Recollections and Voices: An Appalachian Community Revisited

Scott’s Run has a rich history as a tight-knit, coal-built community in the heart of rural Appalachia. To learn more about the lives of the community members during the Depression Era, an interdisciplinary research team from five departments at a major university in the state conducted an oral history project focused on historical photos of the community. Individuals who grew up in the area reviewed photographs taken early in the 20th century and provided information and shared stories related to the time and place of the images for context. The interviews uncovered key themes that told a much more positive story of the area than previously recorded in histories: progressive race relations, the remarkable sense of “family” among community members, and the importance of a social service organization, shared experiences of mining, and surviving many floods to the development of that sense of family among members of the Scott’s Run community. Also, as a result of the interviews, more accurate descriptions or “tags” of the photos were provided. This project involved students from social work and other disciplines and also informed content throughout a macro HBSE course

The Pearl S. Buck Manuscripts Collection and the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation

The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace preserves the birthplace home of the author Pearl S. Buck and interprets her life from its humble origins in the Appalachian town of Hillsboro, West Virginia to her rise to international recognition as a Nobel Prize winning author. The house museum educates visitors on the early experiences of Pearl\u27s life that helped shape some of the major characters and plotlines of her books. The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace is also a cultural asset for the Hillsboro community, providing opportunities for education, recreation and economic development. This presentation will provide a brief history of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation, the Birthplace Museum, and how the PSBBF came to be the owners and stewards of Ms. Buck’s original manuscript collection. The talk will present Ms. Buck’s views on her place of birth and her stated desires for the manuscript collection and the Birthplace to become “…a gateway to new thoughts and dreams and ways of life!

Considerations on Building a Unique Diversity Residency Program and Professional Partnership

As Chair of the WVU Libraries Residency Planning and Implementation Committees, I led the research and planning efforts to develop a unique program for librarians from underrepresented groups. My presentation will review the landscape of library diversity residencies, discuss the factors that were determined to be essential to have a successful residency, and provide an overview of the design of the WVU program. It will examine efforts to promote and assess the work so far, offering practical advice for implementing diversity initiatives. It will also discuss the creation of the new Diversity Alliance and how this partnership with American University, the University of Iowa, and Virginia Tech is critical to the success of our resident librarians. Although the residency program is library specific, the information shared in the session should be applicable to any discipline that is interested in creating opportunities for new voices