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This May, at the start of my last semester at Wayne State’s School of Library and Information Science, I began a Practicum in Digital Content Management here at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. Over the last three months I have spent many hours with Series 10 of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Collection. This series, which is mostly pamphlets and handouts, needed digitization to keep it alive. Access to the series was restricted, not for inflammatory content, but because of the fragile condition of the early 20th century documents. This made me a kind of digital life support for this information rich material.  read more »

The Reuther Library is pleased to announce the digitization of over 100 reel-to-reel audio recordings related to the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). AWOC was chartered by the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to organize farm workers in California. AWOC called many strikes against growers and farm labor contractors and achieved some success in raising wages of farm laborers. They merged with the National Farm Workers Association to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO in 1966.

These recordings, mostly from California, range from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. They include talks with farm workers, organizing meetings, documentary sound, and interviews with movement leaders.  read more »

The Reuther Library is pleased to announce the opening of several new collections related to LGBT History in Southeast Michigan.

Though collecting material related to civil rights and social movements in Southeast Detroit has always been a mission for the Walter P. Reuther Library, we aim to grow the LGBT collection to include a broader range of voices. To this end, the Reuther will have a table at Detroit’s Hotter Than July! picnic on July 30th at Palmer Park to bring greater awareness to our archival collections. This event is part of a week-long celebration of Black LGBT pride and is sponsored by LGBT Detroit.

In conjunction with this festival the Reuther is pleased to announce that the LGBT Detroit Records are open for research.  read more »

This article was written by Audrey Swartz, a recipient of the Ronald Raven award and a student in Wayne State University's SLIS program, during the spring of 2016.

As Wayne State celebrates its sesquicentennial in 2018, there is an effort to increase access to photographs located in the University Archives. With the help of a student intern and the Audio Visual archivists at the Reuther, we have been able to begin this process. Wayne State University’s photography collection, housed in the AV Department at the Reuther Library, ranges from roughly 1945 to 2003. These photographs cover everything from sporting events (did you know WSU once had a rowing team?) to campus ceremonies, life and construction.  read more »