Space Available for the 2016 Anne & Ryland Brown Teacher Institute, August 1–2

Every summer, the Library of Virginia's Education Department offers a teacher development workshop, made possible by the Anne and Ryland Brown Teacher Enrichment Fund, that presents content relevant to the ever-changing developments in the Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools.

In conjunction with the Library's current exhibition, First Freedom: Virginia's Statute for Religious Freedom, the 2016 workshop will focus on the meaning of religious freedom, not only in Virginia’s founding documents, but also in the debate about religious freedom in education today.

Library of Virginia staff members and guest speakers in the two-day Teacher Institute will focus on the history of religious freedom in Virginia and its modern-day legacy. Teachers will explore how to use primary sources to enhance student learning in their classrooms and discover new digital resources.

Lodging will be provided for the first 17 attendees who live 70 miles or more outside the city of Richmond. To register, go to http://edu.lva.virginia.gov/brown/brown-institute.

Light and Sims to Lead State Library Board

R. Chambliss Light, Jr., of Lynchburg, who was elected chair of the State Library Board in January 2016 after the death of Ernestine Middleton, has been elected as chair for a full term by the Library Board at its annual meeting in June. Light recently retired after 30 years with the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, where he held a number of legal and management positions.

Marcy Sims, of Virginia Beach, was elected vice chair of the Board. Sims retired in 2013 after serving 37 years as director of the Virginia Beach Public Library. She serves on the boards of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the Virginia Literacy Foundation.

Joining Light and Sims on the Executive Committee of the Library Board are Christopher Oprison, of Miami, FL; Emily O’Quinn, of Bristol; and M. David Skiles, of Centreville.

Teresa Muse Is 2016 Brown Fellow

Teresa Muse is the 2016 Anne and Ryland Brown Fellow. She was born and raised in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where she gained an appreciation and fondness for history. After earning an associate degree in history from Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, she served an 18–month mission for her church in Utah, which inspired her to pursue teaching. She continued her education at Brigham Young University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in social studies education.

In 2006, Muse moved to Virginia and began teaching in the Orange County Public Schools. She has taught eight different courses within the social science curriculum, and completed her master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Averett University in 2011. Muse was a researcher for the "America on the World Stage" project, where the culminating experience was to conduct field study in Barbados on the trans-Atlantic slave trade. "America on the World Stage" is a five-year Teaching American History grant project focused on relationships between events in America and other cultures and legal systems around the world.

Muse will be working on a set of documents for Document Bank of Virginia (http://edu.lva.virginia.gov/dbva) this summer that will complement the Library's current exhibition, First Freedom: Virginia's Statute for Religious Freedom.

The Anne and Ryland Brown Teacher Research Fellowship provides Virginia educators the opportunity to research and study a specific aspect of Virginia history and produce educational resources to support the Library of Virginia's ongoing exhibition and education programs. The award includes a stipend of $2,000 and a $500 allocation to cover fees and travel for conference presentations.

Established in 2009, the Brown Teacher Enrichment Fund enhances knowledge and training in history and social science instruction in Virginia by providing educators with an opportunity for in-depth study and the development of teaching materials in collaboration with both teaching colleagues and members of the Library of Virginia's professional staff. It was established by Ellen and Orran Brown in honor of his parents, Anne and Ryland Brown of Forest, Virginia.

—submitted by Catherine Fitzgerald Wyatt, Public Services and Outreach

State Depository Program Reaches a Milestone

The Library of Virginia's State Publications Depository Program reached a significant milestone on June 1 when it posted the 100th list of digital state publications for the use of librarians around the state. The program started with two publications in 2007 and has since acquired nearly 10,000 state publications in electronic format, which are accessible to the public while also being securely archived. The Library thanks the staff members who have contributed to the success of the State Publications Depository, including Dorothy Harrison, Kathy Jordan, and Nathan Verilla.

The State Publications Depository Program collects both paper and electronic government publications of all types. The digital repository for electronic publications contains Virginia government information on subjects ranging from gardening and healthy living advice to regulations and toxic release inventories. The collection can be browsed by topic or issuing agency and can also be searched by full text. Publications are submitted by every state agency, making this the best single place to search for Virginia government information.

The digital collection can be found on the Library of Virginia's Virginia Memory website (www.virginiamemory.com). Use the Digital Collections drop-down menu "Collections A–Z" and select State Government Publications. Electronic publications are also cataloged and accessible through the Library of Virginia's online catalog.

Library Adds Two Map Exhibitions to Google Galleries

This year the Library of Virginia has posted two map exhibitions in Google Cultural Institute, recently renamed Google Arts & Culture, www.google.com/culturalinstitute/collection/library-of-virginia. An exhibition of select maps and charts from the Alan M. Voorhees Map Collection, Geographia, is divided into four sections that include an introduction and a present-day map that georeferences the area of focus. The sections are titled: 'Early Views of Europe and the World," "Early European Views of America," "British and French Claims of North America," and "Maps of Virginia, Colonial to 19th Century." As viewers visit the Geographia gallery they can read captions about each map and study a particular section by using the built-in zoom features. The exhibition includes short biographies of famous explorers like Ferdinand Magellan and Amerigo Vespucci.

An exhibition called Washington complements the Library's 2016 Alan M. and Nathalie P. Voorhees Lecture on the History of Cartography. Held this past April, the lecture focused on the District of Columbia, which at one time included the city of Alexandria. This exhibition explores the evolution of the District through the Civil War as told through manuscript and printed maps and is divided into three sections: "Alexandria in the District," "Washington City in the District," and "The District after 1846." Viewers can research maps of the city and find views of the Capitol, vignettes of the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian, and a printed engraving of the Washington family. Short video clips examine the construction of the Capitol building and the Washington Monument, as well as the life of George Washington.

Please take a look and enjoy this visual story of the Americas and the capital city of the United States put together by the Library's Manuscripts and Special Collections staff.

—submitted by Cassandra Britt Farrell, Collections Access and Management Services

The Merlot Murders Is the Virginia Center for the Book's Choice for "Route 1 Reads"

For the second consecutive year, the Virginia Center for the Book is participating in the Route One Reads initiative, a program under the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

The 2016 theme is mysteries, and the book selected to represent the state is The Merlot Murders by Ellen Crosby. This is the first novel in Crosby's Wine Country Mysteries series. Set near Middleburg, Virginia, in the heart of horse and hunt country, the series chronicles the life of Lucie Montgomery, a young woman who has inherited her family's vineyard along with a somewhat cantankerous winemaker whom her father hired shortly before his death.

Crosby writes and lives in northern Virginia, following careers as an economist for the U.S. Senate and as a freelance journalist working in Washington and Moscow. "As an author writing about a woman who owns a vineyard in Virginia—we're the 5th largest wine-producing state in the U.S.—I consider myself lucky to live in such a history-rich region of so much natural beauty," said the author.

The diverse reading list created by Route One Reads highlights each of the 16 state Centers for the Book, while celebrating the East Coast as a whole. By participating in Route One Reads, readers can travel across 15 states and the District of Columbia without taking a single footstep or loading the books into the car for a literary road trip.

A map of participating states and a full list of featured books for the 2016 Route One Reads initiative are available at Route1Reads.org.

Connecting the 2,369 miles of U.S. Route 1 from Ft. Kent, Maine, to Key West, Florida, the Route One Reads initiative is a partnership between the 16 affiliate Centers for the Book to promote books that illuminate important aspects of their states for readers traveling the meandering highway. The initiative was launched at the 2015 National Book Festival in Washington, DC. For more information, visit Route1Reads.org or follow #Route1Reads on Twitter.

Route One Reads is a partnership between the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and its affiliate Centers for the Book in the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, DC.

—submitted by Sarah Lawson, Virginia Center for the Book