Hello everyone! I am excited to be a contributor for the Burke’s blog. I am an MLIS student at Long Island University and spent my summer as an archives intern here at the Burke mainly processing the collection of the esteemed Paul F. Knitter, Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union. I started […]
Cartoonists, Dramaturgs and Old Testament Feminists: An Archivist’s First Months at the Burke
Hello Burke world! I joined Union’s library staff this February, filling a vacant Project Archivist position whose previous occupant guided the successful processing of the William Adams Brown Ecumenical Library Archives, the Missionary Research Library collection, and more with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation and other grant-funding organizations and individuals. I’m originally from New Mexico (a […]
Behind the Stacks: literally
Sometimes the most interesting views are not the front of bookshelves with all the book spines facing outward, but rather the back, where you can find various edge decorations, hardware, and conditions that make for a visual treat. I often find these during shelf maintenance tasks that involve removing a range of books from a shelf, […]
Analyzing Scavenger Hunt Scores to Understand Library Familiarity Among Incoming Students
When I was a kid I loved scavenger hunts– the harder, the better! Whenever we took a field trip with school I preferred to explore a museum or new place with a scavenger hunt, rather than have someone show me around on a long tour of things I wouldn’t remember. Scavenger hunts contained mysteries […]
Behind the Stacks: Manuscript facsimile
In youth, I spent interminable hours copying out by hand long passages of the Bible for Sunday school. I also remember dutifully copying out lecture notes in school and feeling grateful for mechanical pencils (no sharpening!). These days, I use my phone to snap a picture of some text, printed or handwritten, and in a […]
Behind the Stacks: Unheard-of Curiosities
As the Collection Services Assistant at the Burke Library, I am constantly in and out of the stacks and handling materials from both the special and general collections. In the course of my work, I frequently stumble across interesting items, images, or views that may otherwise go unnoticed or are even inaccessible for the public. […]
Letters between a Prisoner and a Soldier: The Houser-Shinn Correspondence from the Roger L. Shinn Collection
“I’ve never had the experience of writing to anyone in the army before. I suppose you’ve never written to anyone in jail before, so I guess we’re even.” George Houser, July 17, 1941 George Houser and Roger Shinn first met as students at Union Theological Seminary, living across the hall from each other on […]
Burke Coloring Book
Today is our inaugural stressbuster where we will be offering up coloring books and sweet treats! The coloring book was created using images of items within our amazing special collections. For those who are unable to come and who want to follow along at home we wanted to share the pages as well as a […]
Coloring in the Burke
In honor of the Burke’s first “coloring book,” created for a stress buster event the library is hosting for Union Theological students next week, I thought it would be nice to show off this sweet children’s coloring book from ca. 1920: Each page offers a new image (x3) to be painted in with the way it […]
Hanging Out With Ulanov
Since the beginning of 2016, I have been working to finish up some processing projects in the archives. In particular, I have taken over the initial processing of the papers from former Union alumna and Professor Ann Belford Ulanov. These papers start with her work from her student years at Radcliffe College and end as […]