Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Award-winning writers whose poems, novels, and plays have been lauded across the country have been named to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, based at the University of Georgia Libraries.

The inductee class of 2026 honors Alice Friman, Charlie Smith, and Shay Youngblood. The three writers' literary legacies have been felt across the Peach State, from Friman’s tenure at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville to Smith’s roots in Moultrie and Youngblood’s connections to Atlanta.

Unique Southern cuisine and book club worthy conversations are on the menu for a University of Georgia Libraries event, featuring influential cookbook authors from the state.  

“The Long Table: Southern Cooking, Memory, and Meaning,” will serve up food and discussions with award-winning food writers and chefs Valerie Frey, Nicole Taylor, and Virginia Willis, along with moderator Rebecca Lang. The panelists will share their secrets from the kitchen and provide tastes of their writing and recipes.  

The $25 event is scheduled for Thursday, March 12 at the UGA Special Collections Libraries Building. To register, visit our website. 

James Brown’s eel skin boots have been replaced by Little Richard’s iconic silver lamé cape in a rotating display of Georgia musical greats curated by the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries. 

The change comes as part of an annual rotation at the Georgia Music Collections exhibit at Akins Ford Arena, part of the Classic Center in Athens, which opened last year.  

Researchers can now use a modernized search tool to find unique materials preserved at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries (SCL).

The updated technology allows for easier location of materials from hand-written journals, letters, and business ledgers, textiles, political papers, and other unique items from the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. (A separate search tool is in place for the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, the third unit comprising the UGA Special Collections Libraries.)

The revamped search tool known as SCLFind allows for more detailed descriptions and filtering of results, allowing researchers more insight into their searches.

To search for special collections materials, visit libs.uga.edu/scl/research/collections

T. Rogers Wade, distinguished University of Georgia alumnus, civic leader and longtime supporter of the UGA Libraries, died Dec. 7, leaving a lasting legacy marked by public service, philanthropy and leadership across the state.

This article appears on UGA Today

Alumnus, businessman and civic leader T. Rogers Wade has been named the 2025 recipient of the Dooley Friends of the UGA Libraries Award at the University of Georgia, an honor dedicated to the legacy of academic support from legendary Bulldog football coach Vince Dooley and his wife, Barbara.

Building on their award-winning faculty fellows program, University of Georgia Libraries in partnership with the Office of Instruction and EITS will offer two opportunities for faculty to design new courses centered on unique resources that drive active learning and student engagement.

The Creative Engagement Wing Faculty Fellows program launches in the spring, preparing faculty to use the cutting edge spaces of the new MLC Creative Engagement Wing to facilitate student innovation, collaboration, and hands-on learning.

Deborah Blum, celebrated author of The Poisoner’s Handbook and The Poison Squad, will return to Athens, where her investigative journalism career began, for a discussion about the science and safety of food.

The Sept. 23 event, which has been designated as a University of Georgia Signature Lecture, will serve as Blum’s induction into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, as well as the annual Food, Power, and Politics Lecture sponsored by the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.

University of Georgia Associate Provost & University Librarian Toby Graham has announced the appointment of Dr. Ashton Ellett as the director of the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.

Ellett, who has served as the Russell Library’s politics and public policy archivist since 2018, will also oversee the Georgia Capitol Museum in Atlanta as part of his new role. He succeeds Sheryl Vogt, who recently retired after marking 50 years with the Russell Library, one of three special collections units within the University of Georgia Libraries.

‘Listen to reason, the season is calling’

Film footage and audio from the early days of R.E.M. and other iconic rock bands from Athens will be digitally restored to preserve the nostalgia while sharing with the next generation, thanks to donors to a University of Georgia Libraries campaign currently under way.