Area Studies, Digital Humanities, Digital Scholarship, Global Studies, Humanities & Liberal Arts, Open Access, Read Hot and Digitized, Uncategorized

Read Hot and Digitized: Mapping the Movimiento: Revealing Layers of City History

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Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.

Cities have layers of history, of memory, constantly evolving, with new layers settling over old ones. While “the city’s name may remain the same, its physical expression is always in the process of transformation, deformation, or is forgotten and modified to suit other needs or destroyed for other purposes”[1]. The city that someone knew ten years ago is not the version of the city that I see now. However, memories have a way of sticking, remaining “deeply intertwined with the physical and social fabric of cities”[2]. Stories occupy the abandoned buildings we pass by on our walks, the apartments that our friends live in, the streets we drive through on our commute, whether we’re aware of them or not.

Title page of the Mapping the Movimineto ARCGIS StoryMap.

The University of San Antonio Libraries’ project, Mapping the Movimiento, reveals a layer of San Antonio’s history during the Mexican American Civil Rights movement in the ’60s and ’70s, by mapping and contextualizing 15 significant places for activists. Though these places are known within the community, this project ensures that the history lived in these buildings is relived and remembered through an ArcGIS StoryMap. This tool combines geographic information systems (GIS) with multimedia elements to create a digital storytelling medium. It hosts built-in mapping capabilities, but also allows users to upload maps from other sources. Users then bring the map to life by uploading videos, images, information, and whatever else helps contextualize significant places. This creates a simple yet effective multimedia map, which works well for public history projects such as this one.

Map view of the significant spots identified in the project.

As one scrolls through the StoryMap, this layer of San Antonio history comes alive. While the map of the city that they show is a modern one, the archival pictures that accompany each slide superimpose the past onto these places. The beauty of this project is that it achieves coexistence of the past and the present, not relegating these stories as bound for dusty archives and textbooks (though I quite enjoy a dusty archive). They stretch this history to the present, making us reckon with what is hiding beneath the buildings we think we know.

One such example is the Munguía Printers – a printshop owned by José Rómulo Munguía and Carolina Malpica de Munguía. They printed Chicano newsletters that no one else would, and their shop became an important meeting spot for activists. It stopped operations in the early 2000s, though their influence remains strong in San Antonio. Today, the building is an office and workspace, renovated by Rómulo’s grandson. He built upon the legacy of his grandfather, adding a layer to the building’s history and significance.

Munguía Printers slide.

The StoryMap is narrated by John Philips Santos, adding an almost casual air to the project, as if there was someone in the car telling you about a building you’re driving past, and bringing memories out of hiding. Archival images cycle through as he narrates – the building itself, people protesting, newspapers – adding visual context of how people inhabited these places. Through these pictures, we not only get to know the building, but also see and imagine the liveliness within them.

This project brings together history, memory, and archives to make an accessible public history project, letting viewers explore San Antonio’s intertwined history, told with the help of archivists, librarians, and activists. Though many of the buildings are well known, this project dissects and shows the history cemented by those who came before us, who walked those streets before we did. It encourages us to inquire what is within those buildings we pass on our way to work, to pay more attention, and perhaps to visit our archives to remember, rediscover, and reconstruct versions of our cities that we may not have known before.

Related material in UTL collections:

Barrera, Baldemar James. “We Want Better Education!” : The 1960s Chicano Student Movement, School Walkouts, and the Quest for Educational Reform in South Texas / James B. Barrera. First edition., Texas A&M University Press, 2024.

Economy Furniture Company Strike Collection, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

García, Mario T., and Ellen McCracken, editors. Rewriting the Chicano Movement : New Histories of Mexican American Activism in the Civil Rights Era / Edited by Mario T. García and Ellen McCracken. The University of Arizona Press, 2021.

Orozco, Cynthia. Agent of Change : Adela Sloss-Vento, Mexican American Civil Rights Activist and Texas Feminist / Cynthia E. Orozco. University of Texas Press, 2020, https://doi.org/10.7560/319864.

Rómulo Munguía Papers, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

[1] Azadeh Lak and Pantea Hakimian, “Collective Memory and Urban Regeneration in Urban Spaces: Reproducing Memories in Baharestan Square, City of Tehran, Iran,” City, Culture and Society 18 (September 2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2019.100290.

[2] Cristian Olmos Herrera et al., “Mapas Parlantes: Collective Visual Methods to Map and Re−/Construct Urban Memories,” Community Development Journal, November 13, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsaf030.

Area Studies, Global Studies, Open Access, Read Hot and Digitized

Read, Hot and Digitized: The Open Siddur Project: A Gateway to Open-Source Judaism

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Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.

A siddur (pl. Siddurim) is a Jewish prayer book containing the order of daily, Shabbat (the Sabbath), and holiday services. The word siddur means ‘arrangement,’ or ‘putting things in order’ in Hebrew, and the siddur provides a structured liturgy that includes prayers, blessings, and scriptural verses. These books are used in both synagogues and private homes and vary among different Jewish communities and denominations. They are often available both in Hebrew and in translation to the language of the local community where they are being used.

The Open Siddur Project is a “volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis (without cost) and libré (without restriction) Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed.”[1] It provides a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook with content that pertains to their own life cycle.

Aharon Varady, a community planner and Jewish educator who founded the project in 2002 and directs it to this day, is a key figure in open-source Judaism, an initiative that uses open-source principles to create and share Jewish cultural and liturgical works. He believes that “the commodification of prayer texts, historical or contemporary, is anathema to Jewish spiritual practice.” Asserting that “the underlying unformatted text of a liturgical reading or prayer … must remain accessible for redistribution and adaptive reuse,” the project’s values are aligned with the definition of open content and open data maintained by the Open Knowledge Foundation, the definition of open-source maintained by the Open Source Initiative, and the four values of libre/free culture.[2]

Image 1: view of main categories and upcoming festivals, feast & fasts

The Open Siddur Project’s main page includes six sections, through which various prayers and related content could be discovered. The Project’s activity ‘heatmap’ displays a calendrical grid of resources published by the project over the course of each year since inauguration, alongside a display of recent contributors. The next section includes recently added prayers and related content (e.g., “Thanksgiving to the Almighty for the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Empress Victoria, by Joseph Ezekiel Rajpurkar at Gates of Mercy Synagogue, Bombay (20 June 1897)). Additional sections on the main page present selected sub-categories and calendars.

The database itself is organized around four main categories: Prayers & Praxes; Liturgical Readings, Sources, and Cantillation; Compiled Prayer Books; and Miscellanea — each of which has its own sub-categories. For example, under Prayers & Praxes, one can find prayers for after “Earthquakes & Tsunamis,” or prayers “composed for, or relevant to, conflicts over sovereignty and dispossession.” Additional sub-categories include “Commemorative Festivals & Fasts” (e.g., Hannukah), as well as “civil days on civil calendars;” e.g., Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20th), Human Rights Day (December 10th), and even one prayer for May the Fourth, “marking the success of the Rebel Alliance in defeating the Galactic Empire.”

Image 2: The Jewish Prayer of the Dead, adapted for commemorating victims of lethal hate-crimes against Transgender people. This version was originally written for Queer Jews at Brandeis’s Transgender Day of Remembrance Services on 20 November 2024.

Additional points of discovery and access are available by clicking on the top right search button. There are indices of languages & scripts, and authors & contributors, as well as categories index and various how-to guides. 

The whole project is backed up and downloadable on GitHub. Unsurprisingly for an open access project, the default license under which all content is shared online is the Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International license. A such, content could be shared through email and a few social media platforms.

The Open Siddur Project is used by students studying private and communal Jewish prayer in its literary and historical context, educators preparing curricular resources, authors of new prayers and liturgies, translators of prayers new and old, transcribers of digital text from printed and handwritten works, and ultimately, living practitioners actively producing new prayerbooks for their communities.

Let us end this post with a Prayer for Librarians!

Siddurim and Jewish liturgy in UTL collections:

Katz, Ariana. 2024. For Times Such as These : A Radical’s Guide to the Jewish Year / Rabbi Ariana Katz & Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. E-Book.

Langer, Ruth. 2015. Jewish Liturgy : A Guide to Research / Ruth Langer. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. E-Book.

Salmon, Howard, and Benjamin Sharff. 2008. Comic Book Siddur : For Shabbat Morning Services / Howard Salmon, Artist & Interpreter ; Benjamin Sharff, Editor. Tucson, AZ: Howard Salmon.

[Siddur] Rabbinical Council of America. 2018. Sidur ʻAvodat Ha-Lev / Rabbi Basil Herring, Editor-in-Chief. New York, N.Y. : Rabbinical Council of America.

Siddur (Reform, Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism). 2020. Tefilat ha-Adam [Prayer of Humankind] : An Israeli Reform Siddur. Jerusalem : Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism.

Non-UT resources:

Open-Source Judaism (with Aharon Varady, founding director of The Open Siddur Project) [podcast, including full-text transcript] – The Light Lab, episode 60 (72 min.).

[1] https://opensiddur.org/

[2] The four values are: the freedom to use the work, the freedom to study the work and apply knowledge acquired from it, the freedom to make and redistribute copies of the information or expression, and the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works. See https://freedomdefined.org/Definition.

Digitization, Library Storage Facilities, Preservation, Staff, Stewardship

The Long View: Protecting the Past for the Future

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On its face, the University of Texas Libraries looks like any other modern academic library system: students queuing at printers, study groups in the Perry-Castañeda Library, books circulating in and out. But behind the scenes, in basements, labs and high-density storage facilities across Austin, a quieter scene plays out.

It’s the race against time.

Paper yellows, bindings crack, videotape degrades and digital files disappear from obsolete media. The very materials that help make The University of Texas at Austin a world-class research institution are fragile. Without constant care and attention, they could be lost.

The university’s institutional landscape of collections is exceptional: more than 170 million objects and specimens are distributed across some forty units, including rare books, geological cores, biological specimens, architectural drawings, sound recordings and more. These holdings sprawl across an entire campus ecosystem – original manuscripts, photographs and the Gutenberg Bible at the Ransom Center, modern art at the Blanton Museum, historical archives at the Briscoe Center, even geological cores and frozen genetic samples housed in scientific labs. Together, they rival the Smithsonian in size and diversity.

That scale is both a triumph and a challenge. Many of these materials are environmentally sensitive, and were never designed to last for centuries. Without deliberate preservation strategies, they will decay, fade or slip into obsolescence as new technologies supplant older ones.

The breadth of resources at the university is extraordinary, and it comes with daunting preservation needs. Each type of collection – artworks, specimens, maps, recordings – requires different expertise and different infrastructure to maintain.

Within this vast ecosystem of treasures, the University of Texas Libraries plays a critical role – stewarding the core scholarly resources that fuel teaching and research. With more than 10 million volumes, including special collections like the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection and the Alexander Architectural Archives, the Libraries form both a foundation and a showcase for the University’s research mission.

These collections are heavily used, widely accessed and globally significant. Their preservation is not optional – it is an imperative tied directly to the university’s role as a leading public research institution, and steward of public resources.

When students pick up a library book or access a digitized resource online, they rarely recognize the imperceptible scaffolding keeping that resource alive. But at the Libraries, preservation is not a luxury – it’s a fundamental responsibility and a central tenet of its mission. The Libraries’ holdings span not only traditional print, manuscript and audiovisual collections, but vast, heterogeneous, digitized and born-digital records that present new and unexpected challenges. The preservation of physical artifacts and the ongoing stewardship of digital materials must work in tandem if the university is to continue to thrive as a living archive.

In the Preservation and Digital Stewardship unit at the PCL, staff mend spines, stabilize brittle paper and digitize fragile items to reduce handling. Items requiring specialized treatment are routed through the Campus Conservation Initiative to conservators at the Ransom Center, where advanced equipment and techniques can extend their life. It’s a story of triage, teamwork and unseen craftsmanship.  If physical preservation is a battle with chemistry and physics, digital preservation is a battle with code. Files don’t yellow or fray; they disappear silently – lost to corrupted disks, unsupported formats or vanishing software.

The Libraries’ Preservation & Digital Stewardship unit is the frontline defense. Staff recover files from obsolete media like floppy disks and Zip drives, build redundant storage systems, and create metadata that ensures digital objects remain usable as technologies change. They work hand-in-hand with repositories like the Alexander Architectural Archives and the Benson Latin American Collection to integrate preservation practices into projects from day one.

“We allocate resources to preserve our collections, both physical and digital, so that they will remain accessible for researchers far into the future,” says Wendy Martin, Assistant Director of Stewardship.

“Our collections contain a wide variety of formats. We have a very long history of caring for the traditional analog materials found in libraries,” Martin explains. “It is important that we take the same care in ensuring that our digital collections will remain accessible for the long term, as well. The methods are different, but the principles are the same.”

In line with emerging best practices across research libraries, the Libraires also employs tools that identify preservation risks across massive digital collections. These allow staff to spot which file formats are endangered, which collections are most vulnerable, and where to intervene first. Preservation, in this new paradigm, is proactive, data-driven and strategic.

Scale compounds the challenge. Each year, the Libraries acquire tens of thousands of volumes – nearly a mile of shelf space annually. With no new stacks built on campus, UT relies on a high-density storage facility in North Austin – at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus – where low temperature and humidity conditions dramatically slow deterioration.

In those warehouse-like aisles of high shelving, preservation is less about heroics than about patience and planning. Proper conditions mean a book or box of negatives might be able to sit stable for decades (or even centuries) waiting for its moment of rediscovery.

“Harvard University built the first offsite high-density library storage facility in 1986, with materials shelved by size on densely-packed shelving, with low and stable temperature and relative humidity,” explains Martin. “The University Texas was an early adopter of this now prevalent model, building our first module in 1993. Preservation-quality storage of this type allows us to retain materials for the long term, while making space on our shelves for new acquisitions.”

The Libraries are currently in the completion phase of an expansion of the Pickle campus storage facility, expected to open in early 2026. The new unit is the third addition to the complex, and represents and evolutionary step in its overall development. The Collections Preservation and Research Complex will feature new new low-bay cool and cold environments ideal for materials like film, photographs, textiles, and artifacts, significantly benefitting partners like the Harry Ransom Center and the Briscoe Center for American History, along with specialized workspaces for conservation, digitization, and collection care, as well as a shared reading room that will allow researchers to consult materials directly at the CPRC, reducing turnaround times and minimizing transport risks for fragile items.

The preservation mission on campus isn’t happening in isolation. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), of which the Libraries is a member, has long declared preservation an “enduring responsibility” for research libraries. ARL emphasizes that enduring access to scholarship requires both strong local programs and cooperative efforts across institutions.

Reports like ARL’s New Roles for New Times argue that preservation today is not just about repair, but about digital curation – lifecycle planning, collaborative storage, metadata standards, and new skill sets for library staff. Other studies, such as Safeguarding Collections at the Dawn of the 21st Century, highlight the need for comprehensive strategies that integrate physical, digital, and legal aspects of preservation.

The Libraries’ work mirrors these evolving norms. Its blend of physical conservation, digital stewardship, climate-controlled storage and forward-looking policies places the Libraries squarely within the network of research libraries redefining preservation for the 21st century.

Ultimately, these preservation efforts are about more than keeping objects intact – they’re about maintaining continuity of knowledge. A fragile field recording of an Indigenous language, a digitized map of a vanished city, a frozen sample of an extinct amphibian – all are held not only for current scholars, but “in trust for future generations.”

That trust is both a privilege and a consequential responsibility. It requires resources, policy, collaboration and a relentless commitment to access. And it depends on the quiet, often hidden work of preservation staff whose labor sustains the university’s intellectual and cultural legacy.

Preservation is rarely glamorous. It doesn’t draw ribbon-cuttings or fill stadiums. Yet so many acts of discovery on the Forty Acres depend on it.

Whether it’s a historian uncovering an unpublished manuscript in an archive, or a student discovery of our prehistoric past in a collection of fossils, or a scientific analysis of geologic samples that reveals potential new energy resources, each discovery depends on the quiet, meticulous work of preserving and stewarding the university’s vast collections.

“Preservation at UT Libraries, is a vital thread in the fabric of the university’s mission,” explains Director of Discovery and Access Jennifer Lee. “We’re safeguarding the intellectual and cultural legacy that fuels discovery, learning and the pursuit of knowledge now and into the future.”

For the University of Texas Libraries, and for the broader community of research libraries, preservation is not an afterthought. It is the very heart of the mission: to ensure that the past remains as accessible, complete and meaningful as possible – for today, and for generations to come.

Area Studies, Distinctive Collections, Zines

From Counterculture to the Classroom

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A growing number of University of Texas faculty are turning to zines – self-published, often handmade works of art and expression – as a powerful tool for learning, collaboration, and research. Once viewed primarily as underground artifacts of DIY culture, zines have become a bridge between creative expression and academic inquiry, and the Libraries are helping to broaden their application in study and research.

Zines aren’t a new phenomenon – these self-published, staple-bound  booklets emerged in the 1930s as fan-productions (fanzines) and, in the 1960s and 70s, evolved into self-published outlets for activism, punk rock, feminism, and subcultural voices. In the last 20 years, libraries started collecting these ephemeral publications, finding them valuable to researchers and students.

Most of the zine collections are housed in the Fine Arts Library, the UT Poetry Center at the Perry-Castañeda Library and the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. Librarians at the Fine Arts Library identified zines as a strategic acquisition area in 2012 because of their crossover appeal in fine arts and communications study. This effort aligned with the existing materials from the Latin American and poetry collections, but librarians collected  those earlier zines as a matter of course rather than as a deliberate strategy. Zines are attractive as a collection development prospect – they are a generally a low-cost resource, often produced in limited runs and they exist in a variety of forms. And due to their low barrier to entry and DIY ethos, they have currency with a global audience of creators.

“Although many of the students we teach are unfamiliar with zines at first, they immediately gravitate towards this medium because of the collection’s creative and original content,” says Tina Tran, Liaison Librarian for Visual Arts. “With their daily lives becoming increasingly digital, these students find it refreshing to explore accessible, physical media that’s uninfluenced by algorithms and ads.”

Over the past few years, interest in the zine format has surged on campus. The Libraries’ zine holdings have inspired 46 workshops (and counting) during a relatively short amount of time, spanning 14 distinct course types across three colleges. The format’s accessibility, activism roots and personal voice make it a compelling vehicle for students to explore ideas and identities.

The workshops helped to introduce students to the history and practice of zine-making, rooted in movements for social change and self-empowerment, while also emphasizing their value as primary source materials for research. Sessions are tailored to individual courses and typically include an overview of zine culture, a hands-on tour of the collection and a collage-based creative activity that encourages students to engage directly with the medium.

These workshops not only teach students how to make zines but also how to analyze them – connecting artistic practice with academic rigor. Faculty have incorporated zines and zine-making as an alternative to traditional written assignments, encouraging group projects that blend scholarship and creativity. Use of the collection has increased in recent years, with roughly a quarter of all 800 cataloged zines being used in 2022 and 2024. Additionally, eight students have curated exhibits featuring zines since 2014, illustrating how the exposure to the collection is fueling independent scholarship.

“Professors are incorporating zines in the classroom, often as a creative assignment and alternative to the traditional research paper,” says Humanities Liaison Librarian Gina Baston. “Zines are a flexible medium – students can include writing with their own drawings or collaged images made from old magazines, and they are great for group projects, too.”

The Libraries’ zine collection features hundreds of titles covering topics as varied as individual identity, mental health, music, art, environmental justice and cultural heritage. Each zine provides a unique snapshot of lived experience, community knowledge or political activism – making the collection an invaluable resource for both creators and researchers.

The zine initiative also underscores the Libraries’ commitment to practical learning and research, creating a welcoming entry point into library spaces and collections. For many students, it’s their first introduction to archives, primary research or self-publishing – an experience that often sparks new creative or academic pursuits.

“While some students embrace the creative possibilities that come with zine-making, others are intimated. Many have never heard of zines, or they don’t consider themselves artistically talented,” says Bastone.

“It’s a remarkable moment to see a reluctant student find their creative spark after looking through our zine collection.”

The medium’s historic roots in empowerment and self-expression remain potent today.

Learn more about the Libraries’ Zine Collections at the LibGuide: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/zines

Development

Support Knowledge, Inspire Futures: Year-End Giving to UT Libraries

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As the calendar readies its turn toward a new year, it’s the perfect moment to reflect on the causes that inspire us—those that ignite curiosity, foster innovation, and unite communities. The University of Texas Libraries stand as a pillar of these values, shaping lives and driving academic excellence.

Your year-end gift to the Libraries is more than a donation; it’s a profound investment in education, discovery, and the transformative power of knowledge. Contributions help sustain vital resources, from state-of-the-art technology to groundbreaking collections, ensuring students and scholars can achieve their potential.

Why Give?
Giving is more than generosity; it’s about creating meaningful impact. A tax-deductible year-end gift to UT Libraries aligns your philanthropic vision with your financial goals while making a lasting difference.

This year we are thrilled to welcome Senior Vice Provost Robert McDonald to UT Libraries. His passion for innovation, student support, and accessibility is inspiring as we continue to grow and ensure that our libraries are critical resources for all our students. To welcome this new era of UT Libraries leadership, consider donating to the Libraries Tomorrow Fund.

A Legacy of Inspiration
The Tomorrow Fund provides crucial support for UT Libraries, from collection preservation to student programming. The fund is a necessary resource for both new initiatives and unexpected needs.

Your contribution to this fund ensures that Senior Vice Provost McDonald will have the support needed to sustain and UT Libraries, and meet the needs of our evolving student body and scholarly community. It has been said that the library is the soul of the university, and your gift will sustain UT Libraries tomorrow and for generations to come.

Be Part of Something Bigger
Join us in supporting a legacy of learning and discovery. Whether you’re reflecting on the libraries’ impact on your life or investing in a brighter future for others, your year-end gift can help UT Libraries thrive.

Visit the UT Libraries Giving Page to make your contribution today. Together, we can support UT Libraries now and in the future.

Area Studies, Read Hot and Digitized

Read, Hot and Digitized: The Clothes We Wear and the Stories Behind Them

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Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.

We Wear Culture was started in 2017 as a global initiative that brings together the stories of fashion evolution in one place. This digital project is a global initiative that brings thousands of stories together, delving into apparel that we wear now and how it relates to costume history, culture, and trends. It was produced by Google Arts & Culture in collaboration with existing digital and physical collections worldwide. “We Wear Culture” partners with more than 180 museums and similar institutions including prestigious names like The Kyoto Costume Institute and The MET. The research ranges from iconic pieces that have grown to wardrobe staples, such as Coco Chanel’s little black dress, or broad fashion movements, like the evolution of shoemaking as a craft.

A map depicting the locations of global collections in collaboration with “We Wear Culture”.

The digitized research contents of “We Wear Culture” are separated into four different themes:

  • The icons – The famous faces and designers that changed the way we dress
  • The movements – From the court at Versailles to the streets of Tokyo
  • The making of – The craft and stories behind what you wear
  • The arts (my personal favorite) – Fashion’s long-term relationship with the arts

The platform allows me to explore curated themes through a vibrant interface. Each theme acts as a gateway to a variety of resources—articles, videos, digital exhibits, and archival images—organized into subcategories that encourage engagement. The layout is designed to foster curiosity, with visuals and clear text that make navigation easy and discovery accessible.

For example, within the Fashion + Arts theme, the story “Journeys into Textile and Identity” offers a compelling look at South African contemporary artists (example demonstrated in the image above) who conceptualize works that marry their heritage with fashion materials. Their work draws on South African textiles and techniques, reinterpreting them in ways that portray a visual historical narrative, drawing on personal and collective experiences of the present and past.

At the very bottom of the main homepage is a section that has pre-made lesson plans, targeted towards teachers and parents of future fashionistas who may want to learn more information about the fashion industry, its history, and related heritage. These plans serve as open education resources and each individual lesson encourages students to immerse themselves in the subject and view design from different perspectives.

Whether you’re browsing for inspiration or conducting focused research, “We Wear Culture” makes it effortless to connect with stories that span creative visual disciplines, geographies, and generations.

Want to learn more about fashion in relation to art history or global studies? Check out these resources from the UT Libraries:

Bellet, A. (2024). New approaches to decolonizing fashion history and period styles : Re-fashioning pedagogies. (1st Ed.). Routledge.

Geczy, A. & Karaminas, V. (2021). Fashion and art. (1st Ed.). Berg.

Hill, C. (2021). Reinvention & restlessness : fashion in the nineties. Rizzoli Electa

Steele, V. (2023). Shoes A-Z : The collection of the museum at FIT. Taschen.

Way, E. (2024). Africa’s fashion diaspora. Yale University Press.

Collections, Collections Portal, Discovery and Access

Unified Search Brings Cultural Collections Together

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After five years of collaboration across campus, the University of Texas Libraries along with partners at the Harry Ransom Center and Blanton Museum of Art unveiled a new way to explore the university’s world-renowned cultural and research collections in one place. The Campus Collections search interface – accessible through the Libraries catalog – connects users with digitized materials from the Libraries, Harry Ransom Center and the Blanton Museum of Art.

The new service is part of a Mellon Foundation–funded project (2020–2025) to create a unified discovery platform for the university’s arts and cultural heritage holdings. While each partner institution continues to manage its own digital collections, the new interface allows researchers, students and the public to search across all three collections simultaneously – a first for the university.

The grant project team consisted of several Libraries staff across the organization, including Aaron Choate, Wendy Martin, Mirko Hanke, Devon Murphy, Melanie Cofield, Alisha Quagliana, Mandy Ryan, and Dustin Slater. As members of the Access Systems unit – which manages the Alma/Primo library services platform powering the Libraries’ catalog and discovery environment – Cofield and Quagliana collaborated closely with Metadata Analyst Devon Murphy and colleagues at the Blanton Museum and Ransom Center. Together, they worked to align descriptive standards and ensure system compatibility across institutions.

The service relies on the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to synchronize records across systems, setting a baseline for shared metadata that includes titles, rights statements, identifiers and thumbnail links. The project’s success now positions the project partners to share their records more broadly through other aggregation platforms like TxHUB, operated by the Texas Digital Library.

Very few institutions have used the library catalog’s capacity to harvest metadata through OAI-PMH,” said Metadata Analyst Devon Murphy. “We really forged a new path to broaden the scope of discovery and access for our users.”

The Campus Collections search builds on the Libraries’ ongoing work to integrate more of the university’s digital assets into its discovery environment. Since launching Alma/Primo in 2020, the Libraries have harvested metadata from the Texas ScholarWorks institutional repository and the Libraries Collections Portal. These integrations allow users to find open-access research, digitized archives, maps, audio and video alongside traditional catalog materials.

The Access Systems team also oversees Alma Digital, a companion service used to manage licensed and restricted digital content such as streaming media and digital scores. Together, these tools create a more cohesive and accessible digital ecosystem for the university community.

The Campus Collections interface is now available for public use at search.lib.utexas.edu.

Open Access, Texas ScholarWorks

Who Owns Our Knowledge? Open Access Week 2025

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Each year during International Open Access Week, the University of Texas Libraries joins a global conversation about the equitable sharing of knowledge. This year’s theme – Who Owns Our Knowledge? –  challenged us to consider how scholarship is created, shared, and sustained in the public interest.

Through Texas ScholarWorks, the Libraries amplifies the ideas of our campus community by providing open, long-term access to the research and creative works that shape our world. The digital repository showcases the vast and varied knowledge produced across the Forty Acres – from innovative language education to community-based research.

Among the open access collections available through the repository that we highlighted during this year’s recognition:

Hindi Urdu for Health: Language for Health
Developed for the healthcare profession, this project expands communication and cultural understanding through Hindi-Urdu language learning. Designed for advanced learners and professionals, it offers materials that bridge linguistic skills with real-world applications in medicine.

Latino Research Institute
Supporting interdisciplinary study of Latino populations in Texas and beyond, the Institute’s archive provides an invaluable resource for scholars, policymakers, and community advocates working to improve the lives of Latino communities across the U.S.

John L. Warfield Center for African & African American Studies
A hub for activist scholarship, the Warfield Center advances critical race theory, Black feminism, and creative expression. Its digital collections reflect a commitment to civic engagement, cultural production, and the global study of Black life.

National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes
Federally funded to close gaps in education and employment for deaf people, the National Deaf Center provides open, evidence-based strategies to improve accessibility and opportunity across communities.

Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS)
A cornerstone of Latin American scholarship since 1940, LLILAS connects disciplines and nations. Its repository collections include conference proceedings, scholarly publications, and papers that advance understanding of Latin America’s cultures and histories.

As we reflect on who owns – and who benefits from – our collective knowledge, Texas ScholarWorks stands as a testament to the power of open access to break barriers, foster collaboration, and make scholarship truly public.

Global Studies, Read Hot and Digitized

Read, Hot and Digitized: Forms & Function – The Splendors of Global Book Making

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Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.

On September 10, Princeton University Library unveiled a new digital and physical exhibition, titled “Forms and Function: The Splendors of Global Book Making.” The exhibition is a feast to anyone interested in book history, and especially those who want to learn about how the formats of a “book” varied through time and space. It is also a rare opportunity for the public to view some of the least known hidden gems in Princeton’s collections.

The exhibition includes manuscripts and printed books from Western, Islamic, East, South and Southeast Asian, and Mesoamerican cultures. There are seventy-four items on digital display, and they represent many materials for book making that may not be familiar to a contemporary and Western audience, including bark, textiles, shell, lacquer, and copper. The earliest produced book on display is an Egyptian clay cylinder from the 6th century BCE, while the latest is an Indian artistic book made with copper plates from 2020.

Three “traditions” of book formats are featured in the exhibition: the codex tradition, the East Asian tradition, and the pothī tradition.

The codices, defined in the exhibition as “single- or multi-gatherings of sheets folded inside each other, with texts on both sides, sewn together, and usually attached onto covers,” gradually replaced scrolls, and became the preferred format for early Christianity but later spread to Central and South Asia and was also adopted by Islamic and Hindu traditions. The exhibit includes an extremely rare early Coptic manuscript of Gospel of St. Matthew, and a palimpsest parchment on which the text was once erased to allow reuse.

Figure 1: Georgian palimpsest

Also included is a Chinese edition of  Missale Romanvm  produced by the Jesuits in 1670 which was printed with woodblock but bound in a European codex format.

The East Asian tradition, which included the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures, demonstrates a wide range of mediums and materials to produce reading materials and extensive influence into other Eurasia regions. Among the bamboo slips and Dunhuang scrolls is an inner garment with over 700 “eight-legged” exemplary exam essays written on it, totaling more than half a million miniature characters.  

Figure 2. Pulinsidun daxue baguwen sichou chenyi

Another rare item on display is a reproduction of ink rubbings that the late-Qing statesman, Duanfang (端方, 1861–1911), made from Egyptian and Greek objects during his diplomatic missions in the early 1900s.  

Figure 3. Aiji wuqiannian guke

The pothī tradition, heavily influenced by the palm leaf, one of the earliest materials in the region used for writing texts, is no less diverse in terms of materials and formats that supported the texts. The exhibition features an earliest example of paper making from Nepal (1140), on which the popular Pañcarakṣā sūtra (Sūtra of the five protectresses) is written.  

Figure 4. Pañcarakșā sutra (Sutra of the five protectresses)

Coming after the palm leaves, later materials, such as birch bark, gold, and paper, mimicked its progenitor’s shape. The loose pages were usually stacked to make a bundle. With Brahmanism and Buddhism, the format spread across South and Southeast Asia and reached the Mongols and Manchus through Tibet.  

Figure 5. Coqbbertv (The emergence and migration of humankind)

Here is an example of a relatively understudied Dongba manuscript from the Naxi people, an ethnic minority living in China’s Yunnan province.

Beyond the main three themes, the exhibition also showcases some formats that different traditions share: single-sheet, scrolls, and accordion style. One of the highlights from this section is one of the earliest printed texts in the world, the Hyakumantō darani  from Nara-era Japan. 

Figure 6. Hyakumantō darani (A dhāraņī from inside a one-million-pagoda)

The work was commissioned by the court in 764. Printed Buddhist spells were inserted into mini pagodas. These short texts, also known as “mantras,” are verbal formulas and chants for various spiritual purposes. Currently, “tens of thousands of the pagodas and several thousand printed spells still exist.”

Last but not least, the exhibit shines light on even more materials that were used to serve as the media for texts. The hard surfaces of stone, metal, and bones were widely used across the globe. For example, a conch shell with Maya glyphs is on display in this section.

Figure 7. 1 Ajaw 3 Chakat (17 March, 761 CE)

The exhibition was curated by Dr. Martin Heijidra, Director of the East Asian Library at Princeton. The online version includes an interactive timeline and map, where viewers can click on the numbered titles of the items to go to their catalogue records, which has a brief but detailed description of the item and additional readings about the research on each of the items

Figure 8. A section of the interactive map

Online viewers can also download the PDF files of the accompanied catalogue and exhibition brochure. The digital exhibition not only provides an alternative for those who cannot see it in person, but it also gives it another form of life that will extend after the exhibition hall welcomes another array of objects.

Reference:

Martin Heijidra, curator (2025), Forms & Function: The Splendors of Global Book Making https://dpul.princeton.edu/global-book-forms

Tian, Tian. “Duanfang’s Egyptian Rubbings: The First Egyptian Collection in Late Imperial China.” Antiquity 99, no. 406 (2025): 1129–42. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.10098.

Galambos, Imre. “The Chinese Pothi: A Missing Link in the History of the Chinese Book.” The Medieval History Journal 27, no. 1 (2024): 152–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/09719458241231669.

McDermott, Joseph Peter. A Social History of the Chinese Book: Books and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China. Hong Kong University Press, 2006.

Kornicki, Peter F. The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century. Brill, 1998.

Roper, Geoffrey. The History of the Book in the Middle East. Ashgate, 2013.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Area Studies, Collections, Digital Humanities, Digital Scholarship, Global Studies, Humanities & Liberal Arts, Uncategorized

Down and Out in Lisbon and London: Antiquarian Books and Digital Humanities in Europe

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Thanks to the generous support of the Center for European Studies and the UT Libraries, I was recently able to travel to London, England and Lisbon, Portugal.  On my trip, I had the chance to attend a scholarly conference, acquire unique materials to add to UTL’s collections, network with academics, vendors, and librarians, and purchase books for the UT Libraries’ collections.

A street in London lined with bookstores containing antiquarian and rare books.
A street in London lined with bookstores containing antiquarian and rare books.

My time in London was an invaluable opportunity to build stronger connections with an international cohort of colleagues. For example, I met with one of the UT Libraries’ vendors who I work with to procure rare materials on early twentieth century European politics. The vendor I met with, Carl Slienger, frequently supplies us with items not held by any other North American libraries, making the materials he sources very important for our distinctive holdings of pamphlets and other propagandistic literature, as well as antiquarian books that enhance our holdings of rare and unique European occult and spiritualist materials. I also met with a colleague at the British Library to discuss coding workflows and best practices for working with digital materials. Meeting with my colleague at the British Library was likewise very beneficial, as much of my work involving digital methodologies is focused on programming in Python and other languages, and I am currently supervising a project focused on using Python to automate digital archival workflows.

Ian standing outside of the British Library.
Ian outside of the British Library.

In Lisbon, I attended and presented at the The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) Digital Humanities 2025 conference.  My poster presentation focused on software packages I have written  in the Rust programming language to support multilingual computational approaches to linguistics and digital humanities. My poster highlighted three software packages: a package for performing lemmatization, a key natural language processing task, on text; a package for assessing the readability of a text containing a variety of algorithms to choose from; and a package to perform stylometric analysis on text. They were all built with multilingual support in mind, and as such are specifically designed to move outside of an Anglocentric paradigm often found in technologies for natural language processing and textual analysis, creating new opportunities for multilingual and non-English textual analysis and digital humanities. Beyond my own presentation, I was able to  attend talks on other digital research methodologies throughout the conference. Being able to attend talks by colleagues from all around the globe was both invigorating and rewarding, and an invaluable way to stay on top of the current research being done in the digital humanities. I also took the opportunity to acquire a small amount of zines while in Lisbon, adding to our collection of unique materials that we would not be able to purchase without undergoing a foreign acquisitions trip.

The poster session area at the DH 2025 conference in Lisbon.
The poster session area at the DH 2025 conference in Lisbon.

This trip allowed me the opportunity to represent UT Austin internationally to a diverse group of colleagues, and I’m grateful that I was able to serve the Libraries in such a capacity. I look forward to building on our distinctive holdings and further expanding UT’s collections while continuing to work on using digital methodologies to enhance accessibility for research and open source software.

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