UL Lafayette Special Collections

Edith Garland Dupré Library was congressionally designated a Federal Depository Library in 1938. This means Dupré Library can provide the general public with free access to government information, in accordance with Section 1911, Title 44 of the U.S. Code (PDF). As a selective depository, Dupré Library receives over 40 percent of selections available to depository libraries through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) of the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), known formerly as the Government Printing Office. Circulation of most documents is allowed. General and specialized reference, research, and instructional services are provided. Individual or group consultations and instructional sessions may be scheduled.

Locations of Government Publications in Dupré Library

• U.S. Government Documents Collection (1st floor near the Reference Desk) — These publications have SuDoc call numbers.
• Main Stacks (Standard shelving on all floors) — These publications have Library of Congress (LC) call numbers.
• Reference & Research Dept. Collection — 1st Floor
• Microforms Collection — 1st Floor
• Louisiana Room — 3rd Floor
• Search online publications, databases, or federal websites via the library website, workstations, or other connections.

More information can be found on the Government Documents section of the library website.

Contact:

Sandy Himel, Head of Government Documents & Cajun and Creole Music Collection Librarian

(337) 482-1174 | sandra.himel@louisiana.edu

Dee Tauzin, Library Specialist

(337) 482-6023 | dee@louisiana.edu

The Cajun and Creole Music Collection (CCMC) consists of over 9,000 commercial recordings, selected unpublished or field recordings, and other music-related research materials. Formats include both analog and digital media: 78rpm, 45rpm, and LP (33 ⅓ rpm) records, 8-track tapes, audio-cassette tapes, CDs, VHS tapes and DVDs. The expanding collection also contains books, periodicals, photographs, artifacts, and other archival materials. The many different genres and styles of the Creole and Cajun musical cultures of Southwest and parts of Southeast Louisiana can be found in the CCMC.

For more information, contact:

Sandy Himel, Head of Government Information & Cajun and Creole Music Collection Librarian

(337) 482-1174 | sandra.himel@louisiana.edu

The Microforms Department contains back issues of newspapers, periodicals, and other items in various formats. Microfilm and microfiche are the most common formats.

Readers are available which have reading, printing, and other features. Materials owned by the University, or obtained through Interlibrary Loan, for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette users may be printed free of charge. Materials from other sources may be printed for $0.25 per page.

There are also offer several databases and digital applications for historical newspaper materials. Most of these resources are available to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette users only.

The Microforms Department is located around the corner from the Reference Desk on the 1st floor. Locate microform materials in the Dupré Library Catalog. Contact the Reference Desk for assistance.

For more information, contact:

Danielle Gautreaux, Library Specialist Supervisor - Microforms

(337) 482-6305 | danielle.gautreaux@louisiana.edu

The Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is an international center for scholarship on Ernest Gaines and his work. The Center honors the work of UL Lafayette’s Writer-in-Residence Emeritus and provides a space for scholars and students to work with the Gaines papers and manuscripts. Born in 1933 on a plantation near New Roads, Louisiana, Gaines based his award-winning novels on the African American experience in the rural South. His works include The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) and A Lesson Before Dying (1993), both later produced as award-winning films. Gaines’s generous donation of his early papers and manuscripts (through 1983) and some artifacts to Edith Garland Dupré Library provided the foundation for the Center’s collection. The Center also anticipates acquiring the remainder of Gaines’s papers.

Along with the Gaines papers and published scholarship, the Ernest J. Gaines Center can also anticipate the donation of extensive papers, manuscripts, and tape-recorded interviews of Gaines scholars. The Center will expand the collection on Gaines to include all books, journal articles, essays, interviews, theses, and dissertations on Gaines and his work. In addition, it will include a complete collection of all the published translations of Gaines’s writings.

For more information, review the Ernest J. Gaines Center Research Guide.

For more information, contact:

Cheylon Woods, Archivist and Head of the Ernest J. Gaines Center

(337) 482-1848 | cheylon.woods@louisiana.edu

Inspired by the leadership and vision of Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2008, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has created the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center (Blanco Center), which is committed to serving the public interest through leadership in state and local policy.

The Blanco Center is an independent, interdisciplinary research center, bringing together experts from different academic departments to conduct research, analyze data, create white papers, and write grants.

A partnership between the College of Liberal Arts and the Edith Garland Dupré Library, the Blanco Center will work primarily in the public policy areas championed by Governor Blanco during her 25-year career in state government. These issues included governmental ethics, criminal justice reform, poverty, and economic opportunity, and education.

The Blanco Center aims to provide policymakers and the public with the information necessary to improve lives and communities across Louisiana. With this in mind, a special interest of the center is promoting and expanding the role of women in politics, and providing training for community leaders and elected officials.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Dupré Library houses the papers of Kathleen Babineaux Blanco’s gubernatorial administration. Governor Blanco’s gubernatorial papers detail her direction of the Katrina recovery efforts as well as the many other initiatives and issues that she and her staff addressed. The 90 boxes of material she donated to UL Lafayette is scheduled to be available to researchers once the Blanco Center opens.

Prior to 2015, state law permitted former governors to retain ownership of their papers, according to the Louisiana State Archives. Most chose not to make the materials publicly available. Governor Blanco, however, hired an archivist who guided her office’s preservation efforts, and has donated the collection to the University to be used by researchers and scholars. This archival effort ensures that future generations would have an unparalleled vantage point from which to view an extraordinary period in Louisiana’s recent past.

For more information on the Blanco Center, contact:

Stephen Barnes, PhD, Director

(337) 482-5014 | stephen.barnes@lousiana.edu

For more information regarding the archival collection, contact:

Zachary Stein, Head of Special Collections

(337) 482-6427 | zachary.stein@louisiana.edu