UC Libraries is pleased to welcome Jordan Finkin, PhD, as the new head of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library. Jordan joins UC from Hebrew Union College, where he most recently served as deputy director of libraries, overseeing a four-campus system, as well as serving as the rare book and manuscript librarian. He brings extensive experience in library leadership, collection development and the stewardship of rare books and manuscripts.
Jordan holds a doctorate in Near Eastern studies and is the author of several scholarly monographs and numerous academic articles. He is also a productive literary translator from Yiddish, German and French, and the founder and director of the Naydus Press, a nonprofit publisher of Yiddish literature in English translation. His work with multilingual collections, together with his administrative experience, positions him well to steward the Classics Library’s exceptional collections and serve UC Libraries’ mission.
The John Miller Burnam Classics Library at the University of Cincinnati possesses one of the world’s largest and most distinguished collections of Classical Studies with particular strengths in Greek and Latin philology, Aegean Bronze Age archaeology, and Latin palaeography. It is unique in housing under one roof the full spectrum of sub-disciplines within the broad definition of Classics — language and literature, art and archaeology, history, philosophy, religion, law, science and medicine in addition to Modern Greek studies, papyrology, epigraphy, palaeography and more. The collection spans five millennia of recorded history and the vast geographic areas of Ancient Greece and the full expanses of the Roman Empire, including Eastern Rome (Byzantium) in addition to sizeable collections covering the Near East and Ancient Egypt.
The Classics Library is located at 417 Blegen Library and features a Reading Room, Palaeography Reading Room, Epigraphy and Papyrology Reading Room and impressive stack floors.
