working, blue-collar family, I always knew my parents appreciated the value of labor unions, yet I had no idea my Dad served in a union leadership role as a member of the executive board, nor had I ever seen this photograph. It turns out that the photograph had appeared in the 1958 Labor Directory and Buyer’s Guide, compiled by the Delaware County Industrial Union Council C.I.O.

Dad came to Muncie, Indiana, after World War II, along with many other Kentucky and Tennessee residents who were seeking better employment. His first job was in Muncie, with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which was located on West 23rd Street, where he worked in the 1950s and 1960s. The local plant manufactured tread for military vehicles. Although I was thrilled and proud that my Dad was part of this exhibit, I felt sad because he passed away (at age 82) only two months earlier. I regret that I could not share this special experience with him.

I brought Mom and my sister to see the exhibit. Mom recognized many of the other people in the photograph because she had been a Goodyear employee, too, and that is where she met Dad. I am grateful that I learned something new about him and am proud to add a copy of this photograph to my collection.

The serendipity of finding this photograph reminds me that libraries serve as valuable educational resources for research and learning in the university community and for members of the community at large, as well. They offer helpful librarians, a variety of spaces for collaboration and individual study, access to print and digital collections, and wonderful programs such as exhibits, lectures, and special events. All of these provide learning and discovery opportunities and ways to connect with persons from all walks of life.

For information, contact Teresa L. Story, Collections Development Assistant, TStory@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5444.

This newsletter article first appeared in The Library Insider 5(3): 6; March 2007.