James “Big Jim” Griffith was honored by the University Libraries as a Library Legend in recognition of his lifetime’s work in the field of Southwest Folklore. To mark the occasion, the Libraries placed two titles by Samuel S. Stewart, a Philadelphia banjo maker in 1880s-90s, into the Southwest Folklore Collection. Dr. Griffith led the UA’s Southwest Folklore Center from 1979 to 1998 and then oversaw the transferring and cataloguing of materials into the Libraries’ Special Collections, to ensure access for scholars and the public alike. Dr. Griffith also co-founded Tucson Meet Yourself, an ethnic and cultural festival that has been celebrated annually for more than 40 years. He has received many awards for his groundbreaking work in Southwest folklore including the NEA’s Bess Lomax Hawes Fellowship (2011), the Henry Glassie Award (2005) and the Pima County Library Lifetime Achievement Award (2009). 

Photograph of John Schaefer and "Big Jim" Griffith by Aengus Anderson

The cost of textbooks has increased by more than one thousand percent since 1977, creating a serious barrier to academic success for students who can’t afford the course materials they need. To help address this challenge, the University of Arizona Libraries became an early member of the Open Textbook Network (OTN) based at University of Minnesota. OTN has just issued a report demonstrating student savings of $1.5 million from nine OTN members. Read more