Travel the world this March at the CECH Library with a special display created in collaboration with the IDD Education Center’s IMPACT Innovation associates!
As a part of the collaboration, IMPACT associates had the opportunity to become more familiar with library collections and engage in concepts of display building, such as creating visual elements to a theme. The beautiful visual elements found on the display were created by associates to represent places in the world they’d like to visit. Explore what wonders the world holds by reading books set in or about the places they’ve selected!
Rachel Hoople, CECH Library operations manager and student supervisor
Most University of Cincinnati Libraries locations have reduced hours for Spring Break, March 15-23. Check the library website for a list of hours by location.
Have a safe and rejuvenating Spring Break, Bearcats!
Sometimes the hardest part about studying is staying focused. Whether you’re antsy or someone’s phone call is more interesting than tomorrow’s exam, focusing on school work can be a challenge.
CECH Library is building a new Study and Focus Tools Collection (SFTC) to debut in Fall 2025. Checkout two great opportunities to get a sneak-peak of the collection and play with some awesome fidgets!
Wednesday, March 12 (10am-12pm): Get a first look at the collection. We’ll be tabling in the Teachers-Dyer Complex lobby (3rd floor).
Thursday, March 13 (1-4pm): Come to the CECH Library and visit our Fidget Petting Zoo. A table will be set up near the MakerLab.
Wednesday, April 2 (3-5pm): See our fidgets and study tools during the Tech & MakerLab Playground in CECH Library.
Gravity timer and fidget slugBlue light glasses and worry stones
After doing research and surveying library users, CECH Library selected 20 items to support students’ focus and study habits – white noise machines, sound muffs, fidgets, and more! These items will be available for anyone in the UC community to use and checkout beginning Fall 2025.
Know of a good book to eat?! Create an Edible Book for UC Libraries International Edible Books Festival!
It’s time once again for the fan-favorite International Edible Books Festival scheduled for Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 11 a.m. on the 4th floor of the Walter C. Langsam Library. UC Libraries is seeking people interested in creating an edible book for the enjoyment of all in attendance. There are few restrictions – namely that your creation be edible and have something to do with a book – so you may let your creativity run wild.
As in previous years, entries will be judged according to such categories as “Most Delicious,” “Most Creative,” “Most Checked Out” and “Most Literary.” Those awarded “Best Student Entry” and “Best Overall” will win UC swag.
If you’re interested in creating an Edible Book, fill out the entry formEdible Books Entryby Tuesday, March 25. And if you’re looking for inspiration, visit The Facebook Album to see Edible Books from years past.
On Saturday, February 15, Don Jason, clinical informationist in the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library, represented the University of Cincinnati as a sponsor of the Heart of Northside Health Fair. This fair allowed community members to connect with approximately 15 different vendors. They were able to get screened for issues such as hypertension and diabetes, as well as receive educational materials and meet local healthcare providers.
The Heart of Northside Health Fair was organized by UC College of Medicine Faculty member, Florence Rothenberg. Rothenberg is a cardiologist who has been treating Cincinnati patients for almost 20 years. When the North Presbyterian Church dissolved and closed its doors, Rothenberg purchased the building in 2022 with the goal of creating a wellness center for patients who do not have as much access to the resources needed to maintain a healthy diet and exercise.
On display on the 5th floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library through the end of spring semester, The Art of Bookplates features various bookplates found in the collections of the University of Cincinnati Libraries.
A bookplate, sometimes called an ex libris plate, is a label affixed inside a book to indicate ownership or to honor an individual, gift or collection fund.
UC Libraries has numerous bookplate designs to represent various collections, libraries, funds and gifts. In addition, some books in our collection include bookplates from other universities where they were housed before finding a home in UC. The exhibit showcases just some of the bookplates found throughout our libraries.
The Art of Bookplates was curated, designed and produced by Lexi Davis, design co-op student on the Communications Team. Want to learn more? A handout available at the exhibit includes an article by William Jensen tells more about bookplates found in UC Libraries Oesper Collection.
At the next event, scheduled for Wednesday, March 12 at 4:30pm, three poets will read their original work:
Kari Gunter-Seymour is the Poet Laureate of Ohio and the author of three award-winning collections of poetry, including Dirt Songs (EastOver Press 2024) and Alone in the House of My Heart (Ohio University Swallow Press 2022). She is the executive director of the Women of Appalachia Project and editor of its anthology series Women Speak. Her work has been featured in a number of periodicals and journals including the American Book Review, Poem-a-Day, World Literature Today and The New York Times. Find her at www.karigunterseymourpoet.com.
Phoebe Reeves is professor of English at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College. She has three chapbooks of poetry, most recently The Flame of Her Will. Her first full length collection, Helen of Bikini was published in March 2023. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband Don, amidst her unruly urban garden.
Prince Bush is a poet from Nashville, TN whose poems appear in Cherry Tree, The Drift, The Cortland Review, Northwest Review and elsewhere. He received a fellowship from the Bucknell Seminar for Undergraduate Poets while earning his BA in English as an Erastus Milo Cravath Presidential Scholar at Fisk University. Currently a PhD student in Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati as a Yates Fellow, Prince Bush earned his MFA in Creative Writing as a Truman Capote Literary Fellow from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Last November, the University of Cincinnati Libraries announced the award of an Archives Grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to the Libraries’ Archives and Rare Books Library (ARB). This grant supports the archival processing of records related to the lawsuit Bronson v. Board of Education of the City School District of the City of Cincinnati maintained by the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and donated to the University of Cincinnati in the 1980s.
All achievements and accomplishments of the witnesses listed are current as of 1979, the year that the witnesses began giving depositions.
Our second Black History Month spotlight goes to a pioneer of medicine in the Cincinnati area, Lucy Oxley – the first African American to graduate from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Lucy Oxley was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1912. During her childhood, her family moved to Cincinnati, as her father was named rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. As a young girl, Oxley looked up to three of her uncles who became doctors and knew early on that she wanted to be one too. She graduated early from Woodward High School and joined the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine’s six-year undergraduate and medical program.
During her time at UC, Oxley excelled, working hard to earn her spot in the group of top fifteen students who would have the chance to intern at General Hospital (UC Medical Center). However, she was refused an internship spot. When she questioned Dr. Alfred Friedlander about why she wasn’t given an internship, he said to her, “Lucy, you are a negro, and we don’t want you.” Oxley replied, “Well Dr. Friedlander, I wouldn’t change that for anything.” Rising above the prejudice, she went on to complete her internship at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, DC, and returned to Cincinnati to join her classmates for graduation on June 5, 1936.
After graduation, Oxley became a medical director for student wellness at Bennett College in North Carolina, and then Wilberforce College here in Ohio. Following that, she had a daughter, Francine, and returned to Cincinnati where she started her general practice. In 1945 she began working in cancer research alongside fellow UC grad, George Sperti. A few years later she returned to full-time practice in family medicine where she cared for thousands of patients and families.
Later in life, Oxley was diagnosed with lung cancer but continued to treat patients up until her passing in 1991. She is remembered today for her dedication to those she cared for and for paving the way for young African Americans who aim to make a difference in the medical field just as she did.
