What's New In Special Collections - University of Arkansas Libraries

Researchers seeking newspaper articles about historic Arkansas events and people now have an easier task. Arkansas newspaper indexing has recently been added to Index Arkansas, an online database for publications dealing with Arkansas topics. Sponsored by the special collections department of the University of Arkansas Libraries, the index now contains nearly 30,000 citations from Arkansas statewide and regional newspapers, joining more than 60,000 citations from other historical and biographical sources.

Index Arkansas is an important resource for students and scholars, containing a total of 90,913 citations from Arkansas newspapers, periodicals and books. Tom W. Dillard, head of the special collections department, said, "The development of Index Arkansas is a transforming event in the study of our state. For so long researchers have labored without a good index to state literature, but now we have one. And, we fully expect to expand it substantially in the years to come."
The newly available newspaper citations began as records kept in an old-fashioned card file of 40 drawers. The records were carefully computerized and are now easily searchable by author, title, keyword, and subject. Coverage is mostly from the early 1930s through 1985, with scattered entries from the 1830s through the 1920s.

In development for many years, Index Arkansas was initiated by the late Georgia Clark and expanded by Elizabeth McKee and Andrea Cantrell of the University of Arkansas Libraries. Joan Watkins, current manager and senior editor of Index Arkansas, said, “I am profoundly grateful for what they have accomplished. It is rare to find such a level of dedication as shown by these individuals and the University Libraries.”

Index Arkansas is unique. While other states and universities have undertaken similar projects, Index Arkansas stands apart from them because of the large number of publications covered and its availability online. In addition to newspapers, 43 Arkansas periodicals, 30 county history journals and 80 books with historical and biographical content are indexed. Researchers might find citations to newspaper articles ranging from an 1838 article about a Washington County dinner honoring Judge Archibald Yell, to articles from the 1930s about drought in Arkansas during the dust bowl era, and articles concerning the Cuban refugee crisis at Fort Chaffee in the early 1980s.

Dillard said, “Index Arkansas is a new bridge to our heritage. It will help Arkansans discover that, yes, we do have a heritage – and it is worth studying. I hope researchers will make great use of it.” After finding citations to newspaper articles on their topics, researchers can obtain copies of the articles through their local library or its interlibrary loan service. Index Arkansas is available online at http://arkindex.uark.edu/. Use of the index is free of charge and available to everyone.

Land of (Unequal) Opportunity:
Documenting the Civil Rights Struggle in Arkansas

Land of (Unequal) Opportunity

Historical materials documenting the changing nature of civil rights in Arkansas are now available free to the public through the Internet. Sponsored by the special collections department, University of Arkansas Libraries, “Land of (Unequal) Opportunity: Documenting the Civil Rights Struggle in Arkansas,” is an online resource of documents and images that trace the history of civil rights in the state. The web site contains over 2000 pages of documents, photographs, broadsides, pamphlets, drawings, cartoons, and other images.

While the project emphasizes the 1957 Little Rock Central High School integration crisis and the rights of African American Arkansans, it covers all time periods and includes civil rights issues pertaining to women, homosexuals, and the Japanese Americans held in Arkansas relocation camps during World War II. Users may browse the digital collection or search by keywords.

In addition to the documents and images, the web site offers a detailed bibliography and timeline, ten lesson plans for junior high school students, and five digital posters, all free of charge. The web site server is named for Scipio A. Jones, in honor of Arkansas’s premier black attorney. The URL for the web site is: http://scipio.uark.edu.

“Arkansas has a long and remarkably complex civil rights history,” according to Tom W. Dillard, project director and head of special collections. While the 1957 Little Rock Central High School integration crisis is well known, it is just one of many historical events involving civil rights. Dillard noted that as early as 1868, Arkansas enacted a civil rights law. Before the Civil War, a few farsighted Arkansas leaders advocated granting property rights to married women. When a wave of segregation laws was enacted around 1900, black leaders organized protests. “During World War II 16,000 Japanese Americans, mostly American citizens, were incarcerated in relocation camps in Arkansas – adding a unique aspect to our collective civil rights history,” Dillard said. In more recent decades, Arkansas was the scene of a dramatic confrontation in the legislature over adoption of the proposed U.S. Equal Rights Amendment. The state has now begun to grapple with recognizing the rights of homosexual Arkansans. Dillard predicts that in the future the state is likely to struggle with civil rights issues for Spanish-speaking immigrants.
While the majority of the materials on the web site are held by the UA special collections department, other institutions around the state also contributed materials, including the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock; the Riley-Hickingbotham Library at Ouachita Baptist University; Ottenheimer Library at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; the Torreyson Library at the University of Central Arkansas; the Arkansas History Commission; and the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives, Washington, Arkansas.

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Arkansas Humanities Council, the project is ongoing. Special collections department staff will refine and add materials to the web site over time. In addition to Dillard, the project staff also included Timothy G. Nutt, Scot Oldham, Beth Juhl, Arthur Morgan, Anita Mysore, Todd Lewis, Cheri Pearce, Andrea Cantrell and Molly Boyd.

Last modified: 05/05/2008