Arizona State University. Libraries. Department of Archives and Special Collections

Based on the idea that visual images are a language, visual literacy can be defined as the ability to understand and produce visual messages. Work in the field has centered on development of educational programs that train students' abilities to evaluate and create visual messages, as well as improvement of students' reading and writing skills through the use of visual literacy techniques.

Visual literacy as a field of research, study, and teaching becomes increasingly important with the ever-expanding proliferation of mass media in society. As more and more information and entertainment is acquired through non-print media (such as television), the ability to think critically and visually about the images presented becomes a crucial skill.

The Chicano Studies Collection was established in 1970 in response to the academic needs of Chicano students and faculty in higher education. Its purpose was to obtain works by and about Mexican Americans, or Chicanos, in the United States, and to place those materials in a separate library collection.

In its early period of growth and development, the Chicano Studies Collection began as a circulating collection of books which would represent and reflect the current thought and philosophy of the so- called Chicano Movement. The Chicano Movement gave expression and voice to those writers, scholars, researchers, and educators who wanted recognition of Mexican American history, culture, language, tradition, heritage and ethnicity. As a result, the Chicano Studies Collection became a unique and growing collection of books, newspapers, periodicals, microforms, and ephemera with strengths in Chicano literature, 20th century Chicano history, bilingual education, immigration, civil rights movements, and Chicana- feminist expression.

In 1985, the Chicano Studies Collection became part of the newly- created Department of Archives and Manuscripts, which includes the Arizona Collection, the University Archives, the Benedict Visual Literacy Collection, and the Labriola National American Indian Data Center.

The Child Drama Collection began in 1979 with the gift of teaching and biographical materials from Rita Criste, professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. That same year the Children's Theatre Association of American (CTAA), the national theatre for youth association, designated ASU as the site for its archive.

Both collections were welcomed by Librarian Marilyn Wurzburger, Head of Special Collections, and by Lin Wright, Chair of the ASU Department of Theatre. They jointly recommended using these gifts to spearhead the development of a Child Drama Collection in response to the academic needs of theatre for youth students and faculty at ASU and the research needs of professional artists and educators throughout the world. ASU Libraries approved the establishment of this new collection in 1980, with the purpose of creating a unique and growing collection that contains representative materials from individuals, theatre companies and projects that have received awards from the national children's theatre association.

In the early 1980s the collection expanded with donations from playwrights and retiring professors and theatrical artists. In 1985, Katherine Krzys became the part-time Curator of the Child Drama Collection. Archival materials for the Secondary School Theatre Association and the American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE) were donated in the late 1980s, enabling researchers to document the continuous history of the national theatre for youth association, from its days as CTC in 1944.

The collection continues to grow exponentially. The focus has also expanded to encompass materials about international theatre for youth, as typified by the archive of Gerald Tyler, founder of ASSITEJ, and that of ASSITEJ/USA, the American Center of the international professional children's theatre association.

The Special Collections research unit in the Department of Archives and Special Collections, houses the Libraries' general collection of rare books and manuscripts and numerous special-interest collections centered around particular persons or topics of interest to scholars. By assembling an array of primary source materials and by conserving these materials under controlled conditions, Special Collections contributes to the growing reputation of the Libraries and the University as top-ranked teaching and research organizations.

The Arizona Collection has been an integral part of the Arizona State University Libraries for many years. Although no official beginning date exists, the origin of the present collection can be traced back to 1917, when Thomas J. Cookson, the College Librarian, began building a small Southwestern Collection. In 1943, the primary focus shifted to materials about Arizona.

The Arizona Collection has changed considerably in size and scope since those times. In 1985, the Collection became part of the Department of Archives and Special Collections.

The Arizona Collection contains materials in all formats. Its strengths include over 8,000 linear feet of manuscripts and personal papers; oral histories; a book collection of over 30,000 titles; and more than 500,000 photographic prints and negatives.

No historical information is available.

University Archives was established by the University Libraries in 1972 with the appointment of Alfred Thomas as ASU's first University Archivist. In 1973, Archives collections were moved to the President's Cottage, the home of past presidents Arthur John Matthews, Ralph Swetman, and Grady Gammage between 1907-1959. In 1985, the University Archives became part of the department of Archives and Special Collections. Archives collections and reference services were moved to the Luhrs Reading Room of Hayden Library in 1995.