The purpose of oral history testimony is not only to gather facts, but also to gain a deeper understanding of events as they were lived and filtered through personal reflection. Unlike most documentation from th[e] period - written by the perpetrators – oral testimony gives a voice to the survivors and other witnesses, allowing them to speak directly about their personal experiences. [Source: Visual History Archive website.]
This week (April 21 - April 27, 2019) is Preservation Week, a week devoted to, “…highlight[ing] what we can do, individually and together, to preserve our personal and shared collections” (American Library Association).
March 8, 2019 is International Women's Day, and Stanford Libraries would like to share some of our outstanding collections focusing on women! When I put out the call to our staff for collections that celebrate women, I was overwhelmed by the response. The subjects range from women who were integral to Stanford's history to feminist activists and writers to educators, artists, and pioneers in their fields. Here are just a few fantastic resources found at Stanford Libraries:
Kanopy, one of the most robust streaming platforms for libraries and universities, contains nearly 300 Asian and Asian studies-related titles, including films by directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Wong Kar-wai, and Park Chan-wook, and documentaries on a variety of subjects. View the full list of Asian studies-related titles here.
Have you ever wondered why Stanford is represented by the color cardinal, and not the original choice of gold? Or why the university's motto is in German?
We are pleased to announce a new Spotlight at Stanford exhibit focused on the development of Stanford's insignia: Becoming Stanford: The History and Meaning of the University’s Insignia.
I was very interested when recently a colleague from Green Library, David Jordan, alerted me to the existence of several Chinese and Japanese items within the Gunst Collection, also known as the Morgan A. and Aline D. Gunst Memorial Library of the Book Arts. As the name suggests, this collection, which was donated to Stanford Libaries in 1963 and contains over four thousand volumes, is devoted to works that showcase the role of books as artifacts. As I was browsing through the short list of East Asian materials belonging to this collection, I was intrigued by one item in particular, which was described as an eleventh-century print of a Chinese Buddhist scripture.
As the Stanford Libraries develop to be a fully-realized, 21st Century Scholarly Workbench, we are thinking strategically about the tools that we supply and the services we support. No workbench can hold every tool, and we must ensure that we deploy our resources to most effectively meet the needs of the always-evolving Stanford community and the broader research community. To achieve this strategic alignment, the Stanford Libraries rely heavily on outreach by its staff.
With a patron's help, Zhaohui Xue, Chinese Studies Librarian at the East Asia Library, has discovered some particularly rare materials within the library's collections.