Arlene Johnson to Head New Collection Development Services and Engagement Department

arlene johnsonThe University of Cincinnati Libraries announce a new strategic endeavor and department aimed at creating a holistic strategy for collections and the services provided for them. Effective Oct. 1, the new department is called Collection Development Services and Engagement and is to be led by senior librarian Arlene Johnson.

In her new role, Arlene will be responsible for:

  • development of a collections development services strategy for UC Libraries.
  • oversight and day-to-day management of all UC Libraries resource sharing activities.
  • development of services and strategies for remote storage of physical collections.
  • continuation as the selector and liaison to the Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures Department.

The goals of this new initiative and department are to create a sustainable collection development services approach by looking across all disciplines at UC Libraries, understanding OhioLINK and other nationwide and international trends in resource sharing and ensuring that long-term remote storage needs will meet and exceed users’ expectations. Over the next six months, Arlene will work collaboratively with College and Departmental Library heads, liaison/selector faculty librarians and content management faculty and staff to perform an environmental scan of current best practices, as well as national research trends and approaches, so as to identify and articulate a series of recommendations to the UC Libraries community for feedback, development and implementation.

Arlene has 19 years of service and scholarship with UC Libraries, serving previously as co-director of the Digital Scholarship Center and before that head of the Libraries’ Circulation and Multimedia Services Department.

“Arlene brings an outstanding skill-set and experiences to lead this important strategic endeavor,” said Brad Warren, associate dean of public services for UC Libraries. “Her understanding of the role of the liaison coupled with the changing landscape of scholarship and the unique needs of the academic community, make her the ideal choice to head up this new department.”

“I would like to thank Arlene for her recent work with the Digital Scholarship Center,” said Xuemao Wang, vice provost of digital scholarship and dean and university librarian. “She played an instrumental role in introducing the concept of digital humanities to both UC Libraries and to our colleagues at the university, as well as in the early establishment of the Digital Scholarship Center.”

Congratulations to Arlene on her new position and responsibilities!

Presenting the Albert B. Sabin Research Notebook Digitization Project Lecture Series

albert sabinDr. Albert B. Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, donated his complete correspondence, laboratory materials, manuscripts, awards and medals to the University of Cincinnati. His papers document both the development and testing of the oral polio vaccine and the growth of virology as a discipline.

In 1995, the John Hauck Foundation helped the Cincinnati Medical Heritage Center (now the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions) establish the Hauck Center for the Albert B. Sabin Archives. An initial gift provided funds for an archivist to organize and preserve Dr. Sabin’s collection. Later, the Hauck Foundation provided the Winkler Center with two additional donations that helped with the construction of the Winkler Center’s new home and the building of the John Hauck Foundation Gallery in the space.

Recently, selections of the Albert B. Sabin Papers Laboratory Notebooks were digitized with another gift from the John Hauck Foundation. The digitized materials were added to UC’s online repository, Scholar@UC available at https://scholar.uc.edu/ (search “Sabin Notebooks”). The physical collection of laboratory notebooks holds the entirety of Sabin’s laboratory work during his time at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation and the University of Cincinnati (1935 to 1969), including his service to the United States during World War II.

To close and celebrate this most recent project, the Winkler Center will produce a series of lectures dealing with Sabin, his research and the field of virology. Continue reading

Librarians James Van Mil and Hannah Stitzlein take on new roles in digital collection production and management

To meet vital digital collection production and management needs, UC librarians James Van Mil and Hannah Stitzlein have taken on new responsibilities to support digital content, collection and repository service needs for metadata, access, discovery, promotion, ingest/harvest and preservation. Working closely with Sidney Gao, digital lab coordinator, and Glen Horton, head of the development team, they will provide matrix support for content, collections, imaging, repository functional development and technology infrastructure support.

james van mil and hannah stitzlein

James Van Mil and Hannah Stitzlein

James Van Mil has a new title of digital projects and preservation librarian. In this role within the Content Services Team he is responsible for planning and implementing strategies for the life-cycle of digital content. James is a primary contact point for digital collections project management services, UC Libraries digital content strategy and assuring adherence to standards and clarity of workflow for digital preservation.

Hannah Stitzlein has a new title of metadata and repository services librarian. Hannah Stitzlein, in her first year with UC Libraries has had a primary focus on metadata, the standardized description of digital content that ensures future access and data transfer for the libraries digital collections. In concert with metadata analysis and application, Hannah will now begin to provide repository services to further promote use of repository content and enhance discovery of collections.

Read Source to learn more about the news, events, people and happenings in UC Libraries.

sourceRead Source, the online newsletter, to learn more about the news, events, people and happenings in UC Libraries.

In this issue of Source, Dean Xuemao Wang writes about his new role as vice provost for digital scholarship, which ties in with the article Introducing the Research @ Data Services Team.

The Libraries special collections are featured prominently in this issue with news of an exciting, surprise gift to the Neil Armstrong Commemorative Archives, promotion of a lecture series celebrating the digitization of the Albert B. Sabin Research Notebooks, and an announcement of a new UC exhibit featuring the Special Collections of four UC Libraries.

This fall brings new faces and new publications from the University of Cincinnati Press, along with the conclusion of the university’s Bicentennial celebration, which university archivist and head of the Archives and Rare Books Library Kevin Grace uses as the occasion to recount a gift from William A. Procter that was instrumental to the libraries.

Lastly, we announce that the Cecil Striker Society Annual Lecture is now our first fully endowed annual lecture.

Read these articles, as well as past issues, on the web at http://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/source/ and via e-mail. To receive Source via e-mail, contact melissa.norris@uc.edu to be added to the mailing list.

Research & Data Science Office Hours at CECH

Richard Johansen  and Rebecca Olson sitting at a tablefrom UCL RDS at CECH library for office hours.

Richard Johansen and Rebecca Olson from UCL RDS at CECH library for office hours.

On Thursday, September 19, 2019, the University of Cincinnati Libraries Research & Data Services team held office hours in the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services (CECH) Library. Richard Johansen, data visualization specialist, and Rebecca Olson, business & social science informationist, spent two hours talking to students and faculty about data visualization, data management, Scholar@ UC, ICPSR and python and R workshops.

In addition, students and faculty from computer science and education majors chatted with R&DS about the Open Science Framework, ORCIDS, and UC’s own data repository, Scholar@UC. Visitors learned that the library offers many workshops to assist researchers, including survey administration through REDCAP, tips for best practices in the Research Cycle, Spreadsheet Best Practices, Intro to Data Visualization in R, QGIS and more.

Research & Data Services offers assistance with ORCIDs, the Open Science Framework, R programming, Data Visualization, and how the research cycle can be improved through data management practices. Please contact us at ASKDATA@uc.edu or stop by our next office hours for more information. Our workshops are held around campus and are open to all.  Spreadsheet Best Practices, Cleaning Data with Open Refine, and Intro to ICPSR will all be held this fall at the CECH library.

Richard and Rebecca will return to CECH on October 24th from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm.  Office hours will also be in the Faculty Enrichment Center, lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library and the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library  later this fall. Stay tuned!

Data Scientist and Recent Berkman-Klein Fellow to Present Lecture and Workshop on October 10, 2019

Please join UC Libraries and IT@UC for a lecture on the evolution of Twitter use in Iran and a workshop on using R to analyze Twitter data.

Emad Khazraee's Photo

Dr. Emad Khazraee, PhD

On October 10, Dr. Emad Khazraee, Data Scientist at Indeed and recent fellow of the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, will visit UC as part of the Data and Computational Science Series (DCS2).

The DCS2 planning committee invites you to attend Dr. Khazraee’s lecture, luncheon and workshop.

Lecture and Luncheon:

Persian Twitter: Evolution of a Social Media Landscape

Thursday, October 10, 2019 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Geo-Math-Physics Library, Visualization Lab

Workshop:

Analyzing Twitter Data with R 

Thursday, October 10, 2019 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM

Geo-Math-Physics Library, Visualization Lab

 

Registration is required.

Register for the Lecture and Luncheon. Register for the Workshop.

Please direct any questions to Mark Chalmers | (513) 556-1452 | Mark.Chalmers@uc.edu

Suzanne Bratt Joins the CCM Library as Cataloging Specialist

On Monday, Sept. 16, Suzanne Bratt joined the staff of the Albino Gorno Memorial (CCM) Library as the cataloging specialist.

Suzanne graduated with a BA in music from Yale University, and with her PhD in musicology from the University of Pennsylvania. Over the past year, she has worked as a library intern at the Curtis Institute of Music, focusing on cataloging archival materials and processing ILL requests. Previous experience included working at UPenn’s Graduate Student Center as a “Navigating the Dissertation” and “Navigating the Grant” fellow. Suzanne’s research interests include the music of J. S. Bach, early Beethoven, the history of music printing, opera history and early chamber music. Her future interests include pursuing qualifications in music librarianship.

Please join us in warmly welcoming Suzanne to UC Libraries!

Elizabeth Meyer Appointed Head of the Deshon, Schlachter DAAP Library

DAAP Library

Interior of the DAAP Library

Elizabeth Meyer has been appointed head of the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) effective immediately. Elizabeth has been graciously serving as the interim head of the DAAP Library since 2017. In her interim role, Elizabeth has been commended for her commitment to outstanding services and collections at the DAAP library, her creativity and her vision of how to engage with the faculty and students of DAAP to ensure a vital library presence with their innovative programs and research interests.

Elizabeth began working at UC Libraries in 2004 as the visual resources librarian. She holds an MLS from Indiana University, and a BA in art history from DAAP. Her research interests include Cincinnati modernist architecture and historic preservation, and she has continually engaged with the design and architecture communities in the Cincinnati metropolitan area, securing unique papers, archives and special collections that benefit both DAAP and the broader research community.

Congratulations, Elizabeth, on her new role as the Head of the DAAP Library!

Some Photographic Equipment 1: Cameras : Notes from from the Oesper Collections, No. 57, July/August 2019

A circa 1948 Kodak Duaflex Camera with flash attachment made by the Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, NY.

A circa 1948 Kodak Duaflex Camera with flash
attachment made by the Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, NY.

Though the Oesper Collections do not explicitly collect photographic equipment, a few interesting items have come our way over the years and will be described in this and the succeeding two installments of museum notes.  Click here for issue no. 57.

Click here for all other issues of Notes from the Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.