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The completion of the preservation microfilming of the Papers of Katherine Anne Porter is the University of Maryland Libraries' most significant accomplishment since my last report. The Libraries now have 108 reels of microfilm that include the first six series of the Porter papers: Series I, Correspondence, 1880-1980; Series II, Writings, 1918-1979; Series III, Awards and Professional Activities, 1940-1976; Series IV, Financial and Legal, 1906-1977; Series V, Personal, 1927-1977; and Series VI, Clippings, 1919-1980. This achievement comes as a result of the efforts of project archivists Rachel Vagts and Patricia J. Rettig, student assistants Pascale Compere and Jennifer Evans, and volunteer extraordinaire Bill Wilkins. When Ms. Vagts took another archival position midway through the project, Ms. Rettig, who had previously served as the project graduate assistant, came on board in August 1998. A graduate of Wittenberg University whose primary scholarly interest is Flannery O'Connor, Ms. Rettig received her M.L.S. from the University of Maryland in May 1998. Her work in bringing the project to a successful close has been invaluable. She completed the preparation of the papers for filming, handled communication with the vendor, supervised our student assistants, worked with me on completion of the guide to the collection, and did all of the work to update and augment the literary manuscripts portion of the Libraries' Web site. Her report on her activities appears elsewhere in this issue.

The microfilm edition of the Porter papers became available for research use in the Maryland Room in McKeldin Library in February 1999. Also open for consultation on site are the six series that were not filmed. These include Series VII, Printed Matter, 1899-1975; Series VIII, Serials, 1842-1977; Series IX, Manuscripts of Other Individuals, 1923-1977; Series X, Audio Recordings, 1934-1978; and Series XII, Photographs, ca. 1860s-1978. Researchers may also gain access to the microfilm of the first six series of the papers through interlibrary loan at a research library near them. A researcher or qualified borrowing institution may initiate an interlibrary loan request through the institution's interlibrary loan department or by contacting me directly. Researchers may borrow three reels of microfilm per loan, the handling fee for which is $10 per reel. Microfilm may be borrowed for two weeks with a two-week renewal period. As the university's legal office has advised us that we can only have a second service copy of individual reels of microfilm produced when researchers request them, there may be a slight delay in fulfilling requests as we begin this service.

As much of the Porter collection was closed to researchers while it was being microfilmed, there were no on-site researchers between May 1998 and March 1999. However, there were many telephone, mail, and e-mail inquiries. These came from researchers in California; Connecticut; Florida; Georgia; Illinois; Kansas; Kentucky; Maryland; Massachusetts; Missouri; Nevada; New Jersey; New York; Ohio; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Washington, DC; and Wisconsin. There were also inquiries from abroad: Austria, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. Requests came from academics, independent scholars, graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students. Steady demand for reproductions of photographs from the Porter collection continues, both from individuals and the media. Photographs from the collection appeared in Marc English's poster for Texas Writers Month, in Sara A. Wilson's "A Writer's Writer" in the September/October 1998 issue of Humanities, and in Angela Moore's "Check Out D. C.'s Shelf Life" in the February 1999 issue of Where Washington.

Photographs from the collection also feature prominently in the exhibit I mounted in the Porter Room in February 1999. This display includes fifty-five photographs, mostly portraits and snapshots of Porter that date from 1893 to 1975. Part of the exhibit highlights Porter's friendships with Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and Caroline Gordon, fellow Southern writers with whom Porter had significant relationships. This portion of the exhibit contains photographs taken by Welty in 1940, facsimiles of correspondence exchanged between Porter and the others, and books by Welty, O'Connor, and Gordon given as gifts to Porter. The second section of the exhibit features materials that illustrate the important role Mexico played in Porter's art and life; photographs taken by Porter and others document her Mexican experiences and acquaintances between 1920 and 1931. Also on display are Mexican pottery and folk art she collected and a 1922 Miguel Covarrubias caricature of Porter. China, stemware, and silver serving pieces that Miss Porter used in her various homes comprise the final portion of the display.

Volunteers and interns have made extremely valuable contributions of time and effort in the last year. First and foremost among these is Bill Wilkins. He assisted in preparing the Porter papers for microfilming, dating undated materials, and rehousing the KAP photograph collection in acid-free boxes and Mylar sleeves. At present he is completing a preliminary inventory of the unprocessed KAP photographs, before we embark on completely rearranging all of these images. During summer 1998, Steve Hausfeld, a graduate student from Wright State University, completed a 300-hour internship under my direction. As a part of this, he revised the guide to the Papers of Cyrily Abels, KAP's literary agent. In addition, he completed the work of processing the Papers of Harry C. Perry, KAP's accountant between 1960 and 1964, that student assistant Pascale Compere had begun. Kathy Willis, a graduate student in our university's College of Library and Information Services, processed the Papers of George and Toni Willison and wrote the guide to that collection.

The six women who previously served as docents in the Katherine Anne Porter Room continued their tenure this academic year: Freddy Baer, Shirley Bauer, Dorothy Galvin, Beverly Lewoc, Joan Phelan, and Betty Warner. When an unanticipated health problem forced Shirley Bauer to withdraw for part of the autumn semester, my mother, Mary Moore, graciously agreed to substitute for her. Intern Steve Hausfeld also stepped into the breach on short notice as a substitute. In the period between May 1998 and March 1999, the Porter Room was open to the public forty-three afternoons, and there were 205 visitors.

Some interesting gifts and purchases were acquired this past year. The Libraries received approximately two linear feet of additional materials for the Papers of Isabel Bayley in August and September 1998. W. Hewitt Bayley, donated his wife's files related to Porter's French Song-Book, while current Porter literary trustee, Barbara Thompson Davis, gave the Libraries the financial papers of the Literary Trustee of the Estate of Katherine Anne Porter for the period between 1985 and 1993. Paul Porter generously parted with his aunt's personal copy of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language and a snapshot she took in Paris in July 1963. Last summer, Porter scholar Darlene Unrue donated a rubbing she had made of the tombstone of Mary Alice Jones Porter, KAP's mother, some years before. I am happy to report that the rubbing has received conservation treatment and is now framed and hanging in the Porter Room. My colleague Tom Connors, Curator of the National Public Broadcasting Archives, discovered, among his recent acquisitions, an interview of KAP broadcast in June 1973 on Jim Day's public television program, "Day at Night." Mr. Day graciously donated a videotape copy of this delightful exchange to the Libraries. Finally, the Libraries were able to purchase seventeen letters exchanged between KAP and Edna Frederikson during the years 1941 to 1943. KAP and Eudora Welty befriended Frederikson, whose Novel Three Parts Earth was published in 1972. The correspondence between Porter and Frederikson discusses South Hill, writing, and various personal matters.

The Libraries also received, in memory of the late Professor Thomas F. Walsh, a copy of Susannah Joel Glusker's Anita Brenner: A Mind of Her Own, which traces her mother's intellectual growth and achievements from the 1920s through the 1940s. Dr. Glusker donated the book as a part of her slide-lecture in the Porter Room on October 19, 1998, sponsored by the Friends of the Libraries to celebrate its publication. Brenner (1905-1974), an acquaintance of KAP in Mexico and New York, was a journalist, historian, anthropologist, and creative writer, two of whose works, Idols Behind Altars and The Wind That Swept Mexico, were reviewed by KAP.

Many hours of my time in the past year have been devoted to devising plans for the renovation of Hornbake Library where the Libraries' special collections will move in late 2000 or early 2001. Some researchers will remember consulting the Porter papers in the basement of this library between 1991 and 1992, while McKeldin Library was renovated. When work is complete, the building will house Archives and Manuscripts, the department of which I am a part, Marylandia and Rare Books, the National Trust for Historic Preservation Library Collection, the National Public Broadcasting Archives, the Library of American Broadcasting, and Nonprint Media Services. The plans for the first phase of the construction call for a new and larger Porter Room, a large exhibition space, and a new state-of the-art Maryland Room, all off the lobby of the first floor of the building. While I do not welcome the disruption occasioned by this move, all of us in special collections anticipate with pleasure the higher profile the move into our own building will bring as well as having much more easily accessible parking for our visitors. I will notify the research community of any disruptions of access to the Porter collections the move may cause. Anyone who has questions concerning the Libraries' Porter holdings should not hesitate to contact me, Curator of Literary Manuscripts, Archives and Manuscripts, McKeldin Library, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, 301-405-9298, ra60@umail.umd.edu.