In this new Short Talks From the Hill, a podcast of the University of Arkansas, Joshua Youngblood talks about the kind of documents that can be found at Mullins Library's Special Collections.

And he brims with enthusiasm about one example.

"This map, I just love it…," he says in the podcast, describing a map of Lost Valley, now part of the Buffalo National River property. "It's been hand-drawn, but very, very precisely hand-drawn. … Frankly astonishing how lucid this map is. When you look at this, you know exactly what it's talking about. And this is a hand-made thing, charted out, but then it's also a battle plan."

As the rare books and research and outreach services librarian at Special Collections, Youngblood is a jack of all trades — archivist, curator and faculty member, in addition to librarian. In this episode, he talks about the role of Special Collections — for the university and the state — what he does, and the significance of one special document.

To listen to more Short Talks podcasts, go to ResearchFrontiers.uark.edu, the home of research news at the University of Arkansas. Listeners can also find Short Talks From the Hill podcasts under the "Local & Podcast" link at KUAF.com.

Short Talks From the Hill highlights research and scholarly work at the University of Arkansas. Each segment features a university researcher discussing his or her work. For more information and additional podcasts, click on the Multimedia link at ResearchFrontiers.uark.edu.