LTS Annual Report 2023

PAGE 24 LIBRARY AND TECHNOLOGY SERVICES - - - Shakespeare’s Stepchildren: 400 years after the publication of the First Folio, Shakespeare’s image, texts, and the many words that he coined are still relevant and part of everyday 21st century life. Why have Shakespeare and his texts remained influential in “popular” as well as “high” culture for more than 400 years? Emerita Professor Barbara Traister delivered a virtual talk in which she explored Shakespeare’s continued cultural impact and gave her answer to the question “Why Shakespeare?” OverDrive Ebook and Audiobook Poetry Collection: Librarians curated a diverse selection of poets in this year's Poetry Month OverDrive Collection, which included titles from Danez Smith, Claudia Rankine, Ocean Vuong, and rupi kaur, among many others. Library 5x10 Events What’s So Special about Special Collections?: Introducing first-year students to the rich resources at their disposal, this 5x10 highlighted standout featured items selected by Special Collections and Instruction and Outreach librarians. Every item tells a story, and students were guided through thematically grouped stations where they learned the narrative history that underlies every piece of Special Collections material. Transitions: Zines Marking Moments of Transformation: (Fan)zines, or handmade maga zines, are a fun and accessible way to mark periods OTHER LIBRARY EVENTS Douglass Day Transcribathon: Too often the historical writings of Black Americans languish in archives, undiscoverable to scholars and untranscribed. This year, Lehigh Libraries and the English Department participated in the Douglass Day virtual transcribathon, an event held annually on abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ chosen birthday, February 14th, in which institutions around the world work on transcribing works by prominent Black Americans. This year’s transcribathon focused on the papers of Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893), an activist, journal ist and newspaper publisher, and one of the first Black women to attend law school. Students, faculty, and staff gathered in Linderman Library and worked together to transcribe Shadd’s work into digital software, contributing to a global effort toward making her work more searchable and accessible for future scholarship and public engagement. Rob Sato Programs: The Friends of the Lehigh Libraries spon sored a two-day visit by artist Rob Sato as a capstone event to the semester-long exhibition of Sato's work that appeared in the Fairchild-Martindale Library over the course of 2022. During Sato's visit, Lehigh and local communities were treated to a talk by the artist about the inspiration behind his works. Sato also led a hands-on art-making community workshop that explored personal history and memory. The workshop started with drawing games to invigorate creativity and visualization before turning to individual memory mapping and storytelling projects. Storytimes: In partnership with the Marcon Institute and the Lehigh University Art Galleries, the Libraries hosted spring and summer storytime programs with Sociology professor and children’s book author, LaToya Council. Professor Council

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