Special Collections

September 21, 2022

Jackson School alumna receives Goldsmith and Sperber book prize

Re-posted with permission from the blog of the UW Southeast Asia Center  Jackson School Alumna Elizabeth Becker has received the Harvard University Goldsmith Book Prize: Trade category and Fordham University Sperber Prize for her recent book You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War. The book tells the stories of three female journalists reporting on the…

November 3, 2021

Special Collections Reopening Update

A popular new virtual reading room, why appointments are better for users, new exhibits and more. UW Libraries Special Collections is one of the busiest places in the UW Libraries system. With people seeking access to materials from on campus and off, the Special Collections team has adapted services to meet the demand for virtual…

September 7, 2021

Words Matter: Critical Cataloging and Archival Description at the University of Washington Libraries 

Authors: Conor M. Casey, Erin Grant, Keiko Hill, Kat Lewis, Crystal Rodgers  In August of 2021, catalogers, metadata specialists, and archivists at the University of Washington Libraries published a statement on Critical Cataloging and Archival Description to the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism hub on the UW Libraries website. This statement is a road map…

August 5, 2021

August Update

Last updated 8/9 Services Updates Special Collections and Seattle branch Libraries will open September 29th. Special Collections:  Access will be by appointment only Monday-Friday 1:00 PM – 4:45 PM during fall quarter for both UW affiliates and the public. Special Collections staff are available to answer research questions via ASK US and the online question…

Jacob Lawrence in Seattle: UW Students and Libraries Create New Book

This post was updated September 16, 2022 UPDATE: In July 2022, UW’s Jacob Lawrence in Seattle was selected as Pressbooks’  featured Book of the Month, displayed on the front page of the international Pressbooks Directory !    Learn more about the making of this book in our recorded webinar: Student Authored: UW Open Pedagogy and Publishing…

June 7, 2021

Beyond Scope and Content: Hidden Histories from the Film Archive

Beyond Scope and Content: Hidden Histories from the Film Archive is a new podcast and screening project intended to surface stories from the moving image collections held by the UW Libraries Special Collections. The project seeks to engage faculty and students, historians and film enthusiasts in the compelling visual history of the Pacific Northwest with…

May 13, 2021

Passion, Dedication, and Action: Yeen-Mei Wu and Tateuchi EAL’s Taiwan Studies Collection

Re-posted from the Tateuchi East Asia Library blog 5/5/21 In June 2001, a group of donors from the Taiwanese community in Seattle worked in a very short time to establish and provide basic funding for the Taiwan Collection Endowed Fund at the UW Libraries’ East Asia Library (today’s Tateuchi East Asia Library). Ms. Yeen-Mei Wu,…

February 19, 2021

Priceless, ancient coins find a home at UW Libraries

Ancient coins, federal agents, mysterious circumstances at an international border…what sounds like a scene out of an Indiana Jones movie is a real-life story of lost artifacts that have now found a home with UW Libraries Special Collections. The story begins in 2017 at the US/Canadian border in Blaine, WA.  When a vehicle was refused…

November 5, 2020

Labor Archives of Washington Spotlight: RIDGE Records Showcase Coalition-Building among Labor and Environmental Activists

This fall, I am working at the Labor Archives of Washington (LAW) in Special Collections at the University of Washington Libraries as their archivist-in-residence. Through a paid internship with Northwest Archivists, I have been processing the RIDGE records remotely from my home in Iowa.  The newly-acquired collection documents land use activism in Kittitas County, WA….

October 16, 2020

Labor Archives of Washington Spotlight: Creating Bilingual Access to Collections Documenting the Latinx Experience

This summer, the Labor Archives of Washington (LAW) within the UW Libraries Special Collections, was lucky enough to have Diana Rocha, MLIS student from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, complete their final semester practicum with us. Working remotely, Diana enhanced access to several important collections documenting the histories of the Latinx community in Washington….