RUL Scholarly and Professional Activity Committee

Title and Abstract

Title: A Treasure Trove of Alcohol Science: Alcohol Studies Archives at Rutgers

Presenters: Judit Ward & Nicholas Allred

Abstract: When the Information Services Division at the Center of Alcohol Studies was shut down in 2016, among the losses was the Alcohol Library with its efforts to preserve and share the Alcohol Studies Archives. Collected, curated, and digitized by librarians and researchers for decades, these unique items not only tell the story of the birth of alcohol studies as a discipline in the 1940s, but also follow the Center’s move from Yale to Rutgers in the early 1960s. As the first and oldest alcohol collection, the archives preserved an enormous amount of scholarly and lay resources in the discipline on research, treatment, education, publication, and information dissemination in alcohol studies in various formats. Equally unique is the wealth of material related to the temperance movement and the prohibition era, not available anywhere else. This presentation will show the latest efforts to try to preserve some of this content on RUL-managed platforms, such as Omeka, RUCore, and Drupal, and provide access to at least a small portion of this collection.

Judit Ward and Nicholas Allred: SAPAC Presentation, December 2021

Presenters and Contributors to the Project (in order of speaking)

Judit Hajnal Ward
Science librarian and liaison to the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies, former director of the information services division at the Center, and the primary on this project on and off since 2007.
Isaiah Beard
Digital Data Curator, RUL Central, project manager for the Digital Alcohol Studies Archives.
Geoffrey Wood
Metadata Librarian, RUL, in charge of the implementation on RUcore through Workflow Management System.
William Bejarano
Former librarian at the Center of Alcohol Studies Library, currently PhD Candidate at SC&I and instructor of the Digital Libraries course in the MI Program.
Nicholas Allred
PhD candidate at the English Department and Graduate Specialist at New Brunswick Libraries, involved in this project since 2015, first as a graduate assistant at the Center of Alcohol Studies Library.
Denise Hien
Vice Provost for Research, Office of the Chancellor-Provost, Rutgers University – New Brunswick
Director and Helen E. Chaney Chair in Alcohol Studies, Rutgers Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology

Related Publications

Allred, N., Bejarano, W., & Ward, J. H. (2017). Howard Wilcox Haggard and the institutionalization of modern alcohol studies. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 78, 325-329.
Reflections on the contributions of the first Editor-in-Chief and outstanding scholar, Howard Haggard, based on resources at the CAS Library.
Ward, J. H., Bejarano, W., Allred, N., & Babor, T. F. (2016). Reintroducing Bunky at 125: E.M. Jellinek’s life and contributions to Alcohol Studies, Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 77, 375-383.
A landmark article presenting the influence of E.M. Jellinek's pioneering work and long-term contributions defining the field.
Candon, P., Ward, J. H., & Pandina, R. (2014). The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs and the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies: A History of the Evolution of Alcohol Research. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Supplement 17, 8-17.
A concise history of how the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies evolved and defined the field.

From SALIS - Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists

36th SALIS Conference
Page of the 36th Annual SALIS Conference was hosted by the Center of Alcohol Studies (CAS) at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The theme, Looking Forward, Looking Back: Reflections on the Past and Planning for the Future, aimed to review past successes and best practices in documenting and disseminating addiction research, as well as to explore opportunities to translate them into our information age.
SALIS Journal: Substance Abuse Library and Information Studies (SALIS) eProceedings
The inaugural issue of the SALIS Journal shared the knowledge that SALIS members and guests presented at the Annual Conference.

Additional Information

Behind the Scenes: About the Project
This short blog posts summarizes the origins of the new digital project, which aims to partly restore access to the resources to the Alcohol Studies Archives.
Alcohol Studies Archives
The pilot site on WordPress of the online version of the Special Collections and Archives that used to be housed at the Alcohol Library maintained by the Information Services Division at the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies. About 100 pdfs, 50 images, and 50 blog posts.
The Alcohol Studies Collection in Omeka
This pilot site on the Omeka Digital Platform aims to preserve a small fragment of the resources formerly available for researchers at the Alcohol Library and Archives. About 100 items, mostly images, organized in collections and sample exhibits.
About the Project
A blog post about the status of the project at the end of 2021.