Due to inclement weather, the University of Cincinnati will close from 2 p.m. until midnight on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. This includes library locations. The Albino Gorno Memorial (CCM) Library will not open as scheduled at 1 p.m., but will remain closed.
UC Libraries remains available online to provide users with access to library resources and services.
Love Data Week 2021
Love Data Week takes place the week of Valentine’s Day. Created to raise awareness of research data management, sharing, reuse, and preservation of data, it has been promoted by library and data professionals since 2016 in both online and in-person events. You can see some of the events taking place around the world at the International Love Data Week 2021 schedule.
One of the ways we at RDS/UCL celebrate is to participate in the Adopt a Dataset program that ICPSR hosts every year. ICPSR choses to highlight interesting data sets from their collection for individuals to explore to learn more about data. Once a dataset is chosen, you may fill out the Dataset adoption form and have your name added to the wall of adopters. Adopters are encouraged to delve into the data by reading about the research, look at the variables, try out the analysis tools online, and read related publications.
ICPSR is a member consortium that UC belongs to that provides access to datasets from over 15,000 studies, over 5.6 million variables, which have had over 95,000 publications that cited those studies. It also provides curated data repository services for researchers, including secure data enclaves, which fulfill finding requirements for data management plans. Although most studies are quantitative in the social and behavioral sciences, there are also themed collections in the arts, humanities, and some health sciences. Teaching resources, online analysis tools, and pre-made exercise modules also are available to members.
There are a wide variety of datasets to choose from this year, ranging from education, to social media, social justice, to health. I chose to adopt one on music, Study of Jazz Artists, 2001 (ICPSR 35593). I started out by looking at the description of the study and how it was conducted. I then jumped into browsing the variables, one of the tabs found on the data set page. One of the great features of ICPSR is that you can search by variable if you are looking for specific studies to replicate or want to see if your own survey questions fit what others have asked in the past.
One variable jumped out at me – Q32- Age Began Playing First Instrument. My own children play instruments and I always wonder if we’ve started them at the right age or not. Looking at the result for this variable, I can see the unweighted results, including summary statistics and a variables chart. The median age was 9, the mode was 10, the maximum was 35, and the minimum was 1! I guess there’s still hope if you’re in your 30s to pick up an instrument to become a professional jazz musician! The sweet spot to start your child appears to be the 8-10 year old range.
If you have questions about Love Data Week, ICPSR, Data, Data Management Plans, Cleaning, Storing, Finding, or Using Data, contact us at Research and Data Services here at UC Libraries. We would love to help you with your projects, offer a workshop to your department or class, or discuss your data needs.
Check out the new science books that have been added to the Geology-Math-Physics and Langsam Libraries. Be sure to use the Click and Collect service for the print books. Titles in the Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society series are ebooks with accessible links highlighted in blue within the list.
Click here to access the November-December 2020 list.
If you have any questions about these books, contact Ted Baldwin, Director of the Science and Engineering Libraries, at Ted.Baldwin@uc.edu.
Martin Luther King, Jr. from LIFE Magazine
UC Libraries will be closed Monday, Jan. 18 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day . The libraries will resume normal hours on Tuesday, Jan. 19.
Want to read up on Martin Luther King, Jr., his impact and legacy? Check out these library resources.
Welcome back, Bearcats, to spring semester 2021!
Check the Libraries website for any spring semester service updates and for operating hours by location. With limited exceptions, there remains no browsing of library materials in the stacks. The Click & Collect retrieval and pickup service allows UC users to request printed library materials in the Library Catalog for pickup at designated locations. CHAT and email reference services are available to answer any question.
UC Libraries remains open and available online to provide users with access to library resources and services.
Have a productive, successful and safe semester.
What a year it’s been.
The University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report, this year completely online, covers July 2019 through June 2020, an academic year that started off normally, but in the spring would be disrupted in ways never thought possible because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fall semester was business as usual with students, faculty, researchers and staff accessing our facilities and resources for research and study, or simply to grab a cup of coffee between classes. Librarians and staff provided instruction on how to find the best research materials, offered reference assistance, collected and made our collections available and collaborated with faculty and researchers to translate information and data into knowledge. The usual activities in the library would come to a sudden halt spring semester.
This year’s report reviews how we responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it also celebrates our numerous accomplishments, highlights new special collections and library exhibits, spotlights the achievements of our faculty and staff and provides usage stats and financial information.
As the semester and 2020 come to a close, we wish you warm wishes for the holiday season. May the new year bring you health, harmony and joy.
We are back! Check out the new science books (mostly ebooks) that have been added to the Geology-Math-Physics and Langsam Libraries. GMP has added 24 ebooks from the American Mathematical Society (AMS). The print books in the list are available through the Click & Collect service.
Click here to access the September-October 2020 list.
If you have any questions about these books, contact Ted Baldwin, Director of Science and Engineering Libraries, at Ted.Baldwin@uc.edu.
On Oct 23rd UC Libraries and IT@UC partnered for the 5th UC Data Day. This year’s all virtual event featured, two power sessions, a Keynote by Glenn Ricart of US Ignite, and an interactive panel session of multidisciplinary faculty.
The event started with the first power session by George Turner, Indiana University’s (IU) Chief Systems Architect with IU’s Pervasive Technologies Institute (PTI). Mr. Turner led participants through an introduction to high performance computing and demonstrated how to access the UC Advanced Research Computing (ARC) system.
Erin McCabe, Digital Scholarship Fellow with UC Libraries Digital Scholarship Center (DSC) led the second session on text mining and natural language processing. Both sessions had a hands-on component with participants accessing the ARC system as well as engaging with the DSC platform for text mining.
Glenn Ricart of US Ignite gave a keynote address steeped in his own personal data that highlighted how much data one individual creates and how this data is being used to make policy decisions, drive business and help us image the future. He also discussed the problems of our dependence on data and possible pitfalls and wrongdoings.
The closing session of the day was the interactive panel moderated by Michael Dunaway, PhD (UC Executive Director of the Digital Futures Resilience Program). Dr. Dunaway started us off by asking two questions:
Six faculty from very different disciplines who use data in very different ways shared their perspectives on the keynote and the state of data literacy education at UC. Glenn Ricart also participated in the discussion and affirmed the conclusions that was best stated by Whitney Gaskins (CEAS Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor- Office of Inclusive Excellence & Community Engagement) when she said “We need to educate students to be more numbers literate.” Dr. Achala Vagal (MD, Radiology) expressed that the amount of data will only continue to grow per the example of medical imaging data and its storage needs. Zvi Biener, PhD (Associate Professor Philosophy| History | Judaic Studies department, and the Center for Public Engagement with Science) highlighted how the approach to evaluating data changed with Newton, and we have to continue to question if we are truly gaining knowledge from all the data generated. Both Prashant Khare (Asst. Professor, CEAS Aerospace Eng & Eng Mechanics, Chair, Advanced Research Computing (ARC) center) and Sam Anand (Professor, CEAS ME, Director – Siemens PLM Simulation Technology Center) discussed the need for jobs to adapt to the data rich environment and that if we are educating our students to be more numbers literate, they will cope better in the future work environment. The panelists, Glenn Ricart and Michael Dunaway guided us through the changing and complex data rich world we now find ourselves and left us much to think about as to how our institute and community can face the challenges and ultimately benefit from this new environment.
Videos from the day are available on the STRC youtube page, as well as archived in a Data Day collection 2020 in UC’s institutional repository Scholar@UC. We invite you to review the sessions and continue the dialogue at AskData@uc.edu or attend an upcoming Data and Computational Science series event.
The University of Cincinnati Libraries will be closed Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27 for Thanksgiving, with the Walter C. Langsam Library closing early on Wednesday, November 25 at 5pm.
Beginning Monday, November 30 library hours will vary by location with some closing their facilities and offering weekly Click & Collect library material retrieval and pick up service. Library hours and information about the Click & Collect service is available on the Libraries website.
Through the Online Library portal and CHAT reference service, UC Libraries remains open and available online to provide users with access to library resources and services.
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
