UC Libraries Build New Link with Underground Railroad

A new agreement between University of Cincinnati University Libraries and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will create a library of valuable history about the Underground Railroad -- a library open to scholars and researchers around the world, 24-hours a day, with just a few clicks from a computer keyboard.

The digital library will hold Underground Railroad archival collections, such as oral history interviews with Underground Railroad participants, maps, articles, photographs, and annotated correspondence. University Libraries will add the bibliographic records for these collections to their online catalog

Through the center's relationship with UC Libraries, the actual contents of the Freedom Center's Digital Library will be added to the Digital Media Center of OhioLINK, the award-winning library consortium of 80 Ohio college and university libraries, of which UC is a founding member. Scholars affiliated with OhioLINK member institutions can access the collection anytime, and anywhere for their own research.

The agreement designates UC as a "Freedom Station" in an international network dedicated "to educating the public about the historic struggle to abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people." This means the public can visit any Freedom Station, including University Libraries, and view the interviews, documents and images that will be stored in the digital library.

The Freedom Station program is a core educational outreach initiative of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It is a network of affiliated organizations in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and beyond. The Freedom Stations will constitute an international alliance devoted to scholarly research, interpretation, teacher training, distance learning, heritage tourism, and collections sharing ? all connected via a password accessed Web site.

"Our relationship with the University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK is the perfect collaboration for us as it is with institutions we respect and in whom we have great confidence," said Spencer Crew, Executive Director and CEO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

"The establishment of a digital library will greatly enhance the research capacities of all the stakeholders," says Anthony J. Perzigian, UC Senior Vice President and Provost for Baccalaureate and Graduate Education. "This is just the beginning of what will surely be a long and productive partnership; indeed, the educational and service missions of the University of Cincinnati and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center overlap in many ways."

Work on the digital library is already underway. It is anticipated that at least one significant Underground Railroad digital collection will be available to users by the end of the summer, according to Victoria Montavon, Dean and University Librarian.

The University of Cincinnati joins the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale for the Study of Slavery and Abolition and Youngstown State University as college affiliates in the Freedom Station program.

Other UC Connections to the Underground Railroad.