The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Author: Bart Everts

  • Special Collections and Digital History Class Collaboration in Camden

    Image on left shows a person photographing a rolled up red blanket with a Rutgers Camden logo printed on it. Image on the right shows a room full of people seated at tables, working.
    Digital history students worked in groups to digitize and create web content featuring items from Special Collections at Robeson Library.

     

    Special Collections and Digital History Class Collaboration in Camden

    Over the Spring Semester, Special Collections at Robeson Library hosted Jesse Bayker’s digital history class as part of their class project commemorating Rutgers University–Camden’s centennial. Robeson librarian Bart Everts met with Bayker during the fall semester to plan how students might interpret the history of Rutgers–Camden and the region through items in the collection. When the class began in January, Everts provided an orientation including a history of the campus, best practices for handling archival items, and access and publication guidelines and restrictions.

    The students worked in groups, consulting with Everts to find items that best fit their area of focus, including Queer history, athletics, Black and Latinx activism, the Bancroft School, and campus publications. They then worked to digitize the items, create metadata, describe and interpret their selections, and ultimately host them on the course website with a finding aid. The class presented their project to history and library faculty at the end of the semester. Feedback from both students and faculty bodes well for further collaboration between Special Collections at Robeson Library and the Department of History. You can view the students’ work on the Digital Camden Archive.

  • Turning the Page: Special Collections at Robeson Library

    Nesting dolls made to look like the Rutgers Scarlet Raptors mascot
    These Scarlet Raptors nesting dolls are part of the Special Collections at Robeson Library.

    After nearly 30 years, Julie Still retired from her role as a history liaison and special collections librarian. Following her retirement, I became the acting Paul Robeson Library liaison for history, world languages, and special collections. I am very excited to take on this role, and I am particularly looking forward to the work ahead in Robeson Special Collections as Rutgers University–Camden celebrates its centennial in 2026. Moreover, as an alum of the undergraduate history program (not quite a century ago!) I have both a personal and professional connection to Rutgers history.  

    The special collections housed at Robeson Library fall into three broad categories: ephemera and realia from campus history, campus publications, and collections from the Camden and South Jersey communities, including two haiku-related collections (Nick Virgilio Haiku Archive and the Pamela Miller Ness Fine Arts Haiku Collection). Since the campus was founded in 1926, we’ve had a number of student-produced newspapers, literary journals, and pamphlets, and the student newspapers are among my favorite items in the collection. These publications are a great primary source for campus history but also give insight into how the campus community responded to world events, including the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. On a lighter note, I often find myself reading the features sections to see what music and movies were popular with students during a particular era.  

    Building on Julie’s work, I plan to use my time in this role to promote the collection to Rutgers–Camden and beyond. With that goal in mind, Robeson Library is participating in Archives Month Philly, an annual event showcasing collections from throughout Greater Philadelphia. I saw this as an opportunity to create a small exhibit featuring highlights from the past century to share beyond the Rutgers community.  

    As part of the Distinctive Collections team, I enjoy our discussions on special collections policy and challenges, as well as the opportunity to promote our collection beyond Rutgers–Camden in the context of One Libraries. I hope to move forward with some of the digitization projects in the works, including making the campus newspaper The Gleaner and our theater bills available online. I also plan to work on collections guidelines for Camden. Of course, I look forward to collaborating with the Research Support Services team, and with my fellow liaisons and Rutgers faculty members in history and world languages.   

  • Robeson Library Hosts Events for International Education Week

    Game and Puzzle Night at Robeson Library.

    Robeson Library hosted two events for Rutgers–Camden’s International Education Week (November 14–18). On Tuesday, November 15, the Global Studies Department held an International Quizzo game. On Wednesday, November 16, Robeson’s Bart Everts and Edward Robinson facilitated a Game and Puzzle Night which brought together Rutgers and Camden County College students for a night of classic board games, puzzles, food, and friendship. Click this link to view more photos.

    As part of a long-standing agreement, Robeson Library serves as the research library for the Camden campuses of Camden County College and Rowan University.

  • Recapping Summer SAPAC

    In a year of many firsts, this summer saw RUL’s first Summer SAPAC talk series. After a discussion in the Spring Central Forum, SAPAC co-chairs Janet Croft and Bart Everts decided to send out a call for summer talks. SAPAC talks are a way for library faculty and staff to discuss research, programming, innovations, and more with a friendly audience of colleagues, and Summer SAPAC turnout was high. Bart Everts from the Robeson Library hosted the talks.

    6/9: A Modest Proposal: Trusted Pick-Up Points for Interlibrary Loan for Distant Users
    Janet Brennan Croft

    6/23 An Environmental Scan of Artists’ Book Collections: An Ontology for Visualization
    Sonia Yaco

    7/22 Digital Badging
    Grace Agnew, Mei Ling Lo, Ryan Womack

    8/11 The Library Freedom Institute: Becoming a Privacy Advocate
    Katie Anderson

    8/14 Closing the Transactional Distance in an Online Graduate Course through the Practice of Embedded Librarianship
    Leslin H. Charles

    8/18 “Agitation of the Question”: James McCune Smith’s Nomination for Fellowship to the New York Academy of Medicine, 1847
    Robert Vietrogoski

    8/25 From Digital to Computational: The Current and Near-Future State of Technology and Data Storage and How We Manage our Virtual Lives
    Isaiah Beard