By Janice Schulz
In observance of Banned Books Week, celebrated this year from September 24 through October 1, 2011, the Archives & Rare Books Library has compiled a list of Rare Book titles that have appeared on the American Library Association’s (ALA) most challenged books lists. Each book on our list is presented with an image, challenge incidents, and reasons for challenges.
By Laura Laugle
Now that the physical processing of the Berry collection is complete and I’ve begun arranging materials, I’ve come across some items which, when I processed them months and months ago, I was too ignorant of their context to fully appreciate. Chief among those items are three copies of The New Horizon. I had no idea when I pulled out the rusty staples, pried off the bits of rapidly disintegrating paperclips and filed them temporarily (read: labeled with a removable sticky note) as “Misc. Copies of New Horizon” how incredibly important these school papers really are. Continue reading
By Lauren Fink
In the Archives and Rare Books Library, we recently processed a collection containing historical records of the College of Music of Cincinnati. This collection spans 1878-1967 and contains commencement bulletins, programs, student rosters, and minutes of executive, financial, and stockholder’s committee meetings. Illustrating the historical and biographical nature of this collection, the 1926 commencement bulletin entitled “College Comments,” contains articles on the College’s faculty, graduating students, clubs, and ensembles. Further, meeting minutes provide details of all of the College’s major educational and financial concerns and 
decisions, such as how to create more space for radio labs or the necessity of hiring certain faculty for certain departments. The minutes also contain outlines of correspondence between the College and the Conservatory of Music on having a connection with each other. To view the contents of this new collection, see the finding aid online (http://rave.ohiolink.edu/archives/ead/OhCiUAR0287). Continue reading
By Janice Schulz
The next Introduction to Records Management workshops will be held October 11 and October 13.
During this workshop we will discuss the benefits you will receive from efficiently managing your records, UC’s records program, your role as a keeper of public records, the definition of a “record,” how to perform records inventories, the development of records retention schedules and proper means of records disposal.
Both sessions will be held in Blegen Library’s Marge Schott Seminar Room from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The workshops are free, but registration is required. You only need to register for one session; the same information will be presented at both.
Register here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XQRF9CR. When you see SurveyMonkey’s “Thank you for taking this survey” page your registration has been sent.
Who should attend?
These workshops are for new records officers who have not been introduced to records management at UC and existing records officers who need a refresher as well as anyone responsible for managing University records.
Would you like these workshops presented in your office? Please contact Janice Schulz to schedule a custom workshop geared to the needs of your staff.
By Kevin Grace
Is there a Taft fashion cult lurking about campus? This morning saw the William Howard Taft statue outside the College of Law decked out like he was going to a Jimmy Buffet concert. Replete with hula skirt, tee shirt, shades, and beanie, Big Bill definitely looked like he was ready for an end-of-summer blowout.
The Taft statue was erected on the east side of the law school in 1992. Sculpted by William T. Moore III, the statue shows Taft in his judicial robes and clasping a law book in his hand. A graduate of Woodward High School, Yale, and the Cincinnati Law School, William Howard Taft served as dean of his law alma mater from 1896 to 1900. The Cincinnati Law School was the last remnant of the original Cincinnati College founded in 1819. As dean, Taft assisted with the 1897 merger of his school with the Law Department of the University of Cincinnati and served as dean of the combined programs, called the College of Law. Continue reading
By Laura Laugle
A total of 223 boxes of the Theodore M. Berry Manuscript Collection have now been processed, leaving just six remaining. In the final collection there will be approximately 180 linear feet with around 475,000 total documents and about 1,000 photographs dating from the 1910s though 2000. The inventory in progress includes a detailed list of the titles and contents of folders, along with series and sub-series for the boxes in which each of the folders is stored. This list will be used for a final Encoded Archival Description finding aid that will be available on OhioLINK and the Internet for researchers using the collection. The completion date for the project is set for February 2012. Continue reading
The City of Cincinnati Birth and Death Records from 1865 to 1912 are now fully online and available for research and study at http://digitalprojects.libraries.uc.edu/Births_and_Deaths/.
A new exhibit on display on the 4th floor of Blegen Library traces the development of student newspapers at the University of Cincinnati from the publication of the first paper in 1880 to today.
The exhibit features a timeline of events in the history of student newspaper production, highlighting the run dates, a short description, and the groups behind the various publications. Examples of each newspaper are displayed.
By Laura Laugle
A large part of Theodore M. Berry’s work in obtaining equality for African Americans in Ohio and especially in Cincinnati centered on the electoral process. The “Berry Backers” frequently ran “Get out the Vote” type events throughout the 1940s and 1950s, using the lure of bowling tournaments and visiting speakers like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to encourage blacks to work with the systems in place and become involved in the political process. It should then come as no surprise that Berry spent many years fighting for what he believed to be the fairest system of voting – proportional representation.
The “Berry Backers” bowling team at one of their many events
By Lauren Fink
The Archives and Rare Books Library recently processed a collection containing artifacts of and relating to Eleanor Moore Allen.
Eleanor Allen, originally from Linneas, Missouri, was a student at the Cincinnati College of Music in the 1930s. She was also a staff singer at WLW Radio in Cincinnati and a record producer at the Victor Record Division of RCA in New York City. In the 1950s, Allen returned to the College-Conservatory of Music, working as an administrator, Dean of Women, and Director of the Preparatory Department. She was a member of the Alumni Board of Governors and the Mu Phi Epsilon Professional Music Sorority. After retirement from CCM in 1980, Allen worked as an assistant to David McLain, Cincinnati Ballet’s artistic director, for four years. She died in 2003 at the age of 93. Continue reading