UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS COLLECTION AT THE NEBRASKA LIBRARY COMMISSION

What We’ll Cover Today

• A brief history of the Nebraska State Documents Clearinghouse

• A history of the University of Nebraska Press

• Examples of University of Nebraska Press books in the NLC collection

• How to find University of Nebraska Press books in the NLC collection

• University of Nebraska Press and the Nebraska 150 Celebration Book List

The Nebraska State Documents Clearinghouse

• Prior to 1972 there was no comprehensive program in the state for collecting and preserving Nebraska government publications.

• In January 1972 LB 1284 was introduced in the Nebraska Legislature, passed and signed by the Governor in March establishing the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse.

• The Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse program was launched in July of 1972.

• The Nebraska State Documents Clearinghouse houses all public documents from Nebraska state agencies, including documents from the University of Nebraska and selected titles from the University of Nebraska Press.

• The Nebraska Library Commission has been adding Nebraska Press books to its’ collection since the inception of the Nebraska State Documents Clearinghouse in 1972.

• Of the 170 new Press books released every year, the Clearinghouse collects between 60 and 70 titles of those titles.

• As a result, the University of Nebraska Press Collection is one of the largest parts of the Clearinghouse documents collection at the Nebraska Library Commission.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS

• The University of Nebraska Press, founded in 1941, is a nonprofit academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The Press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the University of Nebraska system.

• The Press publishes approximately 170 new and reprint titles annually, and has more than 3,000 titles in print. It publishes primarily non-fiction books and scholarly journals, in both print and electronic editions, and is considered on of the most prestigious academic presses in the country.

• The press has very strong publishing programs in Native American studies and Western American history. Since 2010, two of the press' books have received the Bancroft Prize. The press also has a highly regarded publishing program in sports.

• The Press publishes under the Nebraska Press, Bison Books, and Potomac Books imprints. In 2011, the press entered into a collaborative publishing arrangement with the Jewish Publication Society, one of the oldest scholarly Jewish publishers in the United States.

• Potomac Books, which the Press acquired in 2013, specializes in military and diplomatic topics.

• The Press is best known for its works in Native Studies, Western History, Sports, Anthropology, Geography, American History and Studies, American Cultural Studies, and Creative Works.

• Topics that the Clearinghouse collects include American Studies, Natural History in Nebraska, Nebraska Authors, Western History, and Native American Studies.

• Scholarly journals that come to the Clearinghouse include Prairie Schooner, Great Plains Quarterly, Great Plains Research, and Middle West Review.

• Following are some examples of the wide range of titles that the Press publishes, and the Clearinghouse collects…

Examples of Nebraska Press Books in the NLC Collection

• The Biology of Ground-Dwelling Squirrels: Annual Cycles, Behavioral Ecology, and Sociality ; Edited by Jan O. Murie and Gail R. Michener, University of Nebraska Press, 1984.

• Black Elk Speaks : Being The Life Story Of A Holy Man Of The Oglala Sioux ; by John G. Neihardt (Flaming Rainbow), University of Nebraska Press, 1989.

The most famous Native American book ever written, Black Elk Speaks is the acclaimed story of Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) and his people during the momentous, twilight years of the nineteenth century.

Black Elk Lives: Conversations with the Black Elk Family ; by Esther Black Elk DeSersa, et al., University of Nebraska

Press, 2003. We learn how the descendants of Black Elk live, how

their famous ancestor shaped their worldviews, reminding us that their famous forebear still lives, in the legacy of his book and through his descendants.

• Bright Epoch: Women and Coeducation in the American West (Women in the West series) ; by Andrea G. Radke-Moss, University of Nebraska Press, 2008.

Bright Epoch tells the story of female students’ early mixed-gender encounters at four institutions: Iowa Agricultural College, the University of Nebraska, Oregon Agricultural College, and Utah State Agricultural College. Although land-grant institutions have been most commonly associated with domestic science courses for women, Bright Epoch illumi-nates the diversity of other courses of study available to female students, including the sciences, literature, journalism, business commerce, and law.

Prairie Forge: The Extraordinary Story of the Nebraska Scrap Metal Drive of World War II ; by James J. Kimble, University of Nebraska Press, 2014.

**2015 Nebraska Book Award in Nonfiction: Nebraska Spirit, from Nebraska Center for the Book

During WWII, the United States needed scrap metal. Henry Doorly, publisher of the Omaha World- Herald, had the solution. Prairie Forge tells the story of the great Nebraska scrap drive of 1942—a campaign that swept the nation and yielded five million tons of scrap metal, literally salvaging the war effort itself.

More Press Titles and How to Find Themin the NLC Collection

Winter Wheat By Mildred Walker with an Introduction by James Welch originally published in 1944, republished in 1992

“For this Bison Books edition, James Welch, the acclaimed author of Winter in the Blood (1986) and other novels, introduces Mildred Walker's vivid heroine, Ellen Webb, who lives in the dryland wheat country of central Montana during the early 1940s. He writes, ‘It is a story about growing up, becoming a woman, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, within the space of a year and a half. But what a year and a half it is!’’’ – from the University of Nebraska Press website.

In 2003, it was selected by Montana Humanities and its partners as the inaugural One Book Montana.

The American West: A Twentieth-Century History By Michael P. Malone and Richard Etulain First edition published in 1989

“Malone and Etulain discuss economic, political, social, and cultural developments in the West from the turn of the century to the onset of the Great Depression, when the region was still in a colonial relationship to the urban, industrial Northeast and upper Midwest; from 1930 to the end of World War II, when the West was transformed by New Deal programs and by even greater federal spending in military installations; and from 1945 to the present, when the West experienced rapid changes in demographics and a series of trendsetting lifestyles. Unique to this history are chapters about the rich cultural heritage of the modern West and about the lives of men, women, and children of various ethnic groups” – from the University of Nebraska Press website.

The Course of EmpireBy Bernard DeVoto originally published in 1952; first Bison edition published in 1983

Moving from the eastern seaboard to the Great Lakes region and beyond, The Course of Empire traces the paths of British, Spanish and French explorers who sought to explore and exploit the North American continent for their own gain. Often, explorers found their dreams stymied by Native Americans, as well as environmental challenges. DeVoto argues that that these experiences helped define the American nation.

Part of DeVoto’s trilogy of the American West: Across the Wide Mississippi (1947) and Year of Decision: 1846 (1943)

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University of Nebraska Press and the Nebraska 150 Celebration Book List

• As part of the 150th Anniversary of Nebraska Statehood, the Nebraska Sesquicentennial Commission has chosen 150 notable Nebraska books to highlight for the Nebraska 150 Celebration in March, 2017. These books represent the best literature produced from Nebraska during the past 150 years. The books highlight the varied cultures, diverse experiences and the shared history of Nebraskans.

• Many of the books on the Nebraska 150 booklist are from the University of Nebraska Press, and are also in the Nebraska Clearinghouse collection.

• Approximately 35 titles on the list are also in the Nebraska Library Commission Book Club Kit collection. To see all of those titles, go to the nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub/ page, and under Browse Options, click on Browse Nebraska-150 Books.

• Visit nebraska150books.org for an overview, featured books by month, and a full list of the 150 titles.

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