CURRICULUM VITAE KENNETH P. LOHRENTZ Personal Information University of Kansas Libraries Watson Library 1425 Jayhawk Blvd., Rm. 519 Lawrence, Kansas 66045-­‐7590 (785) 864-­‐4593 (voice) (785) 864-­‐3850 (fax) klohrentz@ku.edu http://lib-­‐ku.edu/ken-­‐lohrentz Education Ph.D., Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 1977. History, with special emphasis on history of Africa and European expansion & imperialism. M.L.S., School of Library and Information Science (SLIS), Indiana University, 1976. Specialization in academic librarianship. B.A. Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, 1962. History major, English minor. Professional Experience University of Kansas Libraries. Interim Librarian for African and African Diaspora studies, Oct. 2012-­‐present. • Manage Africana collections in cooperation with related library staff. • Build Africana collections of resources in English, French, and relevant African languages for all aspects of Africa and the African diaspora, excepting the Black experience in the U.S. • Coordinate and present library research workshops for undergraduate and graduate students in all disciplines related to African and African diaspora studies. • Provide individualized reference service and consultation for all students engaged in Africa-­‐
related research. • Provide access to resources and reference assistance to the community and region, including guides to K-­‐12 resources. • Serve as ex officio member of the Kansas African Studies Center executive committee. • Attendance at semi-­‐annual meetings of the Africana Librarians Council. University of Kansas Libraries. Bibliographer for African & African-­‐American studies, with related professional assignments in government documents management, education, cataloging, and acquisitions, 1984-­‐2007 (retired 4/2007). University of Nebraska-­‐Lincoln Libraries. Social Sciences bibliographer, with responsibility for anthropology, geography, education, and ethnic studies, 1976-­‐1984. Research and Publications Dissertation research – “The Politics of educational development in North Nyanza Province, Kenya, 1903-­‐1939” Thesis (Ph.D.)—Syracuse University, 1977. Major Articles—referred •
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“Africana at the Center for Research Libraries : a survey of collections and access,” in African Studies Review : the journal of the African Studies Association, vol. 41, # 2 (1998) pp. 133-­‐132. [JSTOR access to full text.] “The Campaign to depose Chief Mulama in Marama Location [Western Province, Kenya] : a case study in the politics of kinship,” in Kenya Historical Review : the journal of the Historical Association of Kenya, vol. 4, # 2 (1976) pp. 245-­‐263. “Joseph Booth, Charles Domingo, and the Seventh Day Baptists in northern Nyasaland, 1910-­‐1912, in Journal of African History, vol. 12, # 3 (1971) pp. 245-­‐263. Bibliographies • Lohrentz, Kenneth P. “Peoples of the Horn in the New African Diaspora : Eritrean, Ethiopian, Sudanese, and Somali émigrés in the United States and Canada : a bibliographic essay”, presented to the Kansas African Studies Center (KASC) Fall 2004 Seminar, available via KU Scholarworks. 27 p. • Lohrentz, Kenneth P, (with Anne Larson and Linda Mager) A Bibliography of anthropology-­‐
related serial publications at the University of Nebraska Libraries (Lincoln, Neb. : University of Nebraska-­‐Lincoln, Dept. of Anthropology, 1978) (Nebraska Anthropologist ; v. 4) 96 p. • Lohrentz, Kenneth P. (with Alan Solomon) A Guide to the Nyanza Province microfilm collection, Kenya National Archives : daily correspondence and reports (Syracuse, NY : Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Program of Eastern African Studies, 1975) 2 vols. (Eastern Africa occasional bibliographies # 25-­‐26) • (with David Easterbrook) Africana microforms at the E.S. Bird Library, Syracuse University : an annotated guide (Syracuse, NY : Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Program of Eastern African Studies, 1974) 72 p. Presentations •
Lohrentz, Kenneth P., with Dr. Elizabeth L. Macgonagle. “From the bookstalls of Onitsha Market to the Internet : Digitizing popular Nigerian literature” [Poster session presented at the Joint International Conference of the Association for Linguistic Computing and the Association for Computing and the Humanities, Göteborg, Sweden, June 2004] •
Lohrentz, Kenneth P. “Peoples of the Horn in the New African Diaspora : Eritrean, Ethiopian, Sudanese, and Somali émigrés in the United States and Canada : a bibliographic essay” [Presented to the KASC Fall Seminar, Sept. 2004; also presented at the African Studies Association annual conference, Oct. 31, 2003, Boston, Mass.] •
Lohrentz, Kenneth P., et al. “Onitsha Market Literature : historical considerations and collection access” [Presented to the annual conference of the Mid-­‐America African Studies Association, Oct. 2003, Lawrence, KS] Panel organizer, chair, and presenter. •
Lohrentz, Kenneth P. “Africana reference sources for college libraries,” [Presented to the College and University Section (CULS), Kansas Library Association, Oct. 2002, Salina, KS] •
Lohrentz, Kenneth P. “Apples and Oranges : On Comparing loans from the Center for Research Libraries collections with loans acquired from non-­‐CRL institutions” [Prepared as a charge from the Collection Development Council (CDC) Executive Committee and presented to the CDC, summer 1996, to assess the possible effects of terminating the KU Libraries’ membership in CRL.] Grants and Fellowships Grants • Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) Grants, U.S. Department of Education. Awards to KASC for 2006-­‐2009, 2003-­‐2005, and 1997-­‐1999. I compiled statistical data and wrote the narrative report for Section V: Strength of the Library for each of the grants submitted. • KU International Studies Travel Grant for International Conference at Göteborg, Sweden, June 2004 ($1,000) •
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Digital Library Initiatives Development Grant for digitizing portions of the Onitsha Market literature collection at Spencer Research Library and creating a website with contextual information, 2003. ($7,100) Visiting Program Officer Grant, Center for Research Libraries (CRL), with funding from the Andrew P. Mellon Foundation. Granted for spending a week in residence at CRL, Chicago, to utilize their collections on a research topic of my choice. Sept. 1996. ($2,000) Fellowships • Student Assistantship, Indiana University Libraries, 1975-­‐76; served as assistant to the Librarian for African Studies, Indiana University Libraries. • Research Assistantship, Program of Eastern African Studies, Syracuse University, 1974-­‐75. Compilation of guides to provide access to Kenya National Archives microfilm collection. • International Shell Fellowship for dissertation research, 1971-­‐72. • Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship, Swahili, summer 1970, Indiana University. • FLAS, Swahili, Program of Eastern African Studies, Syracuse University, 1969-­‐71. Outreach Research Guides • Getting Started: Introduction to African Studies • K-­‐12 Resources for African Studies • Africa-­‐Wide Information Tutorial • Arabic in Africa: Language and Literature • Hausa Language and Literature • Swahili Language and Literature • Wolof Language and Literature Exhibits (since 1994) • “Nobel Laureates in Literature around the globe”. Exhibit compiled jointly by librarians of the International Area Studies Department, November 2013 – present. I prepared the displays for the following laureates from Africa and the Middle East : Albert Camus (1957), Wole Soyinya (1986), Nagiub Mahfouz (1998), Nadine Gordimer (1991), John M. Coetzee (2003), Orhan Pamuk (2006), and Doris Lessing (2007). “Swahili Literature Through the Centuries”. May 15 – Sept. 30, 2013, with digital access for continuing availability. Exhibit featuring representative works of Swahili literature from the collections of the University of Kansas Libraries. • “African literature holdings in the University of Kansas Libraries” (with Rob Melton). March 15 – April 17, 2000. Mounted in conjunction with the African Literature Association annual conference held at the University of Kansas, April 13-­‐16, 2000. • “Darkest Hollywood : Black African Cinema and the Tarzan Myth.” May 22 – June 30, 1995. Exhibit contrasting the works and accomplishments of various francophone West African cinematographers with the image of Africa presented in American movies. • “The Center for Research Libraries : Extending our Library’s Resources” (with Richard Ring and Penny Donaldson). Aug. 11 – Sept. 30, 1995. Mounted to promote and feature holdings and services of the Center for Research Libraries. • “Ken Saro-­‐Wiwa and the Ogoni Tragedy”. Nov. 29, 1995 – Jan. 30, 1996. Exhibit commemorating the life and publications of Kenule Saro-­‐Wiwa and eight Ogoni associates on their execution by the Nigerian government. • “Soweto Blues : Life in a South African Township”. Jan. 24 – Feb. 20, 1994. Exhibit featuring various works from the University of Kansas collections typifying urban African life during the apartheid era. Digital Collections • Bishop Robert Mize Collection, Spencer Research Library (ongoing). Preliminary arrangements made with appropriate staff to digitize portions of this collection on Namibian history during the 1960’s and 1970’s. • Onitsha Market Literature Collection, Spencer Research Library. The Onitsha market literature collection consists of over 100 pamphlets from the 1950’s and 1960’s that were written by Nigerians who were negotiating the rapid changes of the post-­‐colonial era of the period. Twenty-­‐one of the pamphlets in the collection, together with background text amplifying the historical and social context in which they were written, are available in digital format. The site includes a bibliography of the complete collection. •
Service Committee Assignments (selected) Africana Librarians Council. Served as chair of the Bibliography Committee, 1999-­‐2002. Member, Collection Development Council Executive Committee, University of Kansas Libraries, 1993-­‐1996. Served as CRL Access Coordinator to promote use of CRL resources. Conference Organization & Cultural Exchanges • Africana Librarians Council Spring meeting, held at University of Kansas, April 15-­‐17, 2010. Assisted with planning, arrangements, and conducted a campus tour for attendees. • Mid-­‐America Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS). MAAAS, an organization for the promotion of African Studies in mid-­‐America, was founded at the University of Kansas in 1995 to support African Studies research and teaching in the mid-­‐America region. I maintained membership in the organization from 1995 – 2007 and served the organization in the following roles: •
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1999. Chair of conference planning committee for 5th annual conference, held at the University of Kansas, Nov. 1999. 2002. Assistant Secretary-­‐Treasurer 2003. Secretary-­‐Treasurer 2004. President 2005. Past President 2006. Past President (de facto) At the 2006 conference, the MAAAS Executive Committee established the “Ken Lohrentz Prize for Excellence” to be presented annually to the most outstanding graduate student paper presented at the conference. Africana Library Conference on reference and collection development, University of Kansas, April 11-­‐13, 2002. I organized and convened the conference, attended by college and university librarians from the Great Plains-­‐Rocky Mountain region. Library exchange, July 1998. Served as host for visit of Mr. Mamadou Lamine Ndoye, Library director at Université Gaston Berger (UGB), St. Louis, Sénégal, as part of USIA exchange program with UGB. Foreign Work & Travel Experience Africa (total of 5 years research, residence, and travel in Africa) Sénégal (Jan. 1998). USIA Exchange program with the Université Gaston Berger, St. Louis, Senegal. I visited the library under the direction of Mr. Mamadou Lamine Ndoye, with presentations on Internet resources, collection development strategies, and electronic access. • Sénégal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso (Feb.-­‐March, 1998). Book-­‐buying trip through West Africa. Purchased over 450 volumes for the University of Kansas Libraries. • Kenya (Jan. 1972 – March 1973). Dissertation research, including archival research in the Kenya National Archives, Nairobi, and field work in Western Province. • Malawi (Aug. – Dec. 1971). Preliminary research in Malawi National Archives. • Tanzania (Aug. 1962 – Nov. 1964). Secondary school teacher at Livingstone College, Kigoma, Tanzania. English as a second language, other subjects as assigned. United Kingdom • London (March – April 1973). Dissertation research with missionary archival collections and colonial records. •
Languages Swahili: fluent in all skills. German: intermediate speaking and reading knowledge. French: adequate reading knowledge for performing bibliographic tasks. Last updated 2/17/14/kpl