Civil War in the American South now available in GALILEO

The Digital Library of Georgia and the Association of Southern Research Libraries have launched their new archive, Civil War and the American South, which is now available at http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=amso or though the GALILEO site.

In recognition of the sesquicentennial of the start of the American Civil War, Civil War in the American South provides a central portal to access digital collections from the Civil War Era (1850-1865) held by members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL). ASERL members hold deep and extensive collections documenting the history and culture of the American South, developed over hundreds of years to support scholarly research and teaching. Many of the special or unique manuscripts, photographs, books, newspapers, broadsides, and other materials have been digitized to provide broader access to these documents for scholars and students around the world. Civil War in the American South is a collaborative initiative to provide a single, shared point of access to the Civil War digital collections held at many individual libraries.

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From the ASERL press release:

“ATLANTA—(April 4, 2011)—Over the past 18 months, members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) have been developing a new, collaborative web portal to provide one-stop access to materials about the American Civil War Era, 1850 through 1865. The new website, www.american-south.org , was launched today to connect users to primary-source materials held across ASERL libraries about the intellectual and cultural underpinnings of the Civil War. The site currently links to more than 3,600 digitized items, and is expected to grow to more than 5,000 items in the near future.

ASERL libraries have vast and uniquely valuable collections relating to the American Civil War Era,” commented John Ulmschneider, ASERL’s Board President and University Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University. “We knew the sesquicentennial would raise public interest about the War, so we developed this new website to make these once-hidden collections available for scholars, students, and the public to discover, explore, and enjoy.

ASERL libraries are selecting and digitizing materials from their collections to contribute to this shared website. The items vary from manuscripts and letters to sermons, economic data, and other types of publications. They all share a common link: all were written and published during the Civil War Era, 1850 through 1865, and all document the intellectual and cultural milieu leading up to and defining the Era. The www.american-south.org website was developed for ASERL by the Digital Library of Georgia, and features advanced search functionalities to help users quickly discover the items they seek and to browse the collection by specific filters, including contributing library, format, and other aspects of the collection.

As research librarians, we are delighted to see this shared collection come online,” noted Ulmschneider. “What would have been disparate, local collections now have increased public visibility and much greater utility for scholars and students, with a single, shared search tool. The www.american-south.org website will become an invaluable tool for researchers, students, and educators as we learn more about the American Civil War.”

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