UVA Library’s reference team had a busy 2024 as it moved into the renovated Shannon Library and welcomed eager visitors. In April, the month of Shannon’s grand opening to the public, a record-breaking 113,000 people visited the library, and with that surging foot traffic came increased desk inquires for the reference team.
“At UVA Library, reference services are available to any person who walks in our doors or lands on our website,” said Mandy Rizki, one of the three Reference Librarians in Shannon Library.“In the course of a day, all kinds of members of the University community stop by the reference desk, use our online chat, call us on the phone, or send us an email at library@virginia.edu.”
Walk-up reference service is offered in Shannon for all general Library inquiries and in the Albert and Shirley Small Library for specific questions about the unique items in Special Collections.
The piece below comes to us from UVA instructor Charlotte Matthews. Reflecting on her time in Alderman (now Shannon) Library, Matthews helps us feel the warmth of an old library; now new again.
“All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, except for the written word.” - Leonardo Da Vinci
In the first year of the COVID pandemic, when the world had come to a standstill, UVA Library’s Digital Production Group took on a new project: familiarizing themselves with the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI). The initiative is a collaborative effort by federal agencies “to articulate a common sustainable set of technical guidelines, methods, and practices for digitized and born digital historical, archival and cultural content,” according to its mission statement.
The Digital Production Group (DPG) is responsible for the creation and preservation of the Library’s rare and unique digital holdings. Stacey Evans, an Imaging Specialist and Project Coordinator; Eze Amos, a Technical Lead; and Christina Deane, Manager of the DPG, worked togetherto make sure that the DPG was adhering to the guidelines set forth by FADGI. Evans, a photographer who has nearly 30 years of experience working in digital imaging, especially focused on the realm of cultural heritage imaging — capturing and documenting special and historic objects.
Volumes from the McGehee Miniature Book Collection including (inset) “Medieval Craftsman,” the 10,000th volume in the collection to be cataloged.
In 2005, Caroline Brandt, collector and co-founder of the Miniature Book Society, made a major gift to the UVA Library of her miniature book collection. Named in honor of Brandt’s first husband, UVA alumnus C.
In January 2025, the UVA Library is starting an annual reading challenge that will explore one author a month through a novel or short stories. Every year will feature a new theme.
From Sherri Brown, Librarian for English, and Amy Hunsaker, Librarian for Music & Performing Arts:
We’re excited that for the inaugural reading challenge in 2025, we will dive into Gothic literature written by women authors, beginning with an early Gothic novel written in the 18th century and moving chronologically to end with contemporary 21st-century Gothic fiction.
Alexander “Sandy” G. Gilliam, Jr., who died on June 8, 2024, was something of a UVA institution, having spent more than half of his life at the University in a number of roles, including as secretary to the Board of Visitors and special assistant to four presidents. He was also a storyteller, and in 2012 — when Gilliam was the University Protocol and History Officer — he sat down with Sheree Scarborough of the University of Virginia Oral History Project in his office in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library to talk about his career and all things UVA.
As the end of the year approaches, we asked UVA Library staff to recommend their favorite books they read in 2024. The books could be any genre, published in any year, so long as they were available in UVA Library’s or the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library’s collections.
Take a look at our extensive list below and check some books out for the holidays (members of the UVA community can even request books ahead of time for easy access). Please note: the publication years listed correspond with the editions in our collections, not necessarily the original publication dates.
Happy reading, and come visit us at any of our six locations before we close for winter break on Dec. 20 … or after we reopen January 2!
Juggling childcare and academia can be hard! The University of Virginia Library wants to make it easier.
Beginning in fall 2024, the UVA Library is offering Childcare Fun Packs for check out at Shannon Library. The Fun Packs are sets of age-appropriate entertainment materials, available to caregivers of all kinds.
Rare Book School at the University of Virginia's 2025 schedule includes more than 40 classes, featuring online courses and in-person possibilities. In-person courses in Charlottesville will be offered in the University of Virginia's newly renovated Edgar Shannon Library. For the best chance of being admitted on the courses, applications should be submitted by February 17.
If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading a story by Alice Berry, let me introduce you to her work.
The University of Virginia’s massive library system, which houses copies of the Declaration of Independence, is just part of her “beat,” one of the many areas she is responsible for covering.
Her storytelling task ballooned as the school undertook the gigantic overhaul of Shannon Library. In her story on one of UVA's last card catalogs, Alice revealed tantalizing details about issues of UVA’s student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily, dating back to the 19th century. Her piece even inspired UVA Today’s latest installment of Obscura, which documents lesser-known objects and places across Grounds.
After a nearly four-year closure for renovations, Shannon Library has re-established itself as the University of Virginia’s main study spot. This December marks a full academic year since five floors of expanded seating and a grilled cheese café joined historic reading rooms and the checkered entrance hall students first crossed back in 1938.
We’re excited that for the inaugural reading challenge in 2025, we will dive into Gothic literature written by women authors, beginning with an early Gothic novel written in the 18th century and moving chronologically to end with contemporary 21st-century Gothic fiction.
Alexander “Sandy” G. Gilliam, Jr., who died on June 8, 2024, was something of a UVA institution, having spent more than half of his life at the University in a number of roles, including as secretary to the Board of Visitors and special assistant to four presidents. He was also 