Data Day 2019: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Data

You are cordially invited to the University of Cincinnati’s 4th Annual Data Day sponsored by The University of Cincinnati Libraries and IT@UC.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are topics gaining national attention.  Our 4th Annual University of Cincinnati Data Day will explore these topics in depth and highlight how researchers can expand their understanding by considering the impact of diversity, equity and inclusion on their own research.

 What: University of Cincinnati 4th Annual Data Day

 When: Monday, April 1, 2019 9am – 4:30pm

 Where: Tangeman University Center, Great Hall (located on the main campus of the University of Cincinnati)

The day will be comprised of panel discussions, an interactive session where participants will learn R programming skills, and keynote speakers to start and end the day.  The first keynote speaker, Amanda Wilson, will highlight the historic All of Us Research Program that is gathering data from one million individuals to assist in delivering precision medicine by taking into account individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and biology among participants. The second keynote speaker, Deborah Duran, will address how diversity and inclusion are necessary considerations as we consider our research and how doing so can have an impact on us all. Panelists will discuss health disparities and health equity research from local and statewide perspectives as well as how data is being used to empower social justice.

Don’t miss this exciting day!

For more information and registration visit: http://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/blogs/dataday/.

Pharmacology World Videos

Pharmacology World is a series of videos that cover all major drug classes and includes: mechanism of action, key pharmacokinetics, major therapeutic uses, and common and serious adverse effects. It also incorporates relevant physiology, pathophysiology and biochemistry.

Contents include:

Use these Pharmacology World videos to master the key concepts of pharmacology, prepare for course exams and national licensing exams.  Videos range in length from 8 to 32 minutes.

XSEDE HPC Workshop on Big Data – Feb 12-13

XSEDE monthly HPC workshop: Big Data

Free Registration (required)

Tentative Agenda

Description:                   This workshop will introduce scalable data analytics and machine learning.

It is a two-day, hands-on workshop using Hadoop, Spark and TensorFlow.

No prerequisites, although some familiarity with Python would be helpful.

When:                              Tuesday Feb 12th and Wednesday Feb 13th from 11 am to 5 pm.

Location:                         Teachers-Dyer Complex – CECH Library Room 320

2610 McMicken Circle – Cincinnati OH 45221

Note:                                You need an XSEDE account to register Create Account

Parking:                          CCM parking garage or the Stratford Heights parking garage

Special Instructions:   Participants should bring their own laptop, lunch will be provided.

Questions?                    Contact Amy Latessa latessak@uc.edu

XSEDE (eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment) is a virtual system that provides compute resources for scientists and researchers from all over the country. Its mission is to facilitate research collaboration among institutions, enhance research productivity, provide remote data transfer, and enable remote instrumentation. XSEDE is funded by National Science Foundation (NSF).  Getting Started Guide for XSEDE.

Flyers: BigData_workshopflyer_Feb2019 DCSS flyer_xsede Big Data

Lexicomp App Available

Lexicomp Online

Lexicomp Online is a collection of clinical databases and clinical decision support tools that provides users with an extensive medical library.  It provides clear, concise, point-of-care adult and pediatric drug information as well as in-depth information on interactions, toxicology, and more.  Lexicomp also includes support tools like drug ID, calculators, and patient education.

Unlimited Lexicomp Online access is available in a responsive design that will resize to your device.

New Lexicomp App Access – Previous App Has Expired

50 access codes are also available with this institutional subscription.

  • Lexicomp app registration is first come, first serve
  • App accounts expire annually

Lexicomp Academic Discount Program

Nathan Wysinski Begins Work in the Health Sciences Library as the New Computer User Support Specialist

On January 7, 2019, Nathan Wysinski began work as the computer user support specialist in the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library.

Nathan is not new to UC Libraries having served as a contract IT employee since April 2018 providing exemplary support of faculty, staff and student computing. Prior to this position, Nathan worked for the IT firm Pomeroy for three and a half years.  Nathan will be bringing his experience, expertise and professionalism to the Health Sciences Library in support of technologies and services for the faculty, staff and students on the health sciences campus.

Please join us in congratulating Nathan and welcoming him to the Health Sciences Library!

Paying Tribute to Leslie Schick as She Retires from the University of Cincinnati

leslie schick

Leslie Schick poses in the Walter C. Langsam Library, 2018

This December, the University of Cincinnati Libraries will say goodbye to a valuable employee and one that has played a central part in great change in the Libraries. Leslie Schick, senior associate dean of library services and director of the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library, will be retire at the end of UC’s fall term.

Leslie has enjoyed a long, storied career with the university, beginning as an information services librarian with UC’s Health Sciences Library.

“When I started, everything was print. We had card catalogs – none of the local, regional or international online library catalogs we do now,” Leslie remarked. “When people would come looking for a particular book, if we didn’t have it in our card catalog, meaning we didn’t own it at the Health Sciences Library, as a reference librarian I’d pick up the phone and call other libraries. If it was a nursing book, for example, I would call the Raymond Walters Library (the former name for UC Blue Ash) to see if they might have it because they had a nursing program. You would have to think about who at the university might have this book and then you would call that library. It was our own version of OhioLINK or Interlibrary Loan. Looking back…the whole world has changed.”

leslie wth reference colleagues

Leslie with her fellow reference librarians in the 1980s

Over the course of her career, Leslie has seen an incredible amount of change. This nurtured a deep appreciation for her colleagues, one that would serve her well as her responsibilities increased and she took on roles in library management. She watched as new waves of talent joined the library, as well as those times when years of institutional knowledge were lost to retirements.

“For some people, the change from print to online was more difficult. We had the most amazing reference librarian at the Health Sciences Library when I started, Ruth Epstein. She’d come from the hospital library, which was consolidated into the medical center libraries when it was formed in 1974. Whenever someone had a difficult question in our library, she’d be the one to find the answer. We had a site visit for one of our IAIMS grants (Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems) back in the 80s, and one of the members of the site team asked her one the most awful reference questions anyone could think of. After she found what they were looking for they told her that they’d asked the same question at over 25 academic health science libraries in the country and she was the only person who’d given them an answer. She read everything, every issue of 15 to 20 medical journals – she said that was how you kept on top of things. That was the old-school way. When we started putting a computer at our reference desk and moving away from the traditional card catalogue, she retired…she wasn’t able to deal with the change.” Continue reading

Read the University of Cincinnati Libraries 2017/18 Annual Progress Report

UC Libraries Progress ReportRead the University of Cincinnati Libraries 2017/18 Annual Progress Report where we ask the question: Have We Transformed Yet?

In this year’s annual Progress Report, we make note of the accomplishments of the previous year, as well as take a holistic view of UC Libraries since the Strategic Plan was launched five years ago. We celebrate the continued success of annual events that promote library collections and services, highlight milestones of major library initiatives and feature library spaces.

Integral to fulfilling the work of the Strategic Plan is the dedication of the faculty and staff of UC Libraries along with the investment of our donors. By highlighting the accomplishments of our hard-working staff and listing the current donors, both groups are recognized and celebrated in this Progress Report.

Finally, if all of the accomplishments listed in this report signal that we are at least on the road to transformation than we must ask ourselves the question…what’s next?

The Progress Report is available online at https://issuu.com/uclibraries/docs/uclannualprogressreport17_18.

Questions? Request a print copy? Email melissa.norris@uc.edu.

Happy Reading!

Data Visualization Lunch & Learn and Hands-on Shiny Workshop – Nov 28th 11:45 am to 3 pm

Join us Wednesday, November 28 for a Lunch & Learn and Hands-on Shiny Workshop with Dr. Olga Scrivner, Research Scientist at Indiana University’s Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center. REGISTER

Olga Scrivner is a research scientist at Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center (CNS) in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University, a faculty fellow at the Center of Excellence for Women in Technology, and a corporate faculty in Data Analytics at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. She has substantive expertise in developing web application tools for data mining and visualization using Shiny and R. Her current research at CNS focuses on mapping of occupational landscape and educational attainment, with specific emphasis in understanding the healthcare workforce in the areas affected by opioid epidemic.

Wednesday November 28 in Langsam Library room 475  LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED.


11:45AM – 1PM: LUNCH & LEARN – THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA VISUALIZATION
If a picture is worth of a thousand words, data visualization is worth millions: Toward a framework for actionable visual insights
Current shift in scientific landscape toward cross-disciplinary teams, evolving cyberinfrastructure and complex data requires a new kind of data analysis and visualization tools. This talk will introduce a visualization framework developed at Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center (CNS) at Indiana University, founded and directed by Professor Katy Börner, Victor H. Yngve Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Information Science (http://cns.iu.edu).


1PM – 3PM: BUILDING INTERACTIVE WEB APPLICATIONS: DATA VISUALIZATION WITH SHINY
This two hour hands-on workshop will step through the process of building, visualizing, deploying, and sharing Shiny web applications. Learning this workflow will enable you to build your own interactive tools that can be used for research and teaching.

UC Libraries Closed Thanksgiving

thanks imageUC Libraries will be closed Thursday, November 22 and Friday, November 23 for Thanksgiving, with the exception of the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library, which will be open Friday, November 23 from noon – 5:00pm. Regular library hours will resume Saturday, November 24.

This closing includes the Langsam Library 4th floor space, which will close Wednesday, November 21 at 6pm and re-open Saturday, November 24 at 10am.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Missing Maps Mapathon held at UC Libraries

On Nov 3rd, the Red Cross and UC libraries partnered to hold a second Missing Maps Mapathon. Missing Maps is an open, collaborative project in which you can help to map areas where humanitarian organisations are trying to meet the needs of vulnerable people.

During the mapathon, participants used the Open Street Map platform to identify buildings in satellite images and place them on a regional map (georeference).  The Red Cross uses this information to set up emergency services in areas that are impacted by natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes.  The mapping will be verified by Red Cross volunteers working in the mapped country and will help prepare response teams in the area to better assist if disaster strikes.

This year’s project covered three areas in the Lake Chad region in Niger.  This region of the world is experiencing a great humanitarian crisis due to poor infrastructure, conflict, poverty, and climate change.  It has been reported that nearly 17 million people are affected by the dire situation and 10.7 million are in need of humanitarian assistance.  The International Red Cross has been working in the area for thirty years and coordinates efforts with local relief agencies.

At this year’s event, UC Geography student Rachel Byrd led UC Cincinnatus Scholar students, UC Librarian Amy Koshoffer, UC Press Director Liz Scarpelli,  and Red Cross International Services Manager Paula McIntosh through the 4 hour mapping session.  In the span of four hours, volunteers were able to map three regions around the lake and identified 6065 buildings.  Many thanks to all who participated and contributed to the mission of the Red Cross.