Featured Collection: Architecture of Texas and Beyond

By Maria Barker, Library Assistant

The current Featured Collection in the Reference Reading Room, Architecture of Texas and Beyond, covers the stories and history of significant spaces across the US and Mexico. From cabins to sky scrapers, churches to highway visitor centers, the selection gives the interested reader a sense of the qualities that make a structure significant, and how buildings manage to go up and come down over time.

To search for these books and more, check out our catalog at www.tsl.texas.gov/catalog. If you are interested in checking out a title on our Featured Collection shelf, please visit the Reference Desk in room 109. Below is the complete list of titles you’ll find on our Featured Collection shelf this month.

Want to learn more about the Featured and New Book Collections at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission? Check out Maria’s previous post about these displays in the Reference Reading Room.

Title Author Call No. Collection
Alfred Giles : an English architect in Texas and Mexico George, Mary Carolyn Hollers 720.924 G391j MAIN
Architecture in Texas, 1895-1945 Henry, Jay C. 720.9764 H396A MAIN
Building the Lone Star: an illustrated guide to historic sites Baker, T. Lindsay. 917.64 B177B MAIN
Cowtown Moderne : art deco architecture of Fort Worth, Texas Cohen, Judith Singer 725.09764 C66C MAIN
Dallas Architecture, 1936-1986 Tomlinson, Doug 720.9764 T597D MAIN
Dog Trots & Mud Cats : the Texas Log House Lavender, Linda 720.9764 L386D MAIN
Pioneer Texas Buildings; a geometry lesson Heimsath, Clovis 720.9764 H364 MAIN
Presidio, Mission, and Pueblo : Spanish architecture and urbanism in the United States Early, James 720.976 Ea764p MAIN
Restoring Texas : Raiford Stripling’s Life and Architecture McCullar, Michael 720.924 M139R MAIN
Texas Public Buildings of the Nineteenth Century Robinson, Willard Bethurem 720.9764 R568 MAIN
The Architectural Legacy of Alfred Giles : Selected Restorations George, Mary Carolyn Hollers 720.92 G293a MAIN
The People’s Architecture : Texas courthouses, jails, and municipal buildings Robinson, Willard Bethurem 725.15 R568P MAIN
The See-Through Years : creation and destruction in Texas architecture and real estate, 1981-1991 Barna, Joel Warren 720.9764 B252S MAIN
The Texas Courthouse Welch, June Rayfield 725.15 W444 MAIN
Architecture as Revolution : episodes in the history of modern Mexico Carranza, Luis E. Z UA380.8 C231AR Texas Documents
Lone Star steeples : historic places of worship in Texas Christensen, Carl J. Z TA475.8 C462lo Texas Documents
Lost architecture of the Rio Grande Borderlands George, Eugene. Z TA475.8 G293Lo Texas Documents
Master Builder of the Lower Rio Grande : Heinrich Portscheller George, W. Eugene Z TA475.8 G293ma Texas Documents
Modern Architecture in Latin America : art, technology, and utopia Carranza, Luis E. Z UA380.8 C231mo Texas Documents
Sanctioning Modernism : architecture and the making of postwar identities Kulić, Vladimir Z UA380.8 SA559mo Texas Documents
The Alleys and Back Buildings of Galveston : an architectural and social history Beasley, Ellen Z TA475.8 B38AL Texas Documents
The American Idea of Home : conversations about architecture and design Friedman, Bernard Z UA380.8 F914am Texas Documents
The Architecture and Cities of Northern Mexico from Independence to the Present : Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Baja California Norte and Sur Burian, Edward R. Z UA380.8 B916ar Texas Documents
The Moodys of Galveston and their mansion Wiencek, Henry Z TA475.8 W636mo Texas Documents
Aesthetics in transportation : guidelines for incorporating design, art and architecture into transportation facilities Héder, Lajos TD 1.8:AE 8 U.S. Documents
Examples and ideas to stimulate and improve the design, art & architecture of airports Bowman, Donald P. TD 4.2:AI 7/36 U.S. Documents
Historic America: Buildings, Structures, and Sites LC 1.2:H 62/5 U.S. Documents
Mission 66 visitor centers : the history of a building type. Allaback, Sarah I 29.2:M 69/5 U.S. Documents
Architecture that speaks : S.C.P. Vosper and ten remarkable buildings at Texas A & M McCoy, Nancy T. Z TA475.8 M137ar Texas Documents

 

Out of the Stacks and into the Catalog: Featured Collections and New Book Displays

By Maria Barker, Library Assistant

Although the Texas State Library and Archives Commission has “closed stacks” — meaning certain materials are pulled by staff and brought to researchers in the reading rooms rather than allowing patrons to publicly browse — there are tools to help unlock the information held within. Over years of processing materials and roving the stacks, staff members have identified a number of themes that go beyond their classification on the shelf. To highlight these hidden collections and to showcase the stream of titles coming into the library, about every six weeks staff create book displays in the Reference and Genealogy reading rooms for patrons to enjoy.

An aisle in one of the seven floors of closed stacks at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

The New Books displays feature books that are new to our collections.  In addition to regularly reviewing and acquiring titles through our collection development efforts and depository commitments, the library also receives donations and suggested titles from the public. If you’re interested in the library’s donation policy or have suggested titles, please email ref@tsl.texas.gov.

The Genealogy New Books display is located in our Texas Family Heritage Research Center.

The Featured Collection contains books selected and arranged by library staff around a particular theme or event. The current display showcases the variety of Texas Children’s Books in our collection.  Previous displays include “Oh the Places You’ll Go- Texas Style”, an exploration of Texas’ vacation spots, a WWI centennial display, and a display focusing on Texas Music and Film.

In our reference reading room, located on the 1st floor of the Lorenzo De Zavala building, the Featured Collection display and New Books display sit side by side near the reference desk.

If you can’t visit our book displays in person you can find updates on the latest Featured Collection here, through the Out of the Stacks blog.

To see a list of new titles, visit the library catalog and click on “New Materials”.

The “New Materials” link is on the gray menu bar near the top of the webpage on the library catalog at www.tsl.texas.gov/catalog.

Click on a collection name to see a list of recently acquired material for that collection.

Click on a collection name to see a list of new material.

Click on a collection name to see a list of new material.

When you click on “TSLAC Genealogy” from the New Material Lists page, you are directed to a list of titles. Click on a title to see further details about our holdings and the catalog record.

Stay tuned for more library catalog features, tips and tricks, and walkthroughs in our upcoming posts!

To learn more about searching the catalog, check out our previous post, Out of the Stacks and into the Catalog: The Basics.

Out of the Stacks and into the Catalog: The Basics

By Stephanie Andrews, Library Assistant

By searching the library catalog, many of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission’s titles and holdings can be discovered from the comfort and convenience of home. In the library catalog, you can find publications covering topics such as: Texas history, Genealogy, United States federal documents, and much more! In fact, the State Archives’ finding aids can also be found in the library catalog. In this blog series, we will explore the features, functions, and various search strategies that you can use for navigating the library catalog.

Today, we will start with the basics. To get to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission’s (TSLAC) library catalog, first visit our website at www.tsl.texas.gov  and then click “Archives & Reference.”  Next, click “Library Catalog” on the following page.  To access the catalog directly, you can type www.tsl.texas.gov/catalog into the address bar of your web browser and press the Enter key. Here you can conduct multiple types of searches, access your patron account, and find contact information for the Reference staff. In this post, we’ll look specifically at the search box, search results, and how to get item details.

The TSLAC library catalog homepage.

The TSLAC library catalog is a shared catalog. It stores our titles as well as those for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) which leads us to our first few quick tips:

  • Click “Keyword”, “Browse”, or “Exact” depending on the type of search you are doing. An in-depth look on the types of searches you can do will be covered in an upcoming post.
  • Select “TX State Library & Archives Comm” under Library. This limits your search to titles in our collections. Otherwise, you may see items held by the TCEQ.
  • Pressing “Enter” on your keyboard will default your search to a “Words or Phrase” search. Try using the other search buttons, ”Author”, “Title”, “Subject”, “Series”, or “Periodical Title” to narrow your search. We will take a closer look at these search options in a future post, as well.

Let’s try a search using these new tips! I’ll do a keyword search for the word bluebirds. You can try this same search at home by typing “bluebirds” into the search field then selecting “Texas State Library & Archives Comm” and pressing Enter on your keyboard.

Once you do, you should be redirected to the same results screen as pictured below. If you searched for bluebird instead of bluebirds, you probably see a different set of results. Hint: when doing searches, try different variations of spelling(s) and/or variations on plural/singular spellings to find different titles.

A search results page, listing several results in blue.

Once the search results appear, you can click on a blue link to be redirected to more specific information about the keyword, title, subject, author, publisher, or periodical you searched for. For this search, I’ll click on the top result that appeared; “Bluebirds in Texas” by Noreen Damude and published in 2016.

The Item Details screen shows you detailed information about the title.

In the image above, we have highlighted the two main sections that you need to know. The first shows the item information which is highlighted by the purple box. Here you can see the item’s title, author, publisher, publication date, and even a physical description of the item.

The second portion shows the TSLAC holdings information which is highlighted by the green box. Here you can see the item’s call number, number of copies, type of material (book, DVD, etc.), and the item location. The first and last pieces of information here are important because the call number and location is what staff need to know to retrieve the item for you. It’s also important to note the location may say TSLAC or Liberty. TSLAC denotes that it is at our location in downtown Austin and Liberty denotes that it is at our location in Liberty, TX.

Not finding what you’re looking for? Use the Reference Desk contact information found on the right side of the catalog homepage to get in touch with a Reference staff member for assistance.

That’s all for this blog post, but stay tuned for future tips, tricks, and walkthroughs from the TSLAC Reference staff. Happy searching!