Category Archives: Announcements

Vica Nazi Propaganda Comics

Vica Defie l'Oncle Sam cover

The Vica Nazi Propaganda Comics is one of the collections we published in our October build. According to WorldCat.org, Duke University’s Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library holds the only copies of this comic in the United States. The Nazi-controlled government in France produced the Vica comic during World War II as a propaganda tool against the Allied forces. The digital collection features the three published issues of the comic: Vica au Paradis de l’U.R.S.S, Vica contre le service secret anglais, and Vica défie l’Oncle Sam (representing the Allied forces: USSR, England, and US). The comics could support research in multiple disciplines, such as World War II history, French language and culture, popular media, comic arts, and propaganda.

We’d love to get feedback on this collection in the comments.

New Digital Collections website and discovery system

I am pleased to announce that the new Digital Collections website and discovery system are live: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/

The success of this project would not have been possible without the hard work and outstanding abilities of Will Sexton and Sean Aery. I would also like to thank Tom Crichlow and Sarah Kahn for their excellent work migrating web-based content into the CMS and for re-designing the digital collections home pages.

The new site includes the following digital collections migrated from the Dynaweb system: Ad*Access, Emergence of Advertising in America, Historic American Sheet Music, Medicine and Madison Avenue, William Gedney Photographs and Writings, and the Guido Mazzoni Pamphlet Collection. In the coming months, all of our existing digitized collections, as well as new collections, will be added into this system.

The Digital Collections site will continue to evolve based on user feedback. We have received valuable comments from you about making the new site as effective and user-friendly as possible, and we welcome additional feedback. We also are working with the Digital Projects Dept. to conduct a formal usability test of the new interface this spring.

Stay tuned for updates on progress, upcoming digital collections, and a revised digital collections proposal process.