MLIS
Recent News

Abigail Hardy with a copper knife blade using the Artec LEO handheld scanner. Photo by Quint Gregory.
UMD Team Works with Piscataway Conoy Tribe and Smithsonian to Bring Cultural Artifacts Back to Community
August 27, 2026 | Laurie Robinson
UMD graduate student Nick Gentry found this early draft of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail" in the archives of another civil rights activist, the Rev. John Melville Burgess, at the Virginia Theological Seminary. At left is a photo of the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, cofounder with King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and his secretary, Willie Pearl Mackey, who typed at least three versions of the letter. (Photo courtesy of Virginia Theological Seminary) Photo via Maryland Today.
MLIS Student Spotlight: Maryland Today: A Watershed Text Resurfaces (ft Nick Gentry ’26)
July 14, 2026 | Sala Levin ’10 | Maryland TodayA remarkable archival discovery by MLIS student Nick Gentry uncovered a rare draft of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic letter