Tulane University's
Louisiana Research Collection

In early January, I interviewed Cory MacLauchlin, a faculty member at Germanna Community College in Virginia, who is currently working on a new biography of John Kennedy Toole (author of A Confederacy of Dunces ). If you are interested in Cory’s work or have questions for him, you may feel free to get in touch with him . - Eira Tansey EMT: Tell me a little about what brought you to this research. CM: I teach English at Germanna Community College Fredericksburg, Virginia. In terms of what brought me to this, A Confederacy of Dunces was always my favorite novel. I started teaching a class at Christopher Newport University on New Orleans culture and put Confederacy on the syllabus. In preparation for the lectures, I read Ignatius Rising , and I was pretty disappointed. Then I read Joel Fletcher's Ken and Thelma and I was surprised to find that Joel lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I got in touch with him and we began a correspondence. He encouraged me as I pursue...

Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club carnival items from Special Collections accompany this morning's story in New Wave , Tulane University's daily online newspaper. If you're not subscribed to the New Wave email list, you can read the story here. The article highlights Zulu's 100th anniversary, and the images are taken from our Carnival holdings. With Mardi Gras around the corner, we'd like to invite you to visit our collections. The Tulane Manuscripts Department preserves an extensive Carnival collection, with invitations, dance cards, programs, krewe records, and original float and costume designs. For more information about our Carnival collection, please visit our Carnival collection page. (Image of King Zulu, 1989. Carnival Collection, Manuscripts Department, Special Collections, Tulane University Libraries. Image may not be reproduced without permission.) Posted by Eira Tansey.

Six of us in Special Collections attended a SOLINET-sponsored class on Feb. 5 at the University of New Orleans Library. The topic was Digital Imaging of Library and Archival Materials, and it included individual hands-on work in Photoshop and OmniPage Pro, as well as wide-ranging discussions about planning for digital preservation and access projects. While the workshop was technical in nature, the fundamental theme of the day was the necessity of providing strong, well-informed, collegial decision making prior to undertaking new digitization projects for special library materials. Putting procedures into place requires an analysis of the best options for software, file quality and size, storage medium, backup location for disaster planning, file naming conventions, and realistic budgeting for the equipment and ongoing staffing needs for the proposed projects. Some aspects of this developing field do not have firm industry and professional standards, but rather a choice between what ar...