Category Archives: Langsam Library

Benjamin Gettler and the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees

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By:  Alex Temple, Benjamin Gettler Papers Project Archivist

I’ve mentioned before that Benjamin Gettler served on the Board of Trustees for the University of Cincinnati, but I haven’t really talked about how he got there or what that means.  In short, the Board of Trustees is the governing body of the University of Cincinnati.  There are 11 members total, who are recommended by the Ohio State Senate and appointed by the Governor of Ohio.  Among other responsibilities, they select and appoint the university president, set the university budget, and grant all degrees from the university.  The trustees set the framework for students’ experience at the University of Cincinnati, as they also are responsible for setting the tuition and approving university rules, curricula, and programs.  Gettler himself was key to the creation of the Judaic Studies Department.

Gettler was first recommended as a trustee to Governor George Voinovich by legislator Stanley Aronoff in October of 1992.  Aronoff lauded Gettler’s commitment to the Republican Party (Voinovich was a Republican governor) and business prowess, but it wasn’t until November of 1993 after a second recommendation from Bob Taft, that Voinovich would finally appoint Gettler.  Taft’s recommendation better highlighted Gettler’s qualifications as both a University of Cincinnati alumnus and significant donor.  Taft also praised his experience in law, finance, community service, and business in addition to his supportive activities with the Republican Party in local, state, and national issues.  He also put his own reputation on the line by making the recommendation out of personal familiarity with Gettler. Continue reading →

Help Config the Refig! Langsam 4th Floor East Remodel

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4th floor reno graphicWhy do you come to the library? What kind of furniture do you want? What inspires you? These are some of the questions UC Libraries is asking users to consider as they provide input on possible changes to a large area within the library.

This summer, the Walter C. Langsam Library’s 4th floor east will be remodeled. UC Libraries is seeking input on what is desired for the space. The project encompasses approximately 13,000 square feet. One of the main objectives of the project is to add more user space (referred to as seats). Some library collections will remain, while others will be relocated. The project will begin in summer 2019 with completion during the fall semester.

To provide input, library visitors are encouraged to draw, write or tell their ideas on one of two large blackboards positioned at the entrance to the library as well as in the 4th floor east space. In addition, there is a handout(PDF) that can be filled out and either returned to the Desk@Langsam or emailed to libfacilityfeedback@uc.edu.

Get creative!

And the Winners are…Results of the 2019 UC Libraries International Edible Books Festival

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cupcakes

Best Overall – A Series of Unfortunate Cupcakes by the Warren Family

The University of Cincinnati Libraries celebrated the International Edible Books Festival on April 1, 2019.

Twenty edible books were created by students, faculty, staff, librarians, friends and family. The entries ranged from children’s books to literary classics to popular fiction and self-help books. The edible books were made of cakes, cookies, candy, deviled eggs and even carrots. Each entry was judged by our esteemed judges Debbie Tenofsky and Mary Anne McMillan and awarded a bookmark.

Created by librarian Judith A. Hoffberg and artist Béatrice Coron, the International Edible Books Festival is held worldwide annually on or around April 1st to mark the birthday of Jean Brillat-Savarin, author of The Physiology of Taste.  The global event has been celebrated since 2000 in various parts of the world, including in Australia, Brazil, India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, The Netherlands, Russia and Hong Kong.

UC Libraries has participated in the International Edible Books Festival since 2001. The 2019 winners ares:

  • Most Humorous – After the Party by Olya Hart
  • Most Whimsical – The Monster at the End of This Book by Melissa Cox Norris
  • Most Literary – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Ben Kline and Aaron Libby
  • Most Creative – The Giving Tree by Jessica Ebert
  • Most Magical – Good Night Moon by Michelle Matevia
  • Most Adorable – Owl Moon by Debbie Weinstein
  • Most Clever – The Amazing Spider-Man by Sam Norris
  • Most Delicious – All New Square Foot Gardening by Luahna Winningham Carter
  • Most Deadly – Where the Red Fern Grows by Jack Norris
  • Most Checked Out – Green Eggs and Ham by Sami Scheidler
  • Most Fun – Middlemarch by Steve Norris
  • Most Taboo – Human Resources or was it Human Remains by Aja Hickman
  • Scariest – Ring by Holly Prochaska
  • Most Imaginative – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Jenny Mackiewicz
  • Silliest – Too Many Carrots by Melissa Cox Norris
  • Most Outrageous – A Dance with Dragons by Sam Kane
  • Best Overall – A Series of Unfortunate Cupcakes by the Warren Family
  • Best Student Entry – The Little Prince by Emma Duhamel and Eli Seidman-Deutsch

Congratulations to all the edible books creators! View the entries and the winners on the UC Libraries Facebook page. See you next year for Edible Books 2020!

Hungry? Bite into an Edible Book with UC Libraries on April 1

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2018’s Most Deadly – “Life Cycles” from Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World by Tania Paine

Celebrate books good enough to eat at the International Edible Books Festival set for 1 p.m., Monday, April 1.

The University of Cincinnati Libraries will celebrate the International Edible Books Festival with an event scheduled from 1-2 p.m. on Monday, April 1, in the fifth floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library.

At the event, over 20 participants will present their edible creations that represent a book in some form. There are few restrictions in creating an edible book – namely that the creation be edible and have something to do with a book. Submitted entries include edible titles such as Food: A Love Story and A Series of Unfortunate Cupcakes. Best sellers The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and The Giving Tree are represented alongside classics like Middlemarch, Where the Red Fern Grows and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, among other literary greats.

t-shirtAs in past years, entries will be judged according to such categories as “Most Literary,” “Most Delicious,” “Most Hilarious” and “Most Gruesome.” In addition, the winners of “Top Student Entry” and “Best Overall Entry” will receive a limited edition UC Libraries t-shirt. After the entries are judged they will be consumed and enjoyed by all in attendance.

According to the International Edible Book Festival website, the edible book was initiated by librarian and artist Judith A. Hoffberg during a 1999 Thanksgiving celebration with book artists. It became an international celebration in 2000 when artist Béatrice Coron launched the Books2Eat website. Traditionally, the event is celebrated on April 1st (April Fools’ Day) to mark the birthday of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), a French lawyer and politician who became famous for his book, Physiologie du gout (The Physiology of Taste). To view images of the 2018 edible books, visit the Libraries Facebook page.

The Libraries International Edible Books Festival is free and open to the public. It is sponsored in part by Books by the Banks: Cincinnati Regional Book Festival.

Come to celebrate (and eat) “books good enough to eat!”

James Handaysd Pekins – An Early Advocate for the House of Refuge

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Portrait James H. PerkinsBefore the House of Refuge opened in 1850, there was no institution serving juvenile criminal offenders in Cincinnati.  Juvenile offenders were housed with adults in the Hamilton County jail.  In the late 1830s, a movement began in Cincinnati to reform the penitentiary system and a man named James Handaysd Perkins took part in this movement.  Although Perkins did not live long enough to see it, he had an important role in the start of the juvenile criminal justice system and social services in Cincinnati.

Perkins was born in Boston and moved to Cincinnati as a young man in 1832.  He came from a well-to-do family and was a talented writer and speaker, but he seemed to struggle to find his place in life.  He suffered from some health problems and also possibly from some mental health issues.[i]  He arrived in Cincinnati in search of a quieter life and with hopes of purchasing land for a farm, but instead he quickly became an up and coming member of society.  He began studying law under his friend, Timothy Walker, and joined a group of affluent New Englanders already living in Cincinnati.  Perkins even met his wife, Sarah Elliot of Connecticut through his social circles.  Even though life seemed to be going well for him, Perkins quickly became disillusioned with the law and attempted a variety of different careers from farming to establishing a milling and tool manufacturing business. Continue reading →

Flora McDonald: A Heroine of the Jacobites

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By McKenna Corey, ARB InternHandwritten text that says Flora McDonald

A Heroine of the Jacobites

“Had it not been that her prudence and energies were called forth by the important and critical part which she was instrumental in achieving, she might have lived and died unknown to the world.”

-Alexander Macgregor, The Life of Flora Macdonald

Portrait of Flora MacDonaldIn every piece of history, there is a powerful woman, sometimes hidden or obscured from the record, that made all of the difference. This is true of the Jacobite movement as well, and though there are many incredible women that contributed to the movement, today’s post will focus on an incredibly special one. Flora Macdonald, with her bravery and commitment, saved a man’s life. What is even more incredible is that she not only saved a man’s life, but one that is integral to Scottish history.

I realized when I stumbled upon this portrait in the Virginius C. Hall Jacobite Collection, what struck me first was the poise and grace with which Flora poses. I was so enamored with the portrait that I decided to look into its subject, and after some research within the collection, I realized how important to the history of the Jacobite movements she really was. Continue reading →

Three Recent Articles Highlight Work being done in the Digital Scholarship Center

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Three recent articles from faculty and staff working in or with the university’s Digital Scholarship Center demonstrate the transdisciplinary, enterprise-wide research mission of the center. In these three articles, topics include information science, new media and communications, and digital scholarship/digital humanities:

“Embracing semantic ambiguity to enhance interpretability of complex unstructured machine learning problems.” – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pra2.2018.14505501144

“Tweeting for social justice in #Ferguson: Affective discourse in Twitter hashtags” – https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444819827030?casa_token=mSwlsllzyaQAAAAA:o8PzOiTUUyS1zCblmTKMvkE1HBromRj1bXExxvk8qiZVg0LItZlr9Ne5y9EW10EqqpWPqi4KwvDI

“Epic social networks and Eve’s centrality in Milton’s Paradise Lost” – https://academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-article/doi/10.1093/llc/fqz001/5365481?guestAccessKey=71453a56-cfdb-48f2-a5bc-ae279bf4b0ac

The University of Cincinnati’s Digital Scholarship Center, located in the Walter C. Langsam Library, is a joint venture between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Libraries.

On campus and in the community, the DSC serves as a catalyst for hybrid forms of research and teaching, bringing together humanistic methods with technical innovations to test paradigms and to create new knowledge at the boundary between disciplines as they are conventionally imagined in humanities.

For more about the DSC, visit their website at http://dsc.uc.edu/

The Wonderful World of Miniature Books

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By:  Savannah Gulick, Archives & Rare Books Library Student Assistant

Five minature books from the Archives and Rare Books Library collectionsToday at work, while I was thinking about what topic I might want to write my blog post about, I helped Sue Reller look for a miniature book that members of Cincinnati Book Arts Society visiting the Archives & Rare Books Library wanted to see. From taking Kevin Grace’s honors seminar on the Culture of Books & Reading I had learned that ARB owns the smallest book in the world – only legible by using a magnifying glass!!!  But I never realized the entire collection of miniatures that the library owned is around 250 books. Needless to say, I was inspired by the number and the fact that not many people know the archives houses such a large collection of them or that miniature books existed – a world of its own! The attention to detail in all the books astounds me, from the beautifully marbled end papers to exquisite drawings and illustrated covers. Continue reading →

New Langsam Library Exhibit – “Animals in Antiquity” as Reflected through Books and Artifacts in the John Miller Burnam Classics Library

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animals in antiquityOn the fifth floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library is the exhibit “Animals in Antiquity: An exhibition from the collections of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library.”

Curated by Rebecka Lindau, head of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library, and Michael Braunlin, assistant head of the  Classics Library, and designed by Michelle Matevia, library communication design co-op student, the exhibit highlights the role and importance of animals in Antiquity.

Bastet the Cat

Cats were sacred in ancient Egypt. There was even a cat goddess, Bastet.

Animals were divinities, especially in Egypt.  In Ancient Greece and Rome they were the companions or theomorphic stand-ins for gods and goddesses. Many animals were considered sacred to the ancient Greeks and Romans. However, as humans went from a nomadic existence to one of settlers and farmers, they began taming and using animals for their own purposes and so the status of animals began to decline.

After their domestication, bulls, cows, horses, donkeys, pigs, sheep and goats were used to plow fields, to provide milk and meat, transportation, and clothing. Wild boars were hunted for food and for “displays of manhood” by well-to-do young men as were various birds, deer, hares and even lizards.  Some animals were made companions or pets such as sparrows, pigeons, doves, dogs, cats, monkeys and even wild animals, gazelles and cheetahs. Animals in Greece, rabbits, dogs, roosters and doves, were given as presents, also in courtship as “love gifts.”

Foxes were wild and often considered a nuisance for wine growers because they liked eating the vines.

Various kinds of fish were eaten in antiquity, but they, too, could be pets and were sacred to the gods. Animals such as horses and elephants were used in war and as entertainment, for example, among the Romans at the Colosseum where lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, bears, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, wild donkeys, hyenas and ostriches were forced to fight to their deaths. Greek and Roman authors such as Plutarch, Aelian and Pliny the Elder wrote about animals in works on ethics, morals and natural history and prose, poetry and history writers such as Homer, Aesop’s Fables, Lucretius, Ovid, Seneca, Dio Cassius, Diodorus Siculus frequently used animals to tell stories and to illustrate the human experience.

Sections of the exhibit inform how animals were used as entertainment, as companions, for ritual sacrifice, even in war. In addition, the exhibit features animals in art, displayed on coins, vases and statues. A bibliography of resources used in the creation of the exhibit is available on site and online as a PDF.

To learn more about Animals in Antiquity, read about or visit the Classics Library located on the fourth floor of Blegen Library where the books and artifacts featuring the texts and images in this exhibition are housed and where the librarian is happy to answer questions and offer research advice on this or any other topic concerning classical antiquity.