The Butler Children’s Literature Center is home to two incredible historical collections: the Effie Lee Morris Collection of African American Books and the Ellin Greene Storytelling Collection. These collections are non-circulating and must be viewed inside of the center. As a child of the technological age, there are many things I know about exclusively through the Internet. When I originally discovered Dominican’s Butler Children’s Literature Center, I wanted to know more about the books it held and found the Rebecca Crown Library website a little difficult to use to view all the Center’s titles. After I was given the opportunity to see the collections, my desire to bridge the gap between the physical collection and what people could see of it online only grew. At the very least, I wanted online visitors to be able to get a general understanding of the collection’s holdings and filter quickly for titles that align with their interests.  

So, I’m very glad that I was able to put together this SeaTable database (password BCLCCollections) that blog visitors can use to explore. It contains many of the titles currently present in both collections. Visitors can filter by different tags, like “African American Author” or “Poetry/Verse”, or search for keywords like titles, authors, and places of origin. I hope that providing an easy avenue for people to poke around allows the physical collection to gain even more attention. 

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Some Tips for Filtering and Sorting the Database:

Filtering: Click the “Filter” button, then “+ Add Filter” or “+ Add Filter Group.” Select the column you’d like to filter, and the information you’d like to filter by. Click the “X” to remove any of these filters. 

Sorting: Click the “Sort” button, then “+ Add Sort.” Select the column you’d like to sort and specify if you’d like to sort “Up” or “Down.” Click the “X” to remove any of these “sorts.” 

You can also sort by clicking the dropdown arrow next to any column name and selecting “Sort ascending” or “Sort descending”: 

Check out what these collections hold and know there’s even more to see in person. Reach out to Curator, Jen Clemons (jclemons@dom.edu), or the Butler Center (butler@dom.edu) to schedule a visit. 

Project Credit:
This project was completed by Wren Ambroise as part of the Butler Youth Services Scholarship program. Ambroise is a recent graduate of Dominican University’s Master of Library Science program, with a certificate in Youth Services. As 2023-24 Butler Youth Services Scholar, he put this database together to be a resource for online exploration of the wonderful historical collections that call the Butler Children’s Literature Center home.