The Ernest J. Gaines Center's Library Guide

Recently, the Ernest J. Gaines Center has neared completion on its Library Guide (libguide). The libguide is meant to serve as an instructional tool to assist teachers, students, and scholars when they read the works of Ernest J. Gaines. On the libguide, visitors will find information on each of Ernest J. Gaines's books, including a specific page for his most anthologized story "The Sky is Gray." Along with these pages, the libguide includes a bibliography of Gaines's works and recent scholarship and a page that highlights a few items from the collection.  At this moment, we have not completed the page for Catherine Carmier. We should have the information up for Gaines's first novel soon. Even though that page is not up yet, the guide provides visitors with copious amounts of information regarding Gaines's works and questions that one might ask while reading the texts. Used in conjunction with the blog, the libguide can be a useful tool either when planning a class or when research for a paper. To the left, you will see an image on the libguide page for Of Love and Dust. Click on it, and it will take you that page on the guide.



Each page on the libguide provides the same information for easy navigation.

• The left hand column always contains items from the collection. These may be book covers, papers, correspondence, drafts, editor's comments, etc. 
• The right hand column contains five sections. 
• Background information typically provides interviews with Gaines or links to other websites that will provide context for the work being discussed. This section is typically followed by some for of media (either video or audio). 
• The questions to consider section provides visitors with about six questions to consider when reading the text. The questions may refer the visitor to the items on the left, articles, or other information that may be pertinent. 
• The possible activities sections is meant to help teachers think about possible links between Gaines's works and other authors. Here, a visitor will find six possible activities related to the novel being discussed. The activities range from further research on a topic rewriting a part of the book. Some of the activities as students to look at the archival materials on the left of the page as well. 
• The next section focuses on Gaines and writing. Here, one finds a quote by Gaines either on writing in general or on writing the text being examined on the libguide page. 
• The final section consists of scholarly articles about the work and typically a piece or two by Gaines himself. Sometimes the Gaines piece comes from the archive, and sometimes it has been published elsewhere. 

We hope that the libguide will be useful to you as you teach or research Gaines and his work. What would you like to see on the libguide? Are they any specific items that would help you when either teaching or conducting research? Let us know in the comments below.