What's New in Special Collections

Staff Highlight: Our Award-Winning Staff

Two staff members from Special Collections were recognized for their achievements recently. Please join us in congratulating our wonderful colleagues!

Emily Lapworth, Digital Special Collections Librarian, was awarded the UNLV University Libraries Innovative Solutions Award for her efforts to implement large-scale digitization practices in the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226 Project. She was nominated by her supervisor, Cory Lampert, Head of Digital Collections.

Eadington Gaming Fellow Mark Johnson : In Residence June 19 - July 17

Mark R Johnson is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research focuses on professional gameplay of all kinds - video games, gambling games, board games - and numerous other topics within "game studies". He's currently working on his first monograph with Bloomsbury Academic, entitled "The Unpredictability of Gameplay". He is also a former professional poker player, a multiple video game world record holder, an independent game developer, and a freelance games writer.

Linked Data Research in Digital Collections

Cory Lampert and Silvia Southwick pose with a linked open data map.

You may be used to thinking of baseball when you hear the word "triples" but you might not after reading this article on the recent linked data research done by our colleagues in Digital Collections. Learn more about the concept of linked open data, the cutting edge research conducted by Cory Lampert and Silvia Southwick, and how they are working toward applying their research into more effective ways that users can search our collections.

Summer Speaker Series Announced

Building Las Vegas is an initiative launched in 2016 by UNLV University Libraries Special Collections & Archives to collect and preserve the history of the growth of our city. The Summer Speaker Series features panel discussions from experts who have helped direct and shape this growth. Learn more about the project at the Building Las Vegas webpage.

Eugene Martin Christiansen Papers are Ready for Researchers, by Lindsay Oden

Project archivist Lindsay Oden stands in front of the Eugene Martin Christiansen Papers, which are now housed in 255 boxes occupying almost 140 feet of shelf space.

Visiting the Island: The Tropicana’s History in Documents by David G. Schwartz

A promotional brochure for the Tropicana Hotel and Casino, circa 1990. Tropicana Promotional and Publicity Material Collection (HD 9999 G25 T78)

By David G. Schwartz, Director of the Center for Gaming Research

Christiansen Reports on Gaming Facilities Contain Deep Insights on Economic Activity, by Lindsay Oden

A selection of reports from the Eugene Martin Christiansen Papers, 1948-2015. MS-00561. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Collection highlight: Martin Stern Jr.'s architectural vision for Autoworld, by Jimmy Chang and Tyler Stanger

Aerial perspective illustrating Stern's conceptual layout for Harrah's Autoworld complex. Martin Stern Architectural Records, 1953-1990. MS-00382. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

UNLV Libraries is home to the Martin Stern Architectural Records. UNLV School of Architecture students Jimmy Chang and Tyler Stanger explore an unbuilt project of architect Martin Stern Jr., whose projects, from the International Hotel to the first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, have paved the way for both intellectual thought and physical land in Las Vegas.

Mining for Gold (and Silver) in Special Collections by Peter Michel

Above: A view of Tonopah in the early 1900s (Leon Rockwell Collection, PH: 0008-0159)

If March brings to mind the luck of the Irish and a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, it might be a good time to highlight Nevada’s last great Gold Rush, and the towns along the rainbow. Over the years, UNLV Libraries Special Collections has acquired numerous documents and photographs from the great gold and silver mining boom in Tonopah and Goldfield. Selections from many of these collections are accessible online through our Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years digital collection. The history revealed in these collections, of Goldfield and Tonopah and the men who made, and lost their fortunes there, offers researchers new perspectives on an intriguing aspect of turn-of-the century Nevada and the Western frontier.

Girl Scout Records in UNLV Libraries, by Angela Moor

Girl Scouts at Camp Foxtail, Nevada, 1994. Frontier Girl Scouts Records, 1944-1999. MS-00421. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.