Digital Repository reaches milestone

In July we passed a milestone when our online digital repository saw its 500,000th download.  Sometime late last week someone somewhere located an item, whether by browsing or through a focused search, that interested them and they downloaded it.  I don’t know what they downloaded and we can’t know what use they might make of it.

The map below presents basic usage data in a compelling way.  The dots represent numbers of downloads.  The larger the dot the more downloads in that area.  I find it compelling because it demonstrates the world-wise reach, and therefore the global potential for impact of the materials we host.

Special Collections was involved very early in the development and population of the repository, and we are grateful that through it our materials have found a wide audience.  Yet what we have online is just a fraction of our holdings.  There are many more items in the pipeline.  Some are ready to be scanned, some have been scanned and are in post-processing and quality-control.  And new material comes in all the time which needs to be processed and cataloged.  Some of that material will make its way online in due time.

If you have downloaded (or viewed, or listened to or watched) our materials, thank you.  Please stay tuned to this blog for forthcoming announcements of additions to the repository.

Usage stat map, DigitalCommons.acu.edu, September 2014-July 2020

South China Chimes (1937-1938) now available online

Special Collections and Archives is pleased to announce seven issues of a rare early twentieth-century periodical are now available online for full-text browsing and download.

Though only four pages (one sheet of paper folded once) South China Chimes is rich in information about the work of missionaries E. L. Broaddus and Ethel Mattley.  Given the circumstances of the war, there are fascinating, chilling, and poignant comments such as this note from the February-March 1938 issue:

We are continually being asked why we do not leave Hongkong and return to America until the trouble is over.  I think you would feel very different about it if you could realize the great need of proper teaching at such a time as this.  We have greater opportunities than ever to preach the gospel to the unsaved and many of them have more time to think on these things than they ever have or perhaps ever will have. To say the least the Seed must be sown and the Lord will look after the development.*

The following month Broaddus wrote this about Ethel Mattley:

After months of waiting for conditions to improve Miss Mattley decided to return to Kwongsi and go ahead with the work. She was not at all well here due to asthma and the higher altitude should relieve that and she will be able to carry on with the work among the women and children in spite of the war spirit and training of soldiers. The native workers and Christians need encouragement in such times as these and there may be an opportunity to even reach some with the gospel.**

South China Chimes, volume 11, number 3, April 1938. Center for Restoration Studies, Special Collections and Archives, Abilene Christian University.

Readers of these few issues of this scarce periodical will find several more similar comments, plus items of news and notes about happenings among Churches of Christ in China.  Historians of missions and missiology, students of intellectual and social history, and anyone interested in the history of Churches of Christ will find these issues of South China Chimes a welcome addition to their palette of source material.  We thank Dr. Stephen Crowder for making these issues available as part of our growing collection of digitized print materials pertaining to Churches of Christ, currently with over 500 books, tracts, pamphlets from across the Stone-Campbell movement available online.

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*E. L. Broaddus, “Opportunities in Hongkong,” So. China Chimes, 11(2), February-March 1938, p. 1.

**E. L. Broaddus, “Miss Mattley Returns to Kwongsi,” So. China Chimes, 11(3), April 1938, p. 1.

Restoration Quarterly on DigitalCommons@acu.edu

The new issue of Restoration Quarterly has just been published.  Our readers may remember that for several years some RQ articles were available on the ACU website in HTML format.  Those articles are now available as downloadable PDF’s on DigitalCommons@acu.edu.  For the benefit of users who would like to browse the contents of RQ, we also included all issue covers even when full-text articles from that issue are not online.

All Restoration Quarterly articles are available in full text in the ATLA Religion Database, available through most university and theological libraries or through your local library’s inter-library loan service.

Here are the three most recent issue covers:

Restoration Quarterly 62.1, First Quarter 2020

Restoration Quarterly 62.1, Second Quarter 2020

Restoration Quarterly 62.3, Third Quarter 2020

Restoration Quarterly is devoted to advancing knowledge and understanding of New Testament Christianity, its backgrounds, its history, and its implications for the present age. Articles in the journal do not necessarily represent the view of the editor, the editorial board, or the corporate board of Restoration Quarterly. The editor is responsible for the selection of material, but the responsibility for opinions expressed and accuracy of facts rests solely with the individual author.