A Month in the Life of the CALS Roberts Library: August 2024

Every month, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the CALS Roberts Library collect and report statistics for a variety of reasons, primarily for the Arkansas State Library’s requirements, but also so that we can evaluate the impact our activities have on our community. Here are some of the things we were up to last month.

In the Research Room

A total of 153 CALS patrons (as well as 39 visitors from parts of Arkansas outside the CALS service area and all over the United States, including Virginia, Maryland, and Wisconsin) used the Roberts Library Research Room to delve into genealogy and Arkansas history. Some of the collections looked at included the Fred K. Darragh Jr. papers; the Small Manuscript collection; and the Bill Clinton Gubernatorial record group, Natural and Cultural Resources series, Kenneth L. Smith subseries.

In Publishing

Roberts Library staff assisted the Arkansas Times in researching their 50th  anniversary issue.

The Butler Center and the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas (EOA) were acknowledged by Kenneth E. Burchett in his new book Massacre at St. Louis: The Road to the Camp Jackson Affair and Civil War, published by McFarland Press. The EOA was also cited in Jaleesa Reed’s Millennial Agency and Liberation within Black American Beauty Standards in the book series Advances in Gender Research.

The Butler Center was cited in a thesis from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, “Small Town Superfund: History of Vertac Superfund Site in Jacksonville, Arkansas,” and in the article “Home Together: A Multi-Level Community-Based Health Promotion Program Supporting Families Experiencing Homelessness,” in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Online

Multistory building and spotlight on "1957 The Pix" yearbook coverOur digitized yearbooks continue to get heavy usage. A total of 239 yearbooks were viewed in the month of August.

Digital objects from the map collection, the Ruebel Funeral Home Records, and the Office of Desegregation Monitoring Records also received significant usage.

This very blog is also a favorite destination on the Roberts Library website, with 1,275 views in August.

The top three blog posts (in case you missed them!) were Decisions of Consequence: Parker and Lucille Westbrook by Steve Teske, Answering Questions Is What I Do by Rhonda Stewart, and Spotlight on Leroy Scott City Pool Collection by Shirley Schuette (now retired).

In Education

Our top educational pages online included Arkansas Immigrant History, Arkansas and Reconstruction, the 1927 Flood, and Historic 9th Street.

On the EOA

EOA users’ favorite page in August was the overview entry on the state, but there was a huge uptick in views of the Mother’s League of Central High School, with 3,512 views.

In Programming

Rachel Trusty’s Legacies & Lunch presentation about the first gay marriage in Arkansas (in 1888) shows the type of unknown histories that still need to be discovered in the Natural State. The YouTube video of the program has had 286 views since August 7, 2024, when it was published. This makes it the fifth-highest-viewed video on CALS’s YouTube channel.

Memory Lab Coordinator Meredith Li and Programs/Website Coordinator Heather Zbinden had an outreach table at Emmanuel Baptist Church’s (12th Street) Back to School Bash on August 10. They talked to 129 multi-generational family groups about the DIY Memory Lab and heard lots of love for CALS from many participants. Staff has also been working to grow participation for Finding Family Facts and Personal Archiving.

In Art Events

For August’s 2nd Friday Art Night at the CALS Rock It! Lab, we had a lively group of attendees, including knitters with works in progress, and the local artists were pleased with their interactions and sales.

Art Administrator Colin Thompson installed the current exhibition From the Vault: A Survey of the CALS Art Collection in the Underground Gallery in mid-July, and it is on view through November.

In Patron Communication

Seventeen people received assistance via the arkinfo@cals.org reference email account during the month of August. Their inquiries included the usual genealogy and obituary requests as well as some inquiries about a few interesting subjects: Elberta Peaches, Arkadelphia Presbyterian Academy, Air Transport International, and Prague, Arkansas.

Around CALS

We also helped the CALS Communications Department by researching the six bridges of Little Rock and gathering some highlights and newspaper articles for them to for their promotional videos for the 2024 Six Bridges Book Festival, coming up September 22–29. (Don’t miss it!)

We’re looking forward to doing much of the same and more in the coming months! Click here to see ways to let us know how we can connect you with our events and resources.

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