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For 100 years, the Arlitt Center has been a cornerstone of early childhood education, founded as one of the nation’s first laboratory preschools and continuously championing the rights and potential of young children. The center was founded by Ada Hart Arlitt, PhD, University of Cincinnati faculty member and a prominent figure in early childhood psychology and the child study movement.
An exhibit on display on the fourth floor of the Walter C. Langsam Library celebrates the past, present and future of the Arlitt Center. Included in the exhibit are images from the Archives and Rare Books Library and a bibliography of published works by Ada Hart Arlitt.
The Archives and Rare Books Library holds the Ada Hart Arlitt Papers, containing correspondence related to her professional activities as a faculty member in the Department of Child Care and Training at UC, as well as her involvement with the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. A finding aid about the collection is available.
The exhibit was a collaboration between with Arlitt Center and UC Libraries. Reece Guthier, communication design co-op student, designed the exhibit.
UC Libraries is excited to welcome Crissy Ross as the new Collection Strategies Librarian. Crissy is returning to UC, where she originally earned her BA in Psychology. She holds a MSLS from the University of Kentucky and is working towards a Master’s in Business and Leadership Innovation at Northern Kentucky University. Since March 2022, she has been the Director of the Library at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. Prior to that, she has held various library roles in scholarly communication, collections, and public services.
Her work will focus on implementing the process for the libraries’ physical collections review, rolling out Greenglass, assisting in the formation of new collection development policies and preparing information to support space planning efforts.
UC Libraries is excited to share that Alex Herbers has joined our staff as the Web & User Experience Specialist. This role will support and advance UCL’s mission by ensuring website and digital resources are discoverable, accessible and aligned with the needs of the UC community.
Alex is an experienced UX developer and designer. He joins us from Kent State University, where he also earned a BFA in Visual Communication Design. After working in private industry for several years, he joined Kent State in 2019. Most recently, he worked in University Communications & Marketing, serving as a lead UX Developer / Designer for the university’s digital presence. Welcome, Alex!
All University of Cincinnati Libraries locations will be closed Sunday, May 25 and Monday, May 26 in observance of Memorial Day. Regular library hours for all locations will resume Tuesday, May 27.
We are delighted to announce that Patrick Bois joined the University of Cincinnati Libraries on May 12 in the role of Langsam Library evening and weekend supervisor. Patrick will be working Sundays – Thursdays, providing critical staff coverage for Langsam’s seven-day-a-week schedule during the academic year.
Patrick is a UC alumnus in history and is currently working on his MLIS at Kent State, with a concentration in archival studies. Before coming to UC, he worked in the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Libraries since 2021, and this experience will be a great asset in his new role. He is excited to work in an academic library that he experienced as a student.
Interested in poetry in UC Libraries? Check out the new exhibit on display in the Walter C. Langsam Library’s 6th floor east installed in celebration of National Poetry Month.
The display features the poets and events hosted by the Elliston Poetry Room. Located in 646 Langsam Library, the Elliston Poetry room houses the University of Cincinnati’s vast repository of twentieth-century and contemporary poetry. Among the tens of thousands of volumes are rare and signed first editions, historic broadsides, printed ephemera and archival recordings of visiting writers dating back to Robert Frost’s first visit in 1951. The Elliston Poetry Room hosts poetry events throughout the year. Highlighted in the display are event planning documents and promotional materials, as well as images and information about visiting poets.
In 2022, the Elliston Poetry Room partnered with UC Libraries to create Poetry Stacked, a semi-regular poetry reading series held in the 6th floor east stacks. The display includes information and images from previous readings along with the Poetry Anthology.
Poetry in the Library was curated by Michael Peterson, assistant research professor and curator of the George Elliston Poetry Collection, and Melissa Cox Norris, director of library communications. It was designed and produced by Lexi Davis, UC Libraries communication design co-op student.
Join us for the Annual Preservation Lab Open House, Thursday, May 1, 2-4pm, 3rd floor Langsam Library. “More than Conservation” will include tours of the lab, demonstrations of projects and treatments, cookies, bookmarks, and stickers!
Want a sneak peek of the work of the Preservation Lab? Stop by Langsam Library’s 4th floor to learn about artist’s books and book arts, Tuesday, April 15, 2-3:30pm; and Thursday, April 17, 10:30am-noon to learn about the anatomy of a book.
Formed in 2012, the Preservation Lab is a book and paper conservation lab. The Preservation Lab provides the full suite of preservation services to the University of Cincinnati Libraries and, for a fee, to other cultural heritage institutions. The Preservation Lab’s expertise is in book and paper conservation, with services available in general circulating materials repair, single-item conservation treatment, housing, exhibition prep, and preservation consulting.
The University of Cincinnati Libraries celebrated the International Edible Books Festival on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.
Lexi Davis – Dragons Love Tacos – Best Overall
This year, we had an impressive 24 entries from students, librarians and staff, along with family, friends and retirees. There are few restrictions in creating an edible book – namely that the creation be edible and have something to do with a book. Today’s entries covered all genres – from fiction to non-fiction, animals, food, classics, contemporary titles and more.
Popular books represented on screen and now as edible books were “Dune,” “Bridgerton,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Twilight.” Children’s books made for popular edible books. This year we had “Charlotte’s Web,” “Freckle Juice,” “Too Many Carrots,” “Black Hearts in Buttersea,” and “Matilda.” Young Adult books made a presence this year with “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Harry Potter.”
Animals were a theme this year with “Penguin Island,” “Dragons Love Tacos” and “How to Eat Fried Worms.” Both fiction, “The Warmth of Other Suns,” “Grapes of Wrath,” “The Silver Bone” and “White Teeth,” and non-fiction, “Eyes on the Prize,” “An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits,” and “How Infrastructure Works: Inside Systems that Shape our World” were represented. Along with the 18th-century classic “De montibus, silvis, fontibus”
In addition to promoting the reading of books, we also use this event to promote and “judge” the creativity of our colleagues and friends in creating edible books. Thank you to the two esteemed judges: Brian Gray, associate dean for collections (non-edible collections), and Usha (oo-sh-uh), student staff member in the CECH Library. And the winners are…
Melissa Cox Norris – Penguin Island – Most Adorable
Sam Norris – Too Many Carrots – Most Noteworthy
Carly Fledderjohann – The Cheese Touch (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) – Most Noteworthy
Deborah Weinstein – Charlotte’s Web – Most Imaginative
Stephen Norris – The Silver Bone – Most Outrageous
Avery Rice – Pride and Prejudice – Most Checked Out
Melissa Cox Norris – Difficult Women – Most Out of this World
Aja Bettencourt-McCarthy – How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World – Most Creative
Luahna Winningham Carter – Freckle Juice – Most Gruesome
Jakob Elliott – Dune – Silliest
Jessica Ebert – Black Hearts in Battersea (“buttercream”) – Most Delicious
Josh Zack, Tim Zack, and Debbie Tenofsky – Eyes on the Prize – Most Frightening
Holly Prochaska – How to eat fried worms – Most Clever
Yu Mao – Atomic Habits – An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones – Most Literary
Alex Temple – De montibus, silvis, fontibus – Most Technical
Suzanne Bratt – The Warmth of Other Suns – Most Timely
Lisa Haitz – The Grapes of Wrath – Most Fun
Clara Kelley – Harry potter sorting hat – Best Student Entry
Lexi Davis – Dragons Love Tacos – Best Overall
Congratulations to all the edible books creators! View the entries and the winners on the UC Libraries Facebook Page. See you next year for Edible Books 2026!
Clara Kelley – Harry potter sorting hat – Best Student Entry
At the next event, scheduled for Wednesday, April 16 at 4:30pm, a celebration of both National Poetry Month and the final event of the academic year, three poets will read their work:
Paige Webb is an interdisciplinary poet-scholar. Other categorical boxes to aid legibility: they’re a queer, neurodivergent being of settler descent and a doctor untrained in basic CPR. The aim of their work is to create space for curative touch in concert with the creative vitality in all beings (thanks to Gabrielle Civil, Hortense Spillers, and CAConrad for help with this language). They are a Charles Phelps Taft Fellow at the University of Cincinnati and recipient of [accolade], [accolade], [accolade]. You can find some of their work at Anomaly, Blackbird, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Indiana Review, The Kenyon Review, Poets.org, Poetry Northwest, Verse Daily,Vinyl Poetry and Prose, West Branch and the chapbook Tussle.
Kristi Maxwell is the author of nine books of poems, including Wide Ass of Night (Saturnalia Books, 2025); Goners (Green Linden Press, 2023), winner of the Wishing Jewel Prize; Realm Sixty-four (Ahsahta Press, 2008), editor’s choice for the Sawtooth Poetry Prize and finalist for the National Poetry Series; and Hush Sessions (Saturnalia,2009), editor’s choice for the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. She’s the director of creative writing and an associate professor of English at the University of Louisville. Kristi holds a PhD in literature & creative writing from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona.
Dior J. Stephens is a Black, Queer poet, writer and the co-editor-in-chief of Foglifter Journal and Press. They are currently in the final year of their PhD in philosophy with a focus on creative writing at the University of Cincinnati. Dior’s debut full-length poetry collection, CRUEL/CRUEL (2023), was nominated for the 2024 Ohioana Book Award, and their collection Atomic I is forthcoming from Nightboat Books. A Cave Canem, Sewanee and Lambda Literary fellow, Dior has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net. Their work critically engages with themes of language, identity, and resistance, contributing to the broader conversations in poetics and the Black/Diasporic experience.
