Barbara McCorkle's "Cartobibliography" added to KU Scholarworks

In November, Barbara McCorkle made the product of thirty years of her research on eighteenth-century maps freely available to all in KU Scholarworks. Her "Cartobibliography of the Maps in 18th Century British and American Geography Books" was published as an e-book in the University of Kansas digital repository at http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5564.

McCorkle’s “Cartobibliography” contains 470 individual entries about geography books and 6700 entries for individual maps within those books. “Something like this is a tremendous aid to finding the maps in the books,” said Dr. Karen Cook, interim special collections librarian at Spencer Research Library.

"There was no bibliography of these items, so I made one,” McCorkle said of her book. Her work took her to libraries all over the US and UK, poring over English geography books from the eighteen century, compiling details of every map on every page. “I tried to see at least three copies of every book, because they varied between printings,” McCorkle said.

That scholarly attention to detail took time. “This was the one project that was always there,” McCorkle said. “Early on, the Special Libraries Association gave me a grant to do some work, but it was something I had to fit in to whatever else I was doing.”

The project is significant to researchers because “although many of these books are digitized and online, finding aids are not set up to help scholars find specific maps,” McCorkle said. “Also, not everybody has access to those databases.”

Accessibility to researchers was a major factor for McCorkle in deciding where her book would be published. “I chose KU Scholarworks because I thought it would reach more people,” she said.

Accompanying the gift of McCorkle’s scholarship is a gift to Spencer Research Library of the research materials she gathered over the course of this project, such as photocopies of the maps she wrote about, and printouts of the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) record for every item in her book. These follow an earlier gift of eighteenth-century geography books McCorkle made in 2006.

Cook stressed the scholarly potential of the combination of McCorkle’s gift of print materials to Spencer and her electronically published work. “For the type of research that people need to do with old maps, they really need to work with the originals. There’s only so much you can do with the digital images,” Cook said.

McCorkle served as an associate librarian at KU from 1968 to 1974, then spent time at both Purdue University and Yale University, finishing her career as map curator at Yale.

In her tenure at KU, McCorkle helped expand KU Libraries’ collection of geography books. “We have extensive holdings, thanks to Barbara,” Cook said. “The collections at Spencer inspired the book, so it’s really coming home in a way,” she added.

McCorkle’s late husband Oswald P. Backus was another notable presence at KU, serving as a professor in the history department for 22 years. After retiring, McCorkle returned to Kansas. “Three of my children had settled here, and all my old friends were here,” she said. “Lawrence was a much nicer place to live.”

 

KU librarian Susan Craig receives 2010 Governor’s Arts Award

A KU librarian is among the Kansans selected for the 2010 Governor’s Arts Awards given to distinguished Kansas artists, patrons and arts educators.

Susan Craig, KU art and architecture librarian, will be honored March 11 in Topeka for her contributions to the arts in Kansas. The Governor’s Arts Awards are given annually by the governor and the Kansas Arts Commission.

Craig is being honored as an arts advocate for documenting the lives of more than 2,600 Kansas artists in her award-winning e-book “Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists.” Recognized as a seminal reference for researchers, her dictionary is the only work of its kind. The dictionary details the lives of artists born or working in Kansas before 1945. Craig began work on the book in 1981 after seeing a compilation of a state-by-state guide to artists that had no entry for Kansas.

Craig, originally from Newton, earned a bachelor’s degree at KU and a master’s degree at Emporia State University. Willmott grew up in Junction City and earned his bachelor’s degree from Marymount College in Salina and master’s degree from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Craig joins another KU recipient, Kevin Willmott, associate professor of film and media studies. Willmott is recognized for his work as a writer, director and producer of films that have received national acclaim for their pioneering and innovative themes focused on Kansas and its history.

This year’s other honorees include a metals artist, Elliott Pujol of Manhattan; an arts educator and musician, Doug Talley of the Shawnee Mission school district; the Emporia Arts Council as an arts organization and the City of Hays as an arts community. The Distinguished Arts Award goes to photojournalist and social documentarian Jim Richardson of Lindsborg.

Gov. Mark Parkinson said: “The State of Kansas is proud to honor and recognize these outstanding artists, advocates, educators, cities and organizations. These awards call attention to the creative spirit that captures the magnificence of our state, contributes to our culture and inspires future Kansas artists.”

The governor has been invited to present the awards during reception ceremony on Thursday, March 11, at Washburn University’s Memorial Union Washburn Room.

The Governor’s Arts Awards have been given annually since 1974. An expert panel, consisting of members of the Kansas Arts Commission, a representative from the Governor’s office and arts professionals, selected the winners from submitted nominations.

“Each year the Governor’s Arts Awards celebrate the dedication to artistic and cultural enrichment made by individuals and communities,” said Kansas Arts Commission Chairman John Divine. “The commission is proud to recognize these Kansans—artists, educators, advocates, patrons and communities—for their accomplishments and efforts in support of the arts.”

The Kansas Arts Commission is the state agency dedicated to promoting and supporting the arts in Kansas. Its mission is to provide opportunities for the people of Kansas to experience, celebrate and value the arts throughout their lives. More information about the Kansas Arts Commission is available online http://arts.ks.gov.

 

Did you meet your mate at KU Libraries?

Did you and your spouse or partner meet at the library? If so, we’d love to hear your story and share it with our library community. Simply email Rebecca Smith at rasmith@ku.edu by Feb. 8, 2010.

 

Mark your calendar!

Our 2010 events schedule is taking shape! Keep an eye on lib.ku.edu/events to see dates for upcoming events, or email Courtney Foat at cfoat@ku.edu to be added to our event mailing list.