On August 7, Marcia Johnson began work for the University of Cincinnati Libraries in the role of library services supervisor for the Geology-Mathematics-Physics (GMP) Library.
Marcia will be responsible for overseeing core library operations for the GMP Library. This work includes managing the service desk, responding to user questions and requests for library materials and overseeing the routine maintenance of library collection and spaces. She will supervise student assistants at the GMP Library and assist with the overall supervision of students at the other Science & Engineering Library locations.
Ms. Johnson graduated from Northern Kentucky University (NKU) with a degree in communications and minored in biology and sociology. Prior to accepting this position, she served the past seven years as the library specialist III/ FDLP & ASERL coordinator – government documents/intellectual property & copyright (USPTRC – United States Patent & Trade Resource Center) at the W. Frank Steely Library at NKU. For 16 years, she was also the coordinating manager of the Steely Library Media Collections and SWON Media Specialist, managing the daily operations, access and circulation of Steely’s media library and SWON’s media collection. Marcia brings extensive experience in library operations and student supervision, as well as several library related certifications.
Welcome, Marcia, to the Science & Engineering Library, UC Libraries and all of UC!
There is growing interest and development in Virtual Reality (VR) for use in immersive education and training, collaboration and communication, as well as for enhancing teaching and learning. Within the University of Cincinnati there are VR activities found throughout campus, including in the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP), the College of Medicine and in Game Design, as well as in UC’s Digital Futures facility.
To showcase some of these VR activities, UC Libraries is holding a series of open sessions with distinguished speakers from UC’s Digital Futures who will share their work, research and innovations in VR. There are three sessions open to all.
The Cincinnati chapter of the “Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America” has raised funds to replace the famous She-Wolf, which was stolen from Eden Park on June 16, 2022. A workshop connected to the University of Florence, Italy, has created a replica which was shipped to the United States and arrived in Cincinnati on Friday, August 25, 2023 (see the first three images below, taken by Joe Mastruserio, president of the Cincinnati lodge of OSDIA). The statue will be returned to Eden Park at a dedication ceremony on October 20, 2023, at 10:00 am.
The story of the Lupa (Latin for female wolf) is well-known and can be easily found on Wikipedia, so I won’t repeat it here, just to say that the statue that was stolen and vandalized after criminals had removed it from its base by cutting it off from the paws, leaving the twins and base intact, was originally gifted in 1931 (dedicated in 1932) by the City of Rome, Italy, under the fascist leader Benito Mussolini. He donated wolf statues also to other towns in the U.S. with some connection to Rome, however faint, such as a town in Georgia by the name of Rome. The Cincinnati “connection” was the name of the city and the Roman military leader Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. The statue was modeled after the so-called Capitoline Wolf thus named as the original is housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome, Italy (see the last image below). The date of the original statue is uncertain. Some scholars claim it to be Etruscan from the 5th-4th centuries BCE; others that it is early medieval from the 10th-11th centuries. Other dates have also been suggested. What seems clear is that the nursing twins are additions from the Renaissance (probably late 15th c.).
In connection with the dedication ceremony on October 20, a book exhibition devoted to the She-Wolf and Romulus and Remus will be on display in the Reading Room of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library at UC, featuring texts describing the story of the Wolf’s role in the Founding of ancient Rome, and original Roman coins, such as a silver denarius dating from the Roman Republic; other coins from the time of emperors Antoninus Pius and Constantine, representing the wolf nursing the twins. Interestingly, the depictions are of a wolf looking down at the twins, not at the viewer as in the Capitoline Wolf which, as I mentioned, did not originally include the twins. The relief of the Lupa and twins on the parapet of the façade of the Blegen Library building, housing the Burnam Classics Library, can be viewed at any time (see fourth image below).
As UC is a public university, the exhibition will be open to all. If you can, please attend both events, especially the dedication ceremony in Eden Park to convey the message that Cincinnatians will not allow theft or vandalism of their historic monuments and that we as law-abiding residents are reclaiming our parks as safe and clean spaces for families, wildlife, plant life — and for history!
Hosted by the University of Cincinnati Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room, the Data & Poetry | Poetry & Data Workshop: Attributes of the Code & the Line will explore how data and poetry inform and influence each other, the impact of emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs on poetry and literature, as well as the implications this presents for copyright.
Join us Tuesday, Sept. 12, 3-5pm in the Elliston Poetry Room (6th floor of the Walter C. Langsam Library) for a panel discussion and Q&A led by poets, data professionals, AI researchers and a legal expert. While you may not leave with answers, you will leave with thoughts, resources and more questions.
The panelists are:
Ben Kline is the assistant department head for research, teaching and services at UC Libraries. A poet in his non-library life, Ben believes poets should be empowered to harness data, data tools and our collective knowledge to create work that invigorates and challenges ideas about art and technology.
Amy Koshoffer – as the assistant director of research and data services, Amy promotes data literacy skills particularly data sharing and data management.
Kay Bancroft – a poet, editor, educator and artist, Kay merges creative writing with pre-existing structures, data and more.
Mark Chalmers – science and engineering librarian. Among his other areas of expertise, Mark manages the CEAS Library’s coding workshops and is an AI enthusiast.
Tim Armstrong – a lawyer and technologist, Professor Armstrong studies the intersection of advanced communications technologies and intellectual property law.
The workshop is part of Poetry Stacked programming and the Data and Computational Series. It is sponsored by a Universal Provider Award from the Provost Office.
Please see a very brief overview of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library to prepare for the much more extensive in person orientation on August 18. See you soon!
Today we officially welcome our new dean and university librarian Elizabeth Kiscaden on her first day at the University of Cincinnati Libraries.
Dean Kiscaden comes to UC from Creighton University where she was university librarian and assistant vice provost of library services. While at Creighton, she worked to modernize legacy library systems and infrastructure to support an anytime, anywhere, any device philosophy and oversaw the development of a single library enterprise, bringing together campus and health sciences libraries. She has extensive experience administering large grants and library services to support academic programs, faculty teaching and student learning. Her research largely focuses on consumer health information.
On display on the 4th floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library, the Graphic Novels exhibit celebrates and promotes the variety of graphic novels available in the library. From traditional novel adaptations, biographies and autobiographies to Manga and comic books, graphic novels take on different forms and subjects and are enjoyed by people of all ages.
The books on display in the exhibit include:
Byrne, Eugene, and Simon Gurr. Darwin: A Graphic Biography. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2013.
Garcia, Kami, et al. Teen Titans: Raven. Burbank, CA: DC Ink, 2019.
Hamilton, Tim. and Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation. First edition. New York: Hill and Wang, 2009.
Isayama, Hajime and Sheldon Drzka. Attack On Titan. New York, N.Y., Kodansha Comics, 2012.
Kishimoto, Masashi, et al. Naruto #1. Viz, 2003.
Macellari, Elisa. Kusama: The Graphic Novel. Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2020.
Moore, Alan. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 2005.
Stevenson, ND, and N. D. Stevenson. Nimona. HarperCollins Publishers, 2015.
A table-top display is located on the 4th floor of the library with graphic novels that can be taken to the Desk@Langsam for check out:
Carré, Lilli. Heads or Tails. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 2015.
Doran, Fionnuala. The Trial of Roger Casement. SelfMadeHero, 2016.
Duffy, Damian, et al. Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation. New York, Abrams Comicarts, 2017.
Gravett, Paul. Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life. Aurum, 2005.
Hickman, Jonathan, et al. The Manhattan Projects. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, Inc., 2016.
Jesse Reklaw. LOVF: An Illustrated Diary of a Man Literally Losing His Mind. Fantagraphics Books, 2016.
Moore, Alan, et al. V for Vendetta. New York, DC Comics, 1990.
Moore, Alan. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 2005.
Moore, Leah, et al. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. SelfMadeHero, 2016.
Otomo, Katsuhiro, et al. Akira. Dark Horse Manga, 2000.
Radtke, Kristen. Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness. First edition. New York, Pantheon Books, 2021.
Samura, Hiroaki, et al. Blade of the Immortal. Dark Horse Manga, 2017.
The Graphic Novels exhibit was designed and produced by Norah Jenkins, library communications co-op student.
Join UC Libraries and the University of Cincinnati Press for an unforgettable afternoon with Dr. Alvin H. Crawford, MD as he launches his new book “The Bone Doctor’s Concerto: Music, Surgery, and the Pieces in Between.”
Date: Tuesday, August 8, 2023 Time: 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM Location: Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library | Stanley J. Lucas Board Room (MSB E005HA)
A buffet lunch will be provided. This event is free and open to all.RSVPis required.
The Book Launch is an in-person event, however, a Zoom link will be provided to maximize attendance and create a hybrid event for those interested. Please register to indicate your desire to attend in person or remotely.
About the Book
The story of one of Cincinnati’s most influential leaders in medicine.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1939, Dr. Alvin Crawford grew up and attended medical school in a segregated world. Beginning with his early life in Orange Mound—a self-contained community for freed slaves established in the 1890s—Crawford’s autobiography describes his flirtation with a music degree and time spent playing in jazz bands through the segregated South. In 1960, Crawford began his ground-breaking medical career with his entrance into the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, becoming the school’s first African American student. After completing his medical training and traveling the world as a surgeon for the Navy, Crawford found himself in Cincinnati, where he established the Comprehensive Pediatric Orthopedic Clinic at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, the first in the region.
Underlying this story are the systemic and very personal incidents of racism Crawford experienced throughout his career. His autobiography is a personal account of segregation, integration, ambition, hard work and taking risks. “The Bone Doctor’s Concerto” is published by the University of Cincinnati Press.
Alvin Crawford is professor emeritus in the UC College of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery with more than 35 years of clinical experience in diagnosis and treatment in orthopedics. He is the recently retired founding director of the Crawford Spine Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center and a renowned expert in spinal deformities and neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder often associated with scoliosis. He is the first Black president of the Scoliosis Research Society and has been recognized in “America’s Best Doctors” since 1996.
The University of Cincinnati Press has been named a 2023 finalist in social justice publishing from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for their book Surviving the Americas: Garifuna Persistence from Nicaragua to New York City by Serena Cosgrove, Jose Idiaquez, Leonard Joseph Bent and Andrew Gorvetzian.
“Since UC’s faculty senate and university administration chose social justice to be our core area of publishing, the press is thrilled to have elevated the university’s publishing efforts to an internationally recognized stage as a publisher of social justice scholarship,” said Elizabeth Scarpelli, director of the University of Cincinnati Press. “These awards signal to scholars, students and experts that UC is a global leader in peer-reviewed social justice scholarship, open access publications and regional books. This recognition will help bring more award-winning, globally impactful scholarly and regional authors to UC as part of the #Next phase – Acceleration.”
About the book
In Surviving the Americas, Serena Cosgrove, José Idiáquez, Leonard Joseph Bent and Andrew Gorvetzian shed light on what it means to be Garifuna today, particularly in Nicaragua. Their research includes over nine months of fieldwork in Garifuna communities in the Pearl Lagoon on the southern Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and in New York City. The resulting ethnography illustrates the unique social issues of the Nicaraguan Garifuna and how their culture, traditions and reverence for their ancestors continues to persist.
About the Next Generation Indie Book Awards
The Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest International awards program for indie authors and independent publishers. In its seventeenth year of operation, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards was established to recognize and honor the most exceptional independently published books in 80+ different categories, for the year, and is presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group in cooperation with Marilyn Allen of Allen Literary Agency (formerly the Allen O’Shea Literary Agency).
