Bird Study Spotlight at OU Libraries
Bird enthusiasts of all ages are encouraged to visit the fifth floor of Bizzell Memorial Library Jan. 15 through May 15 to view the latest exhibit featuring works from OU Libraries’ special collections.
Although the exhibit’s title comes from a 1951 children’s book by Dorothy Childs Hogner that regales the migratory adventure of a goose named “Wild Little Honker,” curator Melissa Rickman said the exhibit features a wide variety of materials from the collections.
“Many of the books have not been displayed before and are not widely seen by the public,” Rickman said. “Our exhibit includes guides for bird identification, bird stories for children, ways of describing bird songs with words, and notation and information about bird watching. There are bird books from the Lois Lenski Collection of Children’s Literature, the Jackson Rinn Pope III History of Ornithology Collection and the general History of Science Collections.”
A series of small, rotating exhibits on current bird research at OU also will be displayed on the main floor of the library. These pop-up exhibits will rotate on a monthly basis and will cover research on aeroecology, birds and bird-watching.
Programming planned for the series includes a public lecture on “Bird migration and the pulse of the planet,” presented by OU biology professor Jeff Kelly, Corix Chair and director of the Plains Institute. That lecture is set for 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 6 in the library.
A future lecture will include author and former History of Science Collections curator Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, who will discuss her book, For the Birds. For more information, visit libraries.ou.edu or contact Chelsea Julian at libpr@ou.edu or (405) 325-2789.
Article Published: Wednesday, January 15, 2020