New Digital Collection: Boise Development

Are you interested in the history of economic development, urban planning, or transportation in Boise? Special Collections and Archives created a new collection of historical documents and photographs related to Boise’s development. This set of historic reports, brochures and plans covers topics like urban renewal, bicycle lanes, greenbelts, shopping malls and more.

Urban Renewal

In 1965 Idaho introduced an urban renewal laws that ushered in an era of building demolition in the downtown corridor. The city council created the Boise Redevelopment Agency with the mission of revitalizing downtown Boise. This agency oversaw many projects that were intended to bring new business and buildings to Boise. This digital collection showcases some of the plans and reports generated through the planning process to help researchers understand the ideas behind urban renewal in Boise.

The Greenbelt and Bicycles

This digital collection also includes several proposals, maps, and reports on the development of a greenbelt along the Boise River and increased bicycle paths and bicycle lanes for commuters and recreation.

A Shopping Mall for Boise

One interesting set of documents from the 1980s deals with the process of deciding the location of Boise’s modern shopping mall. Besides its ultimate location near Franklin street and Milwaukee avenue, other plans called for a shopping mall in the heart of Downtown, others proposed construction near 30^th street by the Boise River. By reading these documents researchers will see how parking, traffic, and urban sprawl factored into the final decision.

Items in the collection range from 1905 to the 1989, with plans to add more content in the future. Browse or search the collection again.

Jim Duran,
Special Collections & Archives

Library Summer Hours

Now that the Spring 2013 semester is over it's time to gear up for Summer classes. The Albertsons Library will be closed Saturday, May 18th (Commencement!) and Sunday, May 19th. Library Summer hours start on Monday, May 20th and we will be open:

• Monday thru Thursday: 7AM - 7PM
• Fridays: 7AM - 6PM
• Saturdays & Sundays: 10AM - 6PM

Find library hours at http://library.boisestate.edu/about/hours.php . And don't forget: our online resources are available 24/7 at http://library.boisestate.edu/ .

Have a great Summer!

Extended library hours & Finals Week

Ready for finals? We are! The Albertsons Library will be open extended hours starting Monday, May 6th (open until 2AM), and open 24 hours for Finals Week. During the late night hours, staff will be on hand to answer questions and check out first-floor reserve materials.

The second floor will be open as well, which includes the library's computer classroom, L203 with its 30 additional computers. Extended and Finals Week hours are:

• Sunday, May 6th through Thursday, May 9th: 10:00 AM to 2:00 AM
• Friday, May 10th: 7:00 AM to midnight
• Saturday, May 11th: 10:00 AM to midnight
• Sunday, May 12th: open 24 hours until Thursday, May 16th
• Friday, May 17th: 8:00 to 5:00 PM
• The library will be closed Saturday, May 18th and Sunday, May 19th

 

During Finals, free coffee and treats will be provided each night (while supplies last!) by the Associated Students of Boise State University (ASBSU). An officer from the Boise Police Department will be on duty in the library all night and can provide escort service as needed.

For a complete list of holiday hours go to http://library.boisestate.edu/about/hours.php. You can also access our online resources via the web or your mobile device at http://library.boisestate.edu/.

Scarlet Macaw to fly away for the last time!

Have you found the Scarlet Macaw? Our dear friend, Sebastian the Scarlet Macaw, is about to fly away for the last time. He has spent the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 semesters here at Albertsons Library as an ambassador for the Campus Read selection, but now the semester is coming to a close.

Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, by Bruce Barcott, is a non-fiction work that recounts the story of Sharon Matola. She became embroiled in a crusade to stop the construction of a dam that would flood the nesting grounds of the only scarlet macaws in Belize. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service macaws are listed in the “Least Concern” category of the endangered species list, they are at risk of extinction in Belize due to habitat destruction.

Sebastian’s life here at the library has not been quite so dramatic, but he has certainly done his share of migration. He has traveled to the 4th floor to find out more about his fellow birds. He has traveled to the 3rd floor and perused the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Austen. He has visited the Curriculum Resource Center on the 2nd floor and listened to music from Coltrane to Bach. Some days, he has simply perched atop the New Books section and watched students come and go through the library entrance.

Each time he has been returned to the Circulation Desk by a keen-eyed student who subsequently received an entry into a prize drawing! The drawing will occur Thursday, May 9th at 1:00 p.m., which means there is not much time left to find the Scarlet Macaw!

Prizes will include Sebastian himself, as well as copies of next semester’s Campus Read selection Half The Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. So keep your eyes peeled! The Scarlet Macaw could be on any floor of the library, even in plain sight. Return him to the Circulation Desk for your chance to win; there is no limit to the number of times you can enter!

Heather Grevatt,
Access Services

Albertsons Library: Website changes coming!

Thanks to feedback from the campus community, and after careful user analysis, and a rapid iteration process, Albertsons Library is proud to present a revised website. 

We’d like your input in regards to the new web site.

We happily invite you to an open house where we will share the new website with you and solicit your feedback. The open house will take place on May 7, 2013 from 11am-12pm in Library 201C on the second floor of the library. 

The main change in the website is that the lists of links are now in an easy to navigate left side menu. You may see the proposed change below.  

If you have any feedback and are unable to attend our open house, please email Amy Vecchione, Digital Access Librarian at amyvecchione@boisestate.edu

Library Resources After You Graduate

Many of you are graduating this semester! Congratulations!

When you graduate from Boise State University you lose access to all of those awesome resources, like Business Source Premier, eBooks, and the Oxford English Dictionary online. Here are some tips to get authoritative information after you've graduated.

1. LiLI.org  - Your state taxes contribute to many databases including Learning Express Library which holds timed practice tests for the GRE, CLEP and more! There are even great resources for kids - like child oriented encyclopedias that are way more authoritative than Wikipedia. Try Searchasaurus! You only need your zip code and city name to access these great resources.

2. Your local public library! Almost every city, and even in between, there are libraries that purchase content for you to use! No matter where you live, you can find a nearby library for you to use: http://www.publiclibraries.com/

3. Treasure Valley Libraries! If you're staying nearby in the Treasure Valley you have many to choose from depending on where you live! Garden City Library (whose motto is Not A Quiet Library), Ada Community Library, Meridian Library District, and Boise Public Library all have many branches to choose from, and bookmobiles too! Contact them for more resources. Now you can even use the Boise Public Library's Book a Librarian service to spend quality one on one time with a librarian about your research needs.

4. Local colleges and universities! Many universities and colleges will allow the general public to use our resources. We do! We have four public terminals where you may conduct research for up to an hour. Anyone can walk in to use our resources in print, too. You can check out up to ten books if you have a Special Borrowers card. Ask at the Circulation Desk. And help is always available from our Reference Desk.

Lady Bluebeard in print and almost in Hollywood

Special Collections houses the papers of William C. Anderson (MSS 218), an Idaho author of several books, including the popular Lady Bluebeard published in 1994.

Anderson grew up in Boise and spent much of his adult life here. He was a recipient of the Boise State University Distinguished Alumnus Award and inducted into the Boise High School Hall of Fame.

His book Lady Bluebeard explores the life of Lyda Southard, an Idaho woman who married seven times and murdered four of her husbands, was convicted and sent to the Idaho State Penitentiary in the 1930s, escaped and was caught and sent back, and finally received a pardon in 1942.

Lyda was a Twin Falls resident and is one of the country's first female serial killers. As an April 1957 Argosy Magazine article in the collection stated, "Men hung around Lyda like flies over molasses."

The Anderson collection contains much of his research notes on the book, as well as attempts to get the book made into a movie. Letters to Anderson from readers of his book who had known Lyda are also included in the collection. Anderson’s correspondence with Idaho’s former governors Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt convey his attempts in trying to have a film made about Southard. As Anderson states in a letter to Governor Cecil Andrus from September 1993, "The notorious Lyda Southard lived in Twin Falls and dispatched a passel of husbands. After insuring them, she boiled the arsenic out of flypaper and put it in their apple pie."

Anderson submitted this letter requesting Andrus support his presentation of making the story of Lyda into a motion picture. Andrus did support his request and in a response letter wrote, 'Hers (Lyda) is certainly an intriguing tale and should capture the imagination of Hollywood."

As seen from his letter below, Andrus goes on to write in a separate letter that the Idaho Department of Commerce's Film Bureau will provide assistant to the project, and the Old Idaho Penitentiary where Lyda was an inmate could be used as a location for the film.

Anderson had completed a draft of the screenplay for the movie and was promoting a film version of his book at the time of his death in 2003.

Julia Stringfellow,
Archivist/Librarian and Assistant Professor