Category Archives: CECH Library

Building Community with the CECH Library

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The College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services celebrated Stress Less Week this year from October 1st – 7th. College departments participated in providing stress management resources to students throughout the week in conjunction with the theme of Building Community.

The campus community was encouraged to work together to reach great heights with a Community Build LEGO Project. Participants selected LEGO pieces to add to the community space with the goal of building the highest tower possible. As communities tend to do, though, the project took on a life of its own with the addition of LEGO people, animals, and even plants.

CECH Library users also got the opportunity to complete a community art project with a unique sticker-by-number mural. The image was only revealed once enough of the stickers were placed in the correct spaces — over 2,000 stickers were placed to create this beautiful mural.

While Stress Less Week is now over, the CECH Library has community programming through October 31st. Visit our Building Community Book Display to explore items in our collection that focus on human connection, choose a book from the Banned Book Display to celebrate the diversity of our communal stories, and work together to hunt ghosts inside the CECH Library.

The CECH Library is located in 300 Teachers-Dyer Complex.

Rachel Hoople
CECH Library / Operations Manager and Student Worker Supervisor

CECH Library Spotlight: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

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CECH Spotlight highlights recommended books in the the UC College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) Library.

The Honeys / written by Ryan La Sala (2022)

CW: transphobia, homophobia, hate crime, murder, grief, bullying

Book cover image of The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Ryan La Sala’s contemporary horror The Honeys could be a sibling to the A24 horror movie Midsommar. 

The novel follows Mars, a genderfluid teen, as he embarks on a journey to find out more about his twin sister Caroline’s horrific death. Mars attends the prestigious Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy, where his sister spent her summers leading to her death. This academy is the textbook definition for the gender binary, which Mars isn’t too fond of. But while he’s there, he meets Caroline’s old friends, the Honeys. But as Mars begins to get close to the Honeys, he starts to uncover the horrifying truth of what led to his sister’s death.

Throughout his novel, La Sala explores both the gender binary and grief explicitly. The novel is centered around Mar’s grief over losing his sister, as well as what it’s like living in a gender world where to him, gender is fluid. The novel utilizes vivid imagery to help build suspense and horror, leaving reads completely on edge the further in the book they go. 

This book is available from the CECH Library, OhioLINK, and the Search Ohio lending networks.

Review by Alice Somers, CECH Library Student Assistant | Early Childhood Education and Deaf Studies, CECH 2026

SERVICE NOTE: Power outage on Friday, Oct. 6 will impact access to some library websites

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A power outage is scheduled for UC’s primary Data Center beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, October 6, and lasting as late as 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 8. Electrical maintenance will be performed in the Data Center during this time.

More information, and a list of UC services that will be affected during the outage, can be found in this news post.

The University of Cincinnati Libraries website (libraries.uc.edu) will remain up and available during the outage; however, some parts of the website will be unavailable.

The parts of the site that will be unavailable during the outage are:

•             Browzine integration with Summon

•             The staff directory

•             The student employment application

•             Some Contact Us forms

•             The “Journals” and “Books” search tabs on homepage

•             My Library Record

In addition, the following library sites/services will be unavailable during the outage:

•             uclid.uc.edu (staff and public Sierra)

•             scholar.uc.edu

•             journals.uc.edu

•             digital.libraries.uc.edu (including Luna)

•             data.libraries.uc.edu

•             libapps.libraries.uc.edu (including the Source, LiBlog, Omeka S, and Exhibits)

Kyle McGill joins UC Libraries as the GIS Research Consultant

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Welcome to Kyle!

Kyle McGill is the new GIS research consultant in the UC Libraries Research and Data Services Unit.

Kyle is a Master’s student in the Department of Geography and GIS. He completed an undergraduate degree in Geography, but also took classes in Urban Planning, both at UC. His primary interests are in remote sensing and environmental geography. He tends to spend his free time reading science fiction, playing video games, or playing with his two cats, Jojo and Nebula (pictures below).

Graduate Student Kyle McGill

Kyle is here to help you understand how to use GIS software, think about project plans, and find data for your project.  He can share information, offer advice, and even partner on projects on a case by case basis. Please come by the Data & GIS Collab, located in the Geology Math and Physics Library (240 Braunstein Hall).

Kyle’s hours will be:

Monday10 am to 2 pm
Tuesday10 am to 2 pm
Wednesday10 am to 2 pm
Thursday10 am to 2 pm
Friday12 pm to 4 pm
Nebula
JoJo

UC Libraries Closed Labor Day

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All University of Cincinnati Libraries locations are closed Monday, Sept. 4 for Labor Day. The Libraries will reopen as scheduled Tuesday, Sept. 5. Have a safe and relaxing holiday.

Welcome Elizabeth Kiscaden, Dean and University Librarian

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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.

CECH Library Spotlight: Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

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CECH Spotlight highlights recommended books in the the UC College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) Library.

Hollow Fires / written by Samira Ahmed / 2022

CW: Islamophobia (Graphic), Racism (Graphic), Murder, Neo-Nazism (Graphic), Xenophobia, Racial Slurs, White Supremacy (Graphic)

Samira Ahmed’s contemporary thriller Hollow Fires switches between two narratives: Jawad Ali, a middle schooler who loves to invent, and Safiya Mirza, a senior with a passion for journalism. Nothing connects the two, but to the rest of their Chicago neighborhood, they’re one in the same as they practice the same religion: Islam. 

It starts with Jawad being labeled a terrorist over his Halloween costume, then his disappearance, then his murder. Safiya follows his story closely, as her majority-white school district sweeps the incident under the rug like it’s nothing. But when she starts receiving threats like Jawad did, it’s up to her and her friends to investigate, since the school and police don’t seem to care. 

Throughout her novel, Ahmed includes multimedia pieces such as interviews, text messages, articles, and transcripts to emphasis the message. By not just jumping between Jawad (after he’s passed) and Safiya’s perspectives the novel also utilizes the literary technique of being a “frame story,” where it begins at the end and then takes readers on the journey to the end. Ahmed brings nonfiction into her novel, using real life circumstances and recent history to guide the haunting truth of Islamophobia and racism in American society in the 21st century.

Ahmed tackles modern issues within America, and this novel can be graphic in its realistic portrayal of these actions. This novel is a fantastic read, but it does tackle very heavy subjects so please read up on the content warning (CW) before reading. 

This book is available from the CECH Library and the Search Ohio lending network.

Review by Alice Somers, CECH Library Student Assistant | Early Childhood Education and Deaf Studies, CECH 2026

Celebrate Pride with the CECH Library!

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Check out the Pride display all month long at the CECH Library!

Explore childrens’ and YA titles that span the spectrum of sexuality and gender identity and celebrate LGBTQIA+ figures and history. To find more LGBTQIA+ titles, check out our reading list available on the CECH Library website.

Easier Browsing, Improved Wayfinding in CECH Library

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We’re happy to announce that we have recently installed improved signage in the CECH Library. The new signage clearly identifies the locations of our various types of children’s literature, as well as high-traffic areas like our info desk, makerlab, and … Continue reading →