Browsing by Author "O'Bryan, Ann"

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    The Evolving Cataloging Department
    (2007-03-14T17:10:57Z) O'Bryan, Ann; Palmer, Kristi L.
    The shrinking of traditional cataloging departments is not news to library technical services staff. Nor is it news that digital projects that require standardized metadata are being created and supported by the same libraries that employ traditional catalogers. What may be less apparent is the ease with which a traditional cataloging unit can be transformed to incorporate metadata creation in the regular workflow of these units. IUPUI University Library’s Bibliographic and Metadata Services Team (BAMS) has made this transition and provides one example of how libraries can capitalize on the wealth of skilled employees already in place. This article discusses the full range of ideologies already in place and tactics used, including hiring a metadata cataloger, collaborating with digital initiatives groups in and outside the library, outsourcing some of the traditional cataloging, and training copy catalogers to create metadata to increase the viability and currency of the skills of a traditional cataloging unit.
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    Mt. Pleasant Library: Reading among African Americans in 19th Century Rush County
    (Black History News and Notes, 2005-11) O'Bryan, Ann
    In frontier Indiana, beginning in the 1820s, several settlements of free African Americans grew and flourished. Many of the settlers came from Virginia and North Carolina, where earlier settlers, many of them Quakers, had originated. One of those settlements, called the Beech Settlement, developed in Rush County, Indiana, from the late 1820’s. Like other African Americans in antebellum U.S., the settlers of the Beech were anxious to educate themselves and their children. Indeed, the lack of access to education in the South was an important motivation for migration. Despite the difficulties and hard work of creating farms on the frontier, they early on established schools and churches in their communities. Further, the residents of the Beech went beyond teaching and organized a library that was organized, maintained, and used during the years 1842-1869. This article aims to create a portrait of a community of mid-19th century rural African American readers and users of their community library.
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    Reading and Print Culture in a 19th C. African American Farm Community
    (2012-10) O'Bryan, Ann
    In 1954, Indianapolis resident Mary Jeffries Strong donated to the Indiana Historical Society what remained of a rural library in a 19th century African American settlement in central Indiana. The gift included two manuscript books – one with the circulation records, the other containing the minutes of the meetings of the library officers – and a collection of books. Mrs. Strong had kept the collection since the death of her uncle, who had been a teacher and major organizer of the library. My project involves using the manuscripts and other primary sources, including census data, newspapers, genealogy records, and personal interviews with descendants, to reveal a community of readers in rural Indiana ca. 1840-1870.
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    "Sparse and Multiple Traces": The Literacy Practices of African-American Pioneers in the Nineteenth Century Frontier
    (Umea, Sweden: Umea University & The Royal Skyttean Society, 2016., 2016-05-17) O'Bryan, Ann
    The Beech Settlement in central Indiana was one of several communities of African Americans that flourished in the nineteenth century. This settlement was unique in that its settlers, led by a core of highly literate individuals, organized a circulating library. The circulation records and meeting minutes of the Board of Directors survive, as well as a list of some of the books that were held in the library. This article examines the surviving documents and other primary materials to portray a community of readers, writers, orators, and educators, who, although denied legal access to education until their migration, had learned to read and write, and had developed the skills to create a thriving community of readers.