2016-Annual-Report

“
The Library is our Lab”
Faculty in the humanities and social sciences often say “the library
is our lab” and that primary source materials are the corpus they use
to investigate and create new knowledge. This year, Joyner Library
expanded its collections by acquiring memoirs, correspondence,
diaries, scrapbooks, and court documents. Additions to Special
Collections include the papers of General Frank A. Armstrong,
Rear Admiral Lucius W. Johnson, and Greenville physician Charles
J. O’Hagan, as well as Red Banks Primitive Baptist Church records,
North Carolina 1799-1816 session laws, missionary papers, and
Civil War materials.
Through online finding aids and digitization, the “lab” expands to
any location convenient to the researchers. Physical and online
exhibits help contextualize and publicize the materials. This year,
grant funding led to improved online access to materials in the
Institute of Outdoor Theatre archives, Laupus Library History
Collections, and The Country Doctor Museum.
This medicine chest was part of “The Development of
Medicine in Eastern North Carolina” exhibit. Digital
images of medical equipment and gear are included in the
online exhibit, along with handwritten botanical medicine
recipes like the one pictured below. This “Lost Colony”
program was among the items featured in “The People’s
Theatre: The Institute of Outdoor Theatre and North
Carolina Productions” exhibit.
These grants were made possible through funding from the federal
Institute of Museum of Library Services under the provisions of
the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the
State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of
Natural and Cultural Resources.