Jacob Here, Jacob There. Jacob Out, Jacobin

By: Sydney Vollmer

JacobinsA few weeks ago, Kevin walks into my office and tells me that word on the street is people want me to write about the Jacobins.  After reading about the difference between Jacobites and the Jacobean Era, some people wanted to know if Jacobins had anything to do with either one of those. It all has to do with the recent donation of over 500 rare books on the Jacobites in Britain, providing a little context on what we have in the Archives & Rare Books Library and who all these Jackos or Jamesies are. Continue reading

Behind the Scenes with UC’s Digital Archivist: Finding the Needle in the Haystack

By Eira Tansey, Digital Archivist/Records Manager

A constant challenge for digital archivists is identifying potentially sensitive material within born-digital archives. This content may be information that fits a known pattern (for example, a 3-2-4 number that likely indicates the presence of a social security number), or sensitive keywords that indicate the presence of a larger body of sensitive information (for example, the keywords “evaluation” and “candidate” in close proximity to each other may indicate the presence of an evaluation form for a possible job applicant).

Digital archivists use a number of tools to screen for potentially sensitive information. When this information is found, depending on the type of information, institutional policy, legal restrictions, and ethical issues, archivists may redact the information, destroy it, or limit access to it (either by user, or according to a certain period of time). Continue reading

Join Us October 11 for “Genre Genius in Cincinnati: From SciFi to Hybrid Forms”

books by the banksIn partnership with the Books by the Banks festival, the College of Arts and Sciences and UC Libraries are co-hosting a group of panel sessions on Tuesday, October 11 on the fourth floor of Langsam Library from 2-5 p.m. “Genre Genius in Cincinnati: From SciFi to Hybrid Forms” will focus on science fiction and fantasy, comics and graphic novels, and the mixed mastery of hybrid forms. Attendees are invited to come to listen, learn, and share, and to stay for a casual writers’ lounge celebrating Cincinnati creatives and their community. The panels are free and open to all. Continue reading

Julia Marlowe – A Cincinnati Girl Learns To Be Juliet

By: Sydney Vollmer

Julia MarloweOn August 17, 1866, Sarah Frances “Fanny” Frost was born in Caldbeck, England to John and Sarah Frost.  As Julia Marlowe, she died at age 84 in New York City’s Plaza Hotel.  Between those two events, she discovered passion, love (multiple times), and fame.

The future Shakespearean actress was born into a relatively normal family.  She had four siblings, three sisters and a brother and her parents owned a general store while also working in the trades of needlework and boot making.  Her father sometimes got drunk and her mother always got frustrated with him.  At the age of 5, though, all of that “normalcy” changed for Marlowe.  It was the year that her father whisked the family away to America.  Plenty of people were immigrating to America during the 1870s, but Marlowe’s father did so to stay out of trouble.  During an impromptu horse race between her father—where he was most likely drunk— and one of their neighbors, Mr. Frost allegedly took out his competitor’s eye with his whip.  Knowing that he would surely face prosecution if he stayed, he immediately took his wife and children to America.  Once arrived, they first settled in Kansas, but soon moved to Portsmouth, Ohio with the new surname “Brough,” which was the maiden name of Julia’s mother.  Later on, the family would find out that the competitor had been playing a cruel joke and there had not been any reason to leave so urgently. Continue reading

The Taming of the Rude

By: Sydney Vollmer

You know by now that 2016 the year of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and that the Archives & Rare Books Library is celebrating it in a big way by highlighting their Shakespeare holdings.  BUT it’s also Women’s Week at the University of Cincinnati!  Surprisingly, the two have something in common, but we’ll get to that.  For the next few days, the topic of feminism will be spread gender equal opportunity or representationacross Main Street all the way from TUC to the Rec Center.  Women’s Week is a nice enough concept.  I believe in strong females, and I certainly consider myself worthy of any opportunity a man is given.  There’s always that stigma about feminism though…a stigma that being feminist means triumphing over men.  And that’s where my problem lies both with feminism and with Women’s Week because last night, I saw a picture of a girl on Main Street holding a chalkboard that referred to boys as stupid.  My definition of feminism has a lot more to do with mutual respect and a celebration of differences rather than drawing a line between the two sexes and saying one is better than the other.

Taming of the Shrew title page

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Check Out the Latest Issue of the Libraries Newsletter, Source

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

This latest issue of Source includes interviews with Xuemao Wang upon his reappointment as dean and university librarian as well as with Mark Konecny in the newly created position of scholarly communications and digital publishing strategist. Other articles include the announcement of UC’s first Digital Scholarship Center, and features of two new websites – one about the Jacobite Collection in the Archives and Rare Books Library and the other highlighting the book Looking East: William Howard Taft’s Diplomatic Mission to Asia. Speaking of journeys, there’s an article about librarian Rosemary Franklin’s recent trip to Cuba. Read these articles and more.

Source is available 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.

Join Us Sept. 28 for the Next Langsam Connect: Fun, Food & Library Finds

langsam connect
Technology Trivia Night

Join UC Libraries for the first “Langsam Connect: Fun, Food, and Library Finds” event of the year.

Wednesday, September 28th  ~ 5 pm @ the Triceracopter (4th floor)

Needed:  Students to join us for pizza and technology trivia. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1.    Bring a couple of friends to create a team.
2.    Show up on Wednesday, September 28th at 5:00 p.m. @ the
Triceracopter.
3.    Play 5 rounds of trivia, have fun & eat pizza.

1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes will be rewarded. Sponsored by UC Libraries & the Common Read Program. Questions? contact pamela.bach@uc.edu.

September Program for GIS Learning Community

September program for the

UC GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Learning Community.

Date: Wed Sept 28, 2016

Time: 3:15 – 4:25

Venue: Langsam 462

We have three presenters who will talk on very diverse topics.

1st Lightning Talk – Carolyn Hansen – Metadata Librarian, UC Libraries –Digital Humanities projects using GIS visualizations and discuss how GIS applications can be used to answer humanities research questions.

2nd Lightning Talk – Jeremy Koster – Assoc Professor, A&S Anthropology – Using GIS and remote sensing to understand the spread of the agricultural frontier in the rain forests of Nicaragua

In depth presentation – Jeffery Timberlake- Assoc Professor, A&S Sociology – Understanding and accessing census data

We will also be joined by James Lee who will talk briefly about the Digital Humanities and Scholarship Center and his role as Co-Director and his vision for the center.

Behind the Scenes with UC’s Digital Archivist: Making Sense of It All

By Eira Tansey, Digital Archivist/Records Manager

When archivists first make contact with a large group of records, they often perform some form of appraisal. You might think of appraisal as being the calling card of the much-loved PBS television show Antiques Roadshow, in which average people realize that Great Aunt Milly’s painting is a valued masterpiece – or a total dud.

Unlike appraisers, when archivists appraise something they generally aren’t assigning a monetary value, but seeking to articulate the value of the records and the information they contain. The Society of American Archivists defines (http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/a/appraisal#.V2hA1jXERmM)  appraisal as:

  1. ~ 1. The process of identifying materials offered to an archives that have sufficient value to be accessioned. – 2. The process of determining the length of time records should be retained, based on legal requirements and on their current and potential usefulness. – 3. The process of determining the market value of an item; monetary appraisal.

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