FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                          June 20, 2006

NORTHWESTERN LIBRARY STAFF ATTENDS CENTENNIAL WORKSHOP

Verna Graybill, government documents librarian at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, was chair of an Oklahoma Library Association workshop held at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City. The theme of the workshop, which was the end product of a year’s planning, was “Dirt, Dust & Digital: Government Resources Can Help You ‘Kick Up’ Your Oklahoma Centennial Activities.” 

Members of the Northwestern Oklahoma State University library staff—(from left) Marilyn Moore, Enid campus librarian; Susan Jeffries, director of libraries; and Verna Graybill, government documents librarian, recently attended an Oklahoma Library Association workshop at the Oklahoma History Center. Graybill chaired the event titled “Dirt, Dust & Digital: Government Resources Can Help You ‘Kick Up’ Your Oklahoma Centennial Activities.”

Susan Jeffries, director of libraries, and Marilyn Moore, Enid campus librarian, also participated in the day-long workshop.

Speakers for the workshop were Rodger Harris, manager of the Archives Section of the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Center (OHSRC); William Welge, director of the OHSRC; Kitty Pittman, Oklahoma Collection librarian, Oklahoma Department of Libraries (ODL); and Steve Beleu, U.S. Government information director, also with the ODL.

In the morning sessions, Harris explained the various ongoing projects to transfer collections at the OHSRC into digital form, and Welge discussed the historical state documents he utilized while researching material for his book, Oklahoma: A Rich History.

In the afternoon, Pittman presented digital ODL collections spanning more than 100 years of Oklahoma history that can be accessed through a new electronic resource titled Oklahoma Crossroads, and Beleu’s presentation centered on information unique to Oklahoma and its history that can be accessed at the American Memory website of the Library of Congress.

State documents can be found in various formats these days and many historical documents have been digitized to make them more accessible to citizens across the state of Oklahoma. The workshop was a venue for more than 50 librarians from across the state to learn about some of these resources. The websites and databases featured at the workshop can be used by libraries and their patrons. Workshop attendees also had the opportunity to tour both the OHSRC and the various galleries within the Oklahoma History Center.

Graybill’s workshop committee included Sharon Bish and Ursula Ward from the Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma City and Tanya Finchum, Suzanne Holcombe, and Barbara Miller from the Oklahoma State University Library.

-NW-

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