Announcing the 2022-2023 UC Libraries Annual Report

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Beginning Anew

Announcing the 2022-2023 University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Report. My tenure as dean and university librarian began in mid-August 2023, a time of great growth at the University of Cincinnati. I’ve spent these past six months learning as much as I can about the Libraries – how our mission to “empower discovery, stimulate learning and inspire the creation of knowledge by connecting students, faculty, researchers and scholars to dynamic data, information and resources” supports the university’s NEXT Lives Here Strategic Directions. Documents such as the Annual Report have been key to my education.

In this Annual Report, we look back at the top News & Events, applaud Staff Accomplishments & Milestones and look at the Libraries By the Numbers and Financially. Under the leadership of interim dean and university librarian Lori Harris, we welcomed a significant number of new librarians and staff members who will provide essential library services and research support and help move the Libraries forward. We acquired, processed, preserved and made available collections used for research. We held events to bring people into the Libraries to interact with our facilities and collections. We created welcoming places – both virtual and in-person – for people to study, research and collaborate. And, we provided our expertise to the students, faculty and researchers who rely on UC Libraries for their academic pursuits.

Looking Forward

While we celebrate the accomplishments of the past academic year, we also continue to move forward and plan for the future. This past fall we began the process of developing an updated strategic plan with goals and initiatives that will continue to advance the mission of the University of Cincinnati. This plan will build upon the successes of UC Libraries and respond to the rapidly changing landscape of higher education, as well as the increasingly diverse needs of our students, faculty and researchers. The strategic plan will be completed this summer and will guide our work for the next three years. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, enjoy reading the 2022-2023 University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report.

Liz Kiscaden,
Dean and University Librarian

UC Libraries Closed Monday, Jan. 15 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

UC Libraries will be closed Monday, Jan. 15 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The Libraries will resume normal hours on Tuesday, Jan. 16.

Want to learn more about Martin Luther King, Jr., his impact and legacy, and how you can make a difference? Check out these library resources or watch this SWAY created in 2023 by the Libraries Racial Equity, Support & Programming to Educate the Community Team (RESPECT).

martin luther king, jr.

Join us January 31 for Poetry Stacked

The University of Cincinnati Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room announce the next roster of poets for Poetry Stacked, a semi-regular poetry reading series held in the 6th floor east stacks of the Walter C. Langsam Library.

At the next event, scheduled for Wednesday, January 31 at 4:30pm, three poets will read their original work:

poets
  • Lisa Ampleman is the author of three full-length books of poetry, including Mom in Space (2024) and Romances (2020), both with LSU Press, and Full Cry (NFSPS Press, 2013), as well as a chapbook, I’ve Been Collecting This to Tell You (Kent State UP, 2012). Her work has appeared recently in journals including 32 Poems, Colorado Review, Cortland Review, Ecotone, Georgia Review, The Rumpus, Shenandoah, and Southern Review, and she was the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in FY22. She lives in Cincinnati and is the managing editor of The Cincinnati Review and poetry series editor at Acre Books.
  • Pauletta Hansel’s poetry collections include Will There Also Be Singing? (Shadelandhouse Modern Press, 2024), Heartbreak Tree (Madville Publications, 2022), which won the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2023 North American Book Award, and Palindrome (Dos Madres Press, 2023), winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award for Appalachian poetry. Pauletta’s writing is featured in Oxford American, Rattle, Appalachian Journal, Cincinnati Review, Cutleaf, Sequestrum, Verse Daily and Poetry Daily, among others. She was the 2022 Writer-in-Residence for The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Thomas More University’s first Writer in Residence (2012-2015), and WordPlay Cincy’s first Writer in Residence (2015-2016).  She is a core member of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition, and past managing editor of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, the literary journal of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative.
  • Dani Charles is a queer, Hispanic poet from McAllen, Texas, and recent MFA graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop; where they received the 2021 John Logan Poetry Prize, appeared in Poetry Magazine and Denver Quarterly. They’re currently in their first year of the Creative Writing PhD program at University of Cincinnati.
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Winter Break hours for UC Libraries

Winter Break Hours for the University of Cincinnati Libraries began Monday, Dec. 11 and will run through Saturday, Jan. 6. All library locations will be CLOSED Saturday, Dec. 23 through Monday, Jan. 1 for Holiday and Winter Seasonal Days.

A listing of all hours is available on the Libraries website as well as at each library location online and in person.

Have a relaxing and safe Winter Break. We look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

winter scene

UC’s Lynn Warner selected to complete Open Education Network’s Certificate in Open Education Librarianship

Lynn Warner, research and health sciences librarian in the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library, is among nine librarians selected to complete Open Education Network’s Certificate in Open Education Librarianship.

Selection into the cohort was a competitive process based on the candidate’s “experience, passion and commitment to advancing the goals of the open education movement,” according to the program’s documentation. Administered by the Open Education Network (OEN), the Certificate in Open Education Librarianship is a professional development program that aims to create effective open education program leaders who want to be stewards and advocates for high-quality, public domain, open and adaptable educational resources (OER).

lynn warner

The cohort begins in January, 2024 and runs through September. After completing the eight-month OEN course, in addition to serving as OER advocates, the librarians will be prepared to support and advise faculty interested in transitioning from commercial to no-cost-to-student teaching materials.

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DAAP Library exhibit features medieval illuminated manuscripts and early modern prints from UC collections

An exhibit on display at the entrance to the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) features 20 items of woodcuts, engravings, etchings and illuminated manuscript leaves and scrolls from the UC Art Collection and DAAP Library Special Collections. Featuring intricately designed prints and lavishly illuminated manuscripts, the exhibit explores late medieval and early modern European art in a global perspective. It focuses on the visual and material traces of social and political connections between Europe and Africa, Asia and the Americas from the 15th to 17th centuries.

The installation was curated by Aaron Cowan, director of the UC Art Collections, Galleries and Museum Studies Program, Elizabeth Meyer, head of the DAAP Library, and Christopher Platts, assistant professor of art history in the School of Art at DAAP.

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The Preservation Lab’s Jessica Ebert and Catarina Figueirinhas assisted with preparing the exhibit for display by creating housing, matting and mounts for the items, including for this parchment scroll.

The exhibition will be up through December 13, 2023.

Preservation and Exhibition: DAAP Library’s Teaching Collection and upcoming gallery talk on Dec. 5

Reprinted from the Preservation Lab blog

For the past six months, the Preservation Lab’s Jessica Ebert and Catarina Figueirinhas have been working with the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) on housing their Teaching art collection, including prior acquisition and newly acquired items. This collection consists of different art prints on paper, print plates and manuscript parchment leaves in need of long-term housing. In addition to housing, this collection is used for teaching in a classroom setting and for exhibition.

Most of the collection only requires simple matting systems, but some require more intricate matting systems such as the copper plate along with its print, a project mentioned in a previous blog post entitled How many magnets is too many magnets!?.

As some of the items of this collection were being prepared to go on exhibit, we had the opportunity to create mounts for other items, such as two parchment scrolls that were included in the exhibit. This was a fun project to work on, as it required us to create a support that would secure both scrolls, while providing an elegant solution for display.

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Langsam Library offers extended hours through exams

Need a place to study for exams? Working late on a class project? The Walter C. Langsam Library has extended building hours now through exams. The Desk@Langsam will maintain regular hours.

Extended Building Hours:

Monday-Thursday, Nov. 26-Nov. 30: 8am-3am
Friday, Dec. 1: 8am-10pm
Saturday, Dec. 2: Noon-10pm
Sunday, Dec. 3: Noon-3am
Monday-Thursday, Dec. 4-7: 8am-3am
Friday, Dec.8: 8am-5pm

Winter Break hours begin Saturday, Dec.9.

UC Libraries closed for Thanksgiving holiday

turkeys

The University of Cincinnati Libraries will be closed Thursday, November 23 and Friday, November 24 for Thanksgiving, with some locations closed the remainder of the holiday weekend and many library locations closing early on Wednesday, November 22 at 5pm. Check the listed hours for each library location’s specific hours.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Health Sciences Library display in honor of World AIDS Day December 1

UC Libraries recognizes World AIDS Day on December 1st. This year, we are partnering with Caracole and other libraries across Cincinnati to coordinate educational displays that help raise awareness, challenge stigma and improve education about HIV.

display

Caracole is a nonprofit organization that is devoted to positively changing lives in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Caracole seeks to educate and empower both young and older adults with accurate information about HIV. It has been four decades since the first AIDS cases were reported in the U.S., but lack of HIV knowledge and stigma continues, especially among younger people who were not alive during the darkest days of the epidemic (Owning HIV Survey 2019).

To learn more, stop by the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library between Monday, November 20th and Sunday, December 3rd to view the World AIDS Day display. We encourage you to take a pin, take a brochure and browse a curated collection of books on HIV/AIDS.

With your help, we can raise awareness, de-stigmatize HIV and prevent future cases or HIV in our communities.