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Mariah Holyfield Roland was my grandmother’s grandmother. Family and friends called her “Skeet.” She was thin and tall like my grandmother, and it seems something about her reminded someone of a mosquito. The first six years of my life were under the roof of my grandparents, Willie Toombs and Lillie Stewart Toombs.

As a child,

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas (EOA), a project of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), has begun a new phase of its life with a website redesign that improves the user experience for students, researchers, and the general public.

“Since it launched in 2006, the EOA has become the premier resource on everything related to Arkansas history and culture,” said Nate Coulter,

When I was little, my brother and I were fascinated by dinosaurs. To us, the Museum of Discovery was the pinnacle of the display of innovative research and finding rocks with imprints of fossils in a dry creek bed was an extreme excavation.

Flash forward to the evolution unit of my high school biology class.

Before coming to work in the CALS Roberts Library, I was a library assistant in the Reference Department in the CALS Main Library for thirty years. There were so many aspects to being a reference librarian that made the job such a pleasure. Fortunately, my role at the Roberts Library allows me to provide the same kinds of reference services but focused on Arkansas history and genealogy.

During this sizzling summer, we’ve all spent what little energy we have looking for bright spots not caused by the relentless sunshine. In July, one such welcome event was the arrival of the first Stricklin Research Fellow. The fellowship was established in honor of former CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies director David Stricklin to assist students,

On view through Saturday, October 1:

Yard Work: Inspirations Found in Our Own Backyards

Underground Gallery, Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square

CALS Roberts Library

Is it too hot to spend time in your own yard? Come to the air-conditioned CALS Roberts Library Underground Gallery to feel like you are in nature without breaking a sweat.

As one of its mapping projects focusing on community history, the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies created a digital exhibit documenting the history of Little Rock’s West Ninth Street, once a center of commerce and culture for the city’s African Americans. The project uses a mapping program to create an interactive narrative,

Work can be like the proverbial iceberg—you don’t see most of its mass because it is hidden under an expanse of water.

That is to say that any job, even one with a predominantly public side, entails a lot of labor hidden from view of those being served. A teacher spends time not only in the classroom in front of students but also alone at a desk writing quizzes or preparing lectures.

James Logan Morgan Jr. was a teacher, historian, and minister. He was born on September 13, 1940, in Oil Trough (Independence County) to James Logan Morgan Sr. (1910–1995) and Eva Irene Landrum Morgan (1922–2009). Morgan graduated from Newport High School in 1958 and earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in history and business from Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in Batesville (Independence County),

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art acquired the Little Rock Fire Department (LRFD) collection in 2011. The collection contains a great deal of information on the history of the city’s fire department.

In January 2022, staff members in the Research Services Division finished digitizing and uploading more than forty items out of the collection.