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Y'All Award
Preserving Louisiana's Legacy: LSU Libraries Awards River Road African American Museum

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Gabe Harrell, LSU Libraries’ Digitization Lab Manager, presenting the 2022 Y'ALL Award plaque to Kathe Hambrick, founder and former executive director of the River Road African American Museum

 The LSU Libraries is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history and diverse culture of communities across Louisiana. In keeping with that spirit, this summer the Libraries presented the 2022 Y’ALL Award to the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM). The Y’ALL Award was first established in 2019 and is an acronym for “You Are Louisiana's Legacy.” Its purpose is to share digitization equipment and expertise with small, community-oriented libraries, archives, and museums in Louisiana. “RRAAM was selected for the award because of their strong ties to their community, the richness of their collections, and the important addition their material makes to the Louisiana Digital Library,” said Sophie Ziegler, LSU Libraries’ Head of Digital Programs and Services. Now in its 28th year, museum founder Kathe Hambrick says, “The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve, and interpret the history of African Americans in the rural communities of South Louisiana.” They work closely with the community in and around Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Many cultural heritage institutions, like RRAAM, house significant historical materials but lack the technical resources and staffing to digitize their collections. This award provides the technical resources and staff time that enables them to digitize their holdings and hosts the resulting digital collections online through the Louisiana Digital Library (LDL). LSU Libraries digitized a wide variety of material of great local and regional importance for RRAAM, including: 

several old notebooks and some paper materials spread out on a table
Items from RRAAM in the process of being digitized
  • Notebooks of a midwife working with black and white families in and around Donaldsonville between 1914 and 1921
  • Commissary and payroll ledgers from Waterloo Plantation from the 1930s and 40s
  • Transcriptions of the 1870 and 1890 Ascension Parish censuses
  • Records and ephemera from several local Benevolent Associations
  • A 1964 report by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) on their activities in Louisiana
  • A Bill of Sale of an enslaved person from 1850
  • Records of Butler Farm from the 1930s to the 1950s
  • Records of Butler Funeral Home from the 1950s

“LSU Libraries' Y'ALL Award is, in many ways, a race against time. Here in Louisiana, many of our cultural heritage institutions are one storm away from devastation. Digitization is one means of protecting our history and culture for future generations, as well as making it more accessible for the current generation. The River Road African American Museum is exactly the type of institution we hope to work with; their roots in the community are deep, and their collection fills gaps in the state's existing digitized cultural heritage,” Ziegler said. In addition to RRAAM receiving copies of the digital files for use at their institution, these collections will be added to the LDL, where they will be available to the public free of charge.   Additional Links: Louisiana Digital Library: https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/ 

Calla Harper
Calla Harper Awarded the LSU Libraries’ 2022 General Syed Ali Zamin Memorial Scholarship

photo of man in military attire
General Syed Ali Zamin

 The LSU Libraries is more than just a place where students can come to access vital scholarly resources, enhance research and study skills, and engage with the latest technologies that facilitate learning. The LSU Libraries employs more students than any academic department on campus, affording them opportunities to work in an environment that understands their needs as students while providing them with the practical workplace experience they need to succeed in their careers. Furthermore, each year the Libraries awards an exceptional LSU Libraries undergraduate student worker with the General Syed Ali Zamin Memorial Scholarship. General Zamin (he/him), for whom the scholarship was named, worked in the LSU Libraries for 14 years following an illustrious career serving in the Pakistan army and later serving as a Pakistani ambassador to four countries. At LSU, he was known for his commitment to serving as custodian of the library’s materials and for his extraordinary customer service orientation. In 2014, the Zamin family established a $1,000 scholarship to be awarded annually to an undergraduate student assistant who shares General Zamin’s work ethic and love for LSU. This May, the LSU Libraries awarded undergraduate student employee Calla Harper (they/them). “This scholarship is truly a blessing to receive! I’m incredibly thankful to the Zamin family, the LSU Libraries, and everyone in the Interlibrary Loan department for making the library such a wonderful place to work. I hope to continue to follow in General Zamin’s example and work hard to ensure the quality service we provide to academics at LSU and all over the world,” Harper said. 

Calla Harper performing for a theatre production
Musical theatre is Harper’s passion. As an active member of LSU’s Musical Theatre Club, Harper performed in the group’s “Miscast Cabaret” in the fall of 2021 and

 Harper (sophomore; Baton Rouge, LA) is a returning student to LSU and the Libraries. They worked in Interlibrary Loan while earning a bachelor’s in mathematics from LSU. After graduating in 2018, they went on to teach math in Ascension and East Baton Rouge Parish public schools. However, for Harper, one degree from LSU just wasn’t enough. In 2021, they returned to LSU to follow their passion and pursue a second bachelor’s in music (voice) with a concentration in theatre. Upon their return, Harper resumed their work in Interlibrary Loan, where they have now worked for a total of nearly five years. Harper has served as a student team leader, training and mentoring other student assistants, in addition to working as a self-employed, private math tutor. According to Harper’s supervisor, Larissa Elliott, Harper’s return to the Libraries was serendipitous. “Calla picked up right where they left off after leaving ILL in 2018, as if no time had passed. The knowledge and experience that Calla brings to our current team is truly a blessing and we would be lost without their drive and dedication to the job,” Elliott said.

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