September Book of the Month

by Christian Boyles

Illustrated Dust Jacket book cover

The Illustrated Book Jacket 1920-1970

by Martin Salisbury | NC973 .S25 2017

About the book: A deep dive into the history of the illustrated book jacket, tracing its development across the twentieth century, reflecting some of the most iconic designs of the era.

In the modern era, the “beautiful book,” an art object in its own right, has become the key to the ongoing attraction of print publishing as physical books continue to distinguish themselves from the screen.

Author Martin Salisbury traces the evolution of the book jacket from its functional origins as a plain dust protector for expensively bound books to its elaboration as an artistic device to catch the eye of browsing book buyers. The increasing awareness of the jacket’s potential to serve as a marketing tool across various areas of the publishing world―from literary fiction to academic titles, and children’s books―meant a proliferation of illustrative treatments. The book jackets reproduced here reflect the changing visual styles and motifs of the passing century, beginning with the Art Deco period and continuing through Modernism, the playful Thirties, the pre- and postwar Neo-Romantics, the new consumerism and realist subject matter of the Fifties, and the Pop Art of the Sixties.

Featuring talent from the US and UK, Cover Up: The Illustrated Book Jacket explores the pictorial dust jacket through a selection of more than 300 key works and artists that influenced the course of book jacket design.

Is it checked out? Don’t worry about it. Here are some other titles on the subject.

Illusive : contemporary illustration and its context | NC845 .I45 2005 (in the oversized section)

Today, illustration appears in design-related projects in a wide range of styles. One can find drawings done fleetingly by hand just as often as polished vector graphics created on computers. Motifs are not only being produced in pencil, chalk, airbrush and marker but also by mixing media, for example by combining illustration, photography and wallpaper. But when so many alluring possibilities currently exist in illustration, how can one stay up to date and how should one evaluate new developments?

Illusive is a collection of contemporary illustration from around the world that addresses the variety of existing techniques and puts them into context with explanatory text. It features personal designs alongside fashion illustration and commercial work produced for books or magazines – a diversity that reveals how the medium of illustration functions independently from trends. At the same time the book is also a survey of current tendencies and design approaches. Features introducing leading protagonists supplement the examples shown.

The fact that it presents manifold methods by such a broad spectrum of international designers side by side makes Illusive stimulating and educational reading for the professional illustrator.

1000 ideas by 100 manga artists (ebook)

How much would a course on drawing cost given by the top 100 international manga artists? How much would they charge to share their most highly valued techniques? This book brings together 100 manga artists and asks each one to offer 10 practical tips for the manga enthusiast on techniques, sources of inspiration, and the best way to build their portfolios. Detailed photographs, 1,000 in total, taken by the artists themselves serve to illustrate each of these 1,000 tips.

Storymakers (streaming film)

Colin Thiele explores the world of one of our best loved and most prolific writers. Author of 70 books, Colin Thiele has a lifelong devotion to education and writing. In this program, Jonathon Appleton, a school student and head of a Thiele fan club, visits Colin and discusses the writing craft. Colin’s natural affinity with his audience is evident.  Colin Thiele’s books are rich in scenes that elicit vision and mood; the filmic quality of his material can be seen in the success of Storm Boy. This program features some scenes from his novels including the classic The Sun on the Stubble and Jodie’s Journey. These beautiful sequences are intercut with Colin’s reflections on his work as he answers letters and talks with Jonathon.  Colin Thiele’s lifetime achievements inspire a love for writing and a desire for reading in children and adults alike.

UCBA Library Closed Labor Day, September 3rd

Labor Day graphicThe UCBA Library will be closed Monday, September 3rd for Labor Day.  We will resume our regular Fall Semester hours on Tuesday, September 4th at 7:30 am.  Please visit our UC Blue Ash Library Hours page to view all of our hours, including holidays and any exceptions to our regular schedule.

The Great American Read at UCBA Library

by Christian Boyles and Michelle McKinney

Great American Read logo

Your UCBA Library’s current display features a selection of books and DVDs that are featured on PBS’s The Great American Read program. The Great American Read is an eight-part series Continue reading

August Book of the Month

by Christian Boyles

Book cover of How To Choose Your Major

How to Choose Your Major
by Mary E. Ghilani
LB2361.5 .G55 2017

About the book

Entering the workforce after college can be scary to say the least, especially if a graduate is unprepared or ill-equipped to seek out an appropriate career path or job opportunity. This practical manual Continue reading

Reflections on Library Leadership Ohio 2018

By Hong Cheng, Michelle McKinney and Craig Person

Group photo of Library Leadership Ohio Class of 2018

College of Engineering and Applied Science Libraries’ Hong Cheng (Global Service Librarian), Craig Person (Operations Manager & Student Supervisor) and UC Blue Ash Library’s Michelle McKinney (Reference and Web Services Librarian) participated in Library Leadership Ohio (LLO) 2018 in Columbus, OH.

The Ivy Library group, in coordination with OhioNet and the State Library of Ohio, facilitated the group of thirty-two librarians from across the state. The four day institute brought speakers from all areas and levels of the library profession. Participants were given the opportunity to learn, discuss and reflect on leadership skills, strengths, and career growth.

Hong Cheng, Michelle McKinney and Craig Person

L-R: Hong Cheng, Michelle McKinney and Craig Person at Library Leadership Ohio 2018

Overall Impressions

Hong: I appreciated the opportunity to get to know myself better and more importantly realize how much I can contribute to the organization. I heard “community” throughout the training many times, and I am excited to work with my colleagues on building a happy and healthy community within and outside the library.

Michelle: This was just what I needed at this point in my career. I’ll be celebrating my thirteenth work anniversary in December and am in the midst of considering my professional future. LLO has allowed me the time to truly reflect on my accomplishments, skills and aspirations. It has also helped me to connect with others who are facing similar challenges. I’ve been lucky to have a strong group of library friends, colleagues and supporters and I feel I’ve grown that group as a result of this experience.

Craig: Seeing how I spent a good portion of my library career in Kentucky, I had not heard about the Library Leadership Ohio program. I am thankful beyond words for having had this opportunity. To be selected for the 2018 cohort was an honor. But the experience was something more than just the tangible items gathered, presentations viewed, or daily speakers. There were bonds and connections created through this shared experience that I can’t fully describe. I understand myself better, I see this library “world” with more definition, and I feel connected to something greater.

Hong, Michelle and Craig plan on sharing more about their LLO experience at an upcoming info session that has yet to be scheduled.

Attention All Nerds and Geeks!

Display and LiBlog Post by Library Student Assistant Tiffany Fite

geeky book display

We’ve scoured our shelves and searched the system to create a display of the Nerdiest and Geekiest books in our collection. Want to know more about Wonder Woman’s Origins? Careers in Video Game design? The development of the iPhone? Starting July 16, come to the UCBA Library for your daily intake of Science, Comics, Math, Video Games, and so much more. Let’s Geek Out!

View the Library Display LibGuide to browse the display online.

 

July Book of the Month

by Christian Boyles

Leper Spy Book Cover

The Leper Spy by Ben Montgomery
D802.P5 M66 2017

About the book

The GIs called her Joey. Hundreds owed their lives to the tiny Filipina woman who was one of the top spies for the Allies during World War II, stashing explosives, tracking Japanese troop movements, and smuggling maps of fortifications across enemy lines for Gen. Douglas MacArthur. As the Battle of Manila raged, young Josefina Guerrero walked through gunfire to bandage wounds and close the eyes of the dead. Her valor earned her the Medal of Freedom, but the thing that made her an effective spy was a disease that was destroying her.

Guerrero suffered from leprosy, which so horrified the Japanese they refused to search her. After the war, army chaplains found her in a nightmarish leper colony and campaigned for the US government to do something it had never done: welcome a foreigner with leprosy. The fight brought her celebrity, which she used on radio and television to speak for other sufferers. However, the notoriety haunted her after the disease was arrested, and she had to find a way to disappear.

Is it checked out? Don’t worry about it. Here are some other titles on the subject.

And if I Perish : Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II | D807.U6 M66 2003

In World War II, 59,000 women voluntarily risked their lives for their country as U.S. Army nurses. When the war began, some of them had so little idea of what to expect that they packed party dresses; but the reality of service quickly caught up with them, whether they waded through the water in the historic landings on North African and Normandy beaches, or worked around the clock in hospital tents on the Italian front as bombs fell all around them. For more than half a century these women’s experiences remained untold, almost without reference in books, historical societies, or military archives. After years of research and hundreds of hours of interviews, Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee have created a dramatic narrative that at last brings to light the critical role that women played throughout the war. From the North African and Italian Campaigns to the Liberation of France and the Conquest of Germany, U.S. Army nurses rose to the demands of war on the frontlines with grit, humor, and great heroism. A long overdue work of history, And If I Perish is also a powerful tribute to these women and their inspiring legacy.

Women at War : the Women of World War II | D810.W7 L47 2002 

When the men went off to the front in World War II, a huge vacuum was left behind in the family, in the workplace, and in society at large. Women soon stepped into the breach in the factories, on the farms, in transport and public services, as well as in auxiliary military services, intelligence and espionage. Women endured the hardships of separation and rationing, as well as aerial bombardment, arrest, interrogation and perhaps imprisonment in a labour camp. Socially, women gained new skills and acquired a new sense of freedom, independence and equality, which they would take with them into the post-war world. From a German pin-up to American photographers, from Japanese women’s police to all women British orchestras, from Soviet women typists in the field to German pilots, from prisoners of war to secret agents, Women at War in World War II is a testament to these courageous and capable women and their experience, in both Allied and Axis countries. Included are first-person accounts, from the London air-raid warden to nurses caught in the raids on Pearl Harbor to flight technicians in Toronto.

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter DVD | D810.W7 L53 2007

Among the many sweeping social changes engendered by World War II was the influx of women into previously male-dominated workplaces. Documentary filmmaker Connie Field interviews five of these women. Black and white, urban and rural, poor and middle-class, the former defense employees relate their treatment during and then after the war, when they often faced discrimination from their male co-workers and employers, even as they were publicly praised for leading the war effort at home..

The reminiscences are intercut with the realities of the period – old news, films, recruiting trailers, March of Time clips, and pop songs such as “Rosie the Riveter.” These often serve to highlight the disparities between how women were portrayed in wartime media and the actual experiences of these five women.