Summer Cover to Cover Out Now!
View the newest issue of Cover to Cover in PDF format, or read on below for all the news that is fit to print about the SRSU Library & Archives:
Letter from the Director
Summer is always reserved for aspirational projects, catch-up, and clean-up in the Library & Archives. We invest in ourselves by taking leave to rest and recuperate, and we invest in our mission by stopping to assess, perform maintenance checks, and reframe to continue to provide the best information resources, services, and spaces to our students, faculty, staff, and communities.
We knew we’d have a busy summer celebrating the Archives of the Big Bend’s 50th Anniversary, but I’m not sure we realized it would be so much fun (for proof, see me and Victoria waving on the float above). You heard all about our participation in Alpine’s Fourth of July parade and festivities, and you hopefully heard how grateful we were to David Creek and the Facilities folks, as well as Dr. John Klingemann and Loretta Garcia, for all their help bringing our float dreams to fruition. Not one week later, Historic Alpine hosted over seventy of the Archives’ nearest and dearest for a birthday ‘shindig’ featuring a champagne toast, historic punch, and delicious catering from Bread Garden Bakery. During the party, Historic Alpine donated $1,000 to the Archives’ Endowment. As of July 10, we raised $2,600, and we’ve got some really exciting news to share about what we’re doing to reinvigorate and grow the Archives Endowment heading into fall to support digitization efforts and our archival internship program.
Now we look ahead to the return of students and faculty so that we can continue some of the exciting conversations around Open Access and OER started last spring. This summer I started thinking more deeply about local and regional news with colleagues in our Department of Languages and Literature. What is our responsibility as a regional university to preserve and provide access to that news? If that sounds interesting to you, let’s talk.
Read on for updates across the Library & Archives and look for more information from us about Reserves, collection development, and upcoming events in your inbox as we kick off another semester.
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Update: 250 for the 250th Project
-via Victoria Contreras, Head of Archives-
Because of your participation, SRSU and our Big Bend region will be represented on the Society of American Archivists’ 250 for the 250th repository, a national platform. Based on the results of our poll and SRSU community feedback, we are excited to present the selected photograph. Sound the trumpets!
The winning photograph, from the Hattie Grace Elliott Collection, features Everett Ewing (E.E.) Townsend atop Mesa de Anguila, approximately 1,500 feet above Santa Elena Canyon in today’s Big Bend National Park. Townsend served the Big Bend region of west Texas as a Texas Ranger, customs inspector, rancher, and Brewster County sheriff. He is perhaps best known, however, for his work as a State Representative, which earned him the title “Daddie” of Big Bend National Park.
In 1933, Townsend and R.M. “Bob” Wagstaff of Abilene introduced House Bill 773, which passed and established Texas Canyons State Park, the foundation of what is now our beloved National Park. From the earliest farmers and ranchers to the Civilian Conservation Corps, the National Park Service, and today’s advocates, generations of Big Bend residents and beyond have worked to preserve, protect, and celebrate the unique beauty and environment of our region.
Find this image on our official run of Archives of the Big Bend postcards. A large print of the photograph and others from the collection are on permanent display on the first floor of the Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library in Alpine.
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Save the Date! Border Regional Archives Group
Archives Bazaar
Friday & Saturday, October 9-10, 2026
University Center
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From SRSU to MoMA
-via Betsy Helesic Evans, Director-
During the summer months, I try to spend more time in the Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library stacks checking on the collection. This summer, a plastic-wrapped portfolio caught my eye in the Dewey 600s. Humanscale 1/2/3 is a work of design and a manual for designers: one book and two charts provide human size ranges, seating considerations, and requirements for modifying designs for accessibility, compiled from interdisciplinary data to serve as a tool for everyone who designs for the human body. I pulled the book off the shelf and (naturally) checked it out to peruse more at home. My husband is a woodworker with a penchant for chairs, and I wanted to show him, too.
Fast forward to August, when we were visiting the Museum of Modern Art on a trip to New York to see my little brother get married, and I saw another part of this series on permanent display in an art museum – the Museum of Modern Art, no less!
Now I understand this three-part series, published between 1974 and 1981, to be a landmark in ergonomic design manuals featuring the work of the design firm Henry Dreyfuss Associates. I might not have taken a second or third look at this manual on the wall at MoMA in a sea of people and precious art, save for that horizontal human form who caught my eye back at home.
If there’s a moral here, it’s this: Wander the stacks with a curious mind. You might learn something. And if you want to check it out, I’ll turn it in soon.
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Noteworthy Staff Professional Development and Presentations
- Library Assistant Gaby Casarez is one of four recipients selected to receive an Amigos scholarship to attend the 2026 Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference [online].
- Mike Fernandez will join a panel to present “Bridging the Divide: ILL Solutions for Equitable Access” at the 2026 Federal Depository Library Conference [online]. He will primarily discuss expanding access to resources through our services like Direct Mail.
- Victoria Contreras will chair the presentation “Roots, Stories, and Memories: How Family Narratives Shape Who We Are,” about the use of family archives and oral histories to address institutional archival gaps at the 66th annual Western History Association conference in Portland, Oregon.
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Dispatch from Eagle Pass
-via Mike Fernandez, Head of Library Services at SRSU International-
As we begin another academic year, we mark three years of serving the SRSU International community with Library Services in Eagle Pass. Our collection has continued to grow over the summer, with new titles making their way onto the shelves. Stop by, browse the collection, and see what’s new. And if what you’re looking for isn’t here, Interlibrary Loan and Direct Mail remain reliable options for bringing physical materials to you from Alpine and beyond.
A few changes are also coming to our space this fall. We’ll be rearranging things to create new options for studying, relaxing, or settling in between classes. We will continue our extended hours pilot, remaining open until 7 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All hours and holidays are available online.
Your feedback and ideas help us decide what comes next. We look forward to welcoming everyone – including new faculty and new students – and supporting you throughout the fall semester.
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Hiring Students in Alpine!
Faculty, help the Library & Archives by letting your students know we are looking for Work Study-eligible student workers at the Front Desk, Interlibrary Services, and Archives in Alpine.
Links to apply to all of our open positions can be found on our website at Work for the Library and Archives or by searching “Library” or “Archives” on PeopleAdmin, the SRSU Hiring Portal.
