Category Archives: UC

Zhaowei Ren Joins UC Libraries as a Software Developer in the Digital Scholarship Center

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Zhaowei Ren started work as a software developer in the Digital Scholarship Center (DSC) on Tuesday, May 29. Zhaowei is the first hire funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of the Digital Scholarship Center’s research on machine learning and data visualization in multiple disciplines in the humanities and beyond.

Zhaowei received his Master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, where he focused on data mining, algorithm design and semantic modeling. He has worked at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center on several bioinformatics projects, and at Spatial.ai, a data science firm.

He brings a terrific set of both theoretical and practical skills to the DSC that will help in implementing and scaling up their machine learning and data visualization platform for transdisciplinary research.

Two additional hires funded by the Mellon grant will begin in the DSC in July.

“I Am Dying, Egypt, Dying!”: A Cincinnati College Soldier-Poet’s Embrace of the Battlefield

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By:  Kevin Grace

William LytleOn September 20, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, General William Haines Lytle of Cincinnati was shot and killed by a Confederate sniper’s bullet in the Battle of Chickamauga.  A few days later, his body was carried back to his hometown.  Lytle’s funeral was held at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati and the thousands of mourners followed his casket in the cortege to Spring Grove Cemetery, miles away from the church.  The slow procession took up most of the day, the general’s body not arriving at Spring Grove until dusk.  Sometime later, his grave marker – a broken column – would dominate the landscape of the garden cemetery.

William Lytle was more than another officer killed in battle.  He was a literary man, a soldier-poet whose verse in antebellum America was popular in both the North and the South, and whose lines reflected his experiences on the battlefield.  They showed a view of the bloody vista typical of the Romantic era and they embodied his view of duty as well, in his eyes, a terrible beauty of death and destruction.  Lytle was a part of the Romantic tradition in his poetry, incorporating his classical education as a boy with his notions of heroism and duty in life.  This is an excerpt from a poem he wrote in 1840 as a fourteen-year-old, “The Soldier’s Death”: Continue reading →

UC Libraries Closed Memorial Day, May 28

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memorial dayAll UC Libraries locations will be closed Monday, May 28 in observance of Memorial Day, except for the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library, which will remain open 9am-5pm. This closing includes the Langsam Library 4th floor space, which will close Sunday, May 27 at 5pm and re-open Tuesday, May 29 at 8am.

Regular library hours for all locations will resume Tuesday, May 29.

New Books in Oesper (History of Chemistry)

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Two interesting publications by and about Dr. William Jensen, the curator of the Oesper Museum, have been added to the Oesper history of chemistry book collection.  Click here to see the details in the March-April 2018 list.

For more information about Oesper and the apparatus museum, click here.

If you have any questions about this collection, contact Ted Baldwin, Director of Science and Engineering Libraries, at Ted.Baldwin@uc.edu.

 

Be Sure to Check Out and Vote for ‘The Great American Read’

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readUC Libraries and the University of Cincinnati Press are proud sponsors of PBS’s “The Great American Read,” an eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels. The series features entertaining and informative documentary segments, with compelling testimonials from celebrities, authors, notable Americans and book lovers across the country talking about their favorites among the 100 chosen books.

The series kicks off May 22, 8pm, on CET. Be sure to watch! Throughout the summer, viewers will be encouraged to vote for their favorite of the 100 best-loved novels and the winner will be announced October 23.

For more information about “The Great American Read,” and to see a list of the 100 best-loved novels, visit www.cetconnect.org/community/great-american-read.

Happy Viewing (and Reading)!

@GreatAmericanReadPBS 

Margaux Patel Joins UC Libraries as the Business and Data Analytics Librarian

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On Monday, May 14, Margaux (Maggie) Patel started work at the University of Cincinnati Libraries as the business and data analytics librarian. She will be a part of the Walter C. Langsam Library’s Research and Teaching Service Department.

Maggie comes to UC from the American Financial Group in downtown Cincinnati where she was a research specialist.  At American Financial she prepared reports for the other staff at the company using many of the business databases we also have at UC Libraries.  She worked with data and helped the staff organize and analyze their data.  She taught instruction workshops, and made e-learning objects using Articulate Storyline software.  Maggie taught at Brown Macke College and worked at law firms before American Financial.

Welcome to UC Libraries, Maggie!

The University of Cincinnati Libraries Have Joined HathiTrust

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The University of Cincinnati Libraries have joined HathiTrust, a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future by collaboratively collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating and sharing the record of human knowledge. UC Libraries joins more than 130 international research libraries in HathiTrust, and is the third Ohio library to join along with The Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University.

“Membership in HathiTrust will enable the University of Cincinnati Libraries to partner with national and international collaborators with similar missions to preserve, protect and make accessible the scholarly record,” said Xuemao Wang, dean and university librarian. “Our membership will provide opportunities to enhance digital scholarship research like that done in our Digital Scholarship Center, as well as ensure the long-term digital preservation of our collections.”

HathiTrust began in 2008 as a collaboration of the universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (now the Big Ten Academic Alliance) and the University of California system to establish a repository to archive and share their digitized collections. Today, the HathiTrust’s Digital Library catalog equals 16 million volumes digitized and deposited by member libraries.

As members of HathiTrust, the University of Cincinnati community will have full access to digital materials inputted by UC Libraries, as well as those items in the public domain and those for which there is permission. In addition, benefits of HathiTrust membership include digital content storage, cost-effective long-term preservation and access services for UC Libraries’ digitized content. Continue reading →

UC Libraries Names Brad Warren Associate Dean of Library Services

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Xuemao Wang, dean and university librarian, announces that Brad Warren will join the University of Cincinnati Libraries as the associate dean of library services starting August 3, 2018.

Brad comes to UC Libraries from Yale University where he has served as the director of access service for Sterling Memorial and Bass Libraries since March 2009. Prior to Yale, Brad held various librarian positions at the University of North Carolina Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library and North Carolina State University Libraries. He received his BA in comparative literature and history from Indiana University and his Masters in library science from Indiana University.

Brad will be a member of the Dean’s Cabinet and his leadership portfolio will include Langsam Library’s Research, Teaching and Services Department, the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, the Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library, the John Miller Burnam Classics Library and the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services Library.

Welcome to UC Libraries, Brad!

Langsam Library Exhibit Celebrates Appalachian Culture

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appalachian heritage monthCincinnati lies just at the border or outer edge of Appalachia, a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York to northern Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia and includes portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, North and South Carolina and all of West Virginia. A new exhibit on display on the 4th floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library showcases resources from UC Libraries in celebration of Appalachian culture and heritage. Included are resources from the collections of the Albino Gorno Memorial (CCM) Library, Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library, the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Library, the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP), and Langsam. Also featured are online resources that showcase and inform about Appalachian culture.

The exhibit was curated by UC Libraries’ Mikaila Corday, Susan Banoun and Carissa Thatcher. It was designed and produced by Sam Kane, communications design co-op student, and Melissa Cox Norris.

A bibliography of Appalachian resources in the exhibit and more is available online.