A Program By Any Name: Calling All Theater Goers and Performers!

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Suzanne Reller

We need your help! The Archives and Rare Books Library is expanding its Shakespeare holdings as part of the 2016 quadricentennial . In our effort to document and preserve the heritage of Shakespeare productions in the greater Cincinnati area over the past two centuries, we’re building an archival collection of local Shakespeare play programs. It doesn’t matter if they are from 1902 or two days ago. They can be programs from performances by CCM, high schools, professional theater groups, or the couple next door who are forever emoting on Romeo and Juliet. It doesn’t matter! The only requirement we have is that the performance took place somewhere in the tri-state.

Please mail your submissions to the Archives and Rare Books Library, P.O. Box 210113, Cincinnati, OH 45211-0113 or drop them by our library on the 8^th floor of Blegen Library. If you have any questions, just contact us via email (archives@mail.uc.edu) or give us a call Monday through Friday, 8-5, at (513) 556-1959.

Thank you all so much for following our celebration, and a special thanks to anyone who can contribute. We can’t wait to see the wonderful programs you have in store for us! To learn more about our Shakespeare commemoration, have a look at our web page, http://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/exhibits/shakespeare400/.

Will(iam) You Allow Me To Deviate?

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Suzanne Reller

By: Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern

I’m going to depart from the traditional format of my blog posts for just a moment. Instead of trying to share some story or educate you on our holdings, I would rather take a second and start a discussion with all of you.

Recently I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal, titled, “The Coming Shakespeare Extravaganza” (you may have seen it on our Facebook page). The article goes over the impending 400^th anniversary celebrations, but it also asks if we are celebrating William too much. I would like to ask you all the same question, but in broader terms. Continue reading →

UC Celebrates Its Library’s Founding Collection as It Celebrates Shakespeare 400

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Suzanne Reller

Events around the world will mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in April. University of Cincinnati Libraries are showcasing UC’s rare Shakespeare collections and highlights of the UC Shakespeare Tercentenary a century ago.

Cultural, creative and educational organizations around the world will kick off celebrations honoring the legacy of William Shakespeare as the world observes the 400th anniversary of his death, which was on April 23, 1616. Here at the University of Cincinnati, the Archives & Rare Books Library’s Shakespeare collection is one of the university’s original library collections, purchased for the university back in the 1890s.

The Enoch T. Carson collection holds more than 250 volumes. The collection has illustrations from editions of Shakespeare’s works along with pamphlets, clippings, excerpts, criticism, almanacs and various souvenirs that were collected by Carson. Over the past century, dozens of additional volumes have augmented that original collection, including rare editions illustrated by Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, and W. Heath Robinson. Continue reading →

Dean’s Corner: A New Year for UC Libraries

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Melissa Cox Norris

After an innovative, transformative and event-filled 2015, UC Libraries is starting the new year off strong.

The Libraries are undergoing a great deal of physical change, from the accessible new entrance of the Geography-Mathematics-Physics Library to the updated service desk and learning commons on the 4^th floor of Langsam Library.

The new Langsam Service Point under construction

Behind the scenes, our librarians and staff continue to plan and host events and educational opportunities for UC students and library users, like those sponsored by the Libraries’ Diversity grant. The Libraries’ online resources are constantly being refined to provide the best possible access and content for students and faculty, such as the BoardVitals Question Banks recently acquired by the Health Sciences Library. In addition, we are making it possible for UC’s faculty and researchers to archive and make available online their scholarly output with Scholar@UC, UC’s digital repository. Want to know more about the opportunities for faculty, staff and student workers? New positions are posted on the Libraries’ website.

This year, look for posts from me about the new and exciting projects and events at UCL, my local, national and international involvement with the library community, and my personal thinking on UC Libraries’ Strategic Plan going forward.

Thank you for reading and welcome back!

Xuemao Wang
Dean and University Librarian

The Art Family Robinson, or, A Picture is Worth 1000 Words…Maybe That’s Why Books are Illustrated

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Suzanne Reller

By: Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern

Our Shakespeare family is growing! This week, we received a copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with illustrations by W. Heath Robinson! Sure, sure. We know you already know the play, but do you know this illustrator?

Heath Robinson (weird that he goes by his middle name, especially when it’s also the middle name of one of his brothers) was born to illustrate in May of the year 1872. Even if he hadn’t had any talent, some form of artistry was surely expected of him. His father and both of his brothers all worked as illustrators. Heath, himself, aspired to paint landscapes. Why, I will never understand. Fortunately for us book lovers, he found little success with that venture and thus was born another illustrator to the Robinson family. Continue reading →

The Christ Hospital Winkler Center Collaborative Oral History Program Kicks Off with an Interview of Dr. William Schreiner

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Melissa Cox Norris

This image serves as a link to the
interview with Dr. William Schreiner in
UC Libraries Mediaspace.
The entire Winkler Center Oral History Collection is now easily available in a streaming form
through the abovementioned website.

We are proud to announce the completion of the first interview in The Christ Hospital Health Network in collaboration with the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions Oral History Series; our first interview subject was one of Cincinnati’s most prominent physicians who is also considered to be “The Doctors’ Doctor”, Dr. William Schreiner. The entire interview is now available in a streaming format through the UC Libraries mediaspace.

Continue reading →

Streaming Video Pilot Program

Posted on January 7, 2016 by hartod

Did you know UC Libraries is offering thousands of streaming video titles with unlimited concurrent users for classroom or independent use? Through March 30th, UC Libraries has made available the 26,000 titles held in the Kanopy streaming video collection. When students or faculty have accessed a title four times, a one year lease is automatically created. Kanopy works directly with filmmakers and film distribution companies to offer award-winning collections including titles from PBS, BBC, Criterion Collection, Media Education Foundation and more. Check it out at http://uc.kanopystreaming.com/ or by searching by title on the library website. Contact a subject librarian with any questions http://www.libraries.uc.edu/help/subject-librarians.html

Archaeological Discovery Yields Surprising Revelations about Europe’s Oldest City

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Cade Stevens

Antonis Kotsonas, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of classics, will highlight his field research with the Knossos Urban Landscape Project at the 117th annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and Society for Classical Studies.

Click here for the full news release.

Scholar@UC goes to class

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Amy Koshoffer

On Thursday December 3, 2015, UC Libraries staff members of the Scholar@UC (http://scholar.uc.edu) development team Linda Newman and Thomas Scherz, digital archivist Eira Tansey and science informationist Amy Koshoffer were given a wonderful treat of requirement engineering and donuts and cookies. We were invited to attend the final project presentations in CEAS Engineering & Computing Systems professor Dr. Nan Niu’s Requirements Engineering course (CS6027).

Students: Payel Basak, Nerin Hussein, Ben Albert

Dr. Niu is featured in the photo in upper right. Dr. Niu is an early adopter for our institutional repository Scholar@UC.
Continue reading →

UC Employees Featured in UC Magazine

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Melissa Cox Norris

UC Libraries is proud to be a part of the Provost’s Strategic Hiring Opportunity and Dual Career Assistance programs. In a recent article in UC Magazine, library employees Bill McMillin, Tiffany Grant, Don Jason, Hong Cheng and Robert Freeman are included in a feature of new employees that “have joined UC with support from Provost Office funds dedicated to recruit the best and brightest in their fields as well as to attract and support faculty who have partners who can bring their own academic expertise to campus.” You can read all about it online in UC Magazine.