A New Rackham-Illustrated Volume in the Rare Books Collection

By: Bridget McCormick

Hans Christen Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on April 2, 1805. Hans Andersen Sr. died in 1816, leaving his son and a wife, Anne Marie. While Andersen was not born into wealth, he was finely educated, which has led to speculation that he was secretly an illegitimate child of the Danish royal family. These rumors have never been confirmed.

Cover of Andersen's Fairy TalesInner Cover of Andersen's Fairy Tales

By 1819, Andersen returned to school supported by a benefactor named Jonas Collin. At the time, he was working as an actor.  However through Collin’s encouragement, Andersen began to write. Despite the support, during this period of Andersen’s career, his work was often discouraged by teachers. Continue reading

Check out the UCBA Faculty Research Guide!

by Lauren Wahman

ucba-fac-researchAs another fall semester gets underway, the UCBA librarians are ready to help faculty with their research needs.  Whether it’s discipline-specific, creative, or a classroom-based (e.g. Scholarship of Teaching & Learning) research project, we’re getting you started with a newly updated Faculty Research Guide (guides.libraries.uc.edu/ucba-facultyresearch).  You still find those resources that you know and trust, but you’ll also find new grant and data management resources along with contact information for your go-to experts (including your library faculty liaison).  In addition, check out UC’s institutional repository – Scholar@UC – as well as OhioLINK’s Digital Resource Commons.  As the semester moves forward, we’ll continue to add more resources.

Bookmark the guide for quick and easy access: http://guides.libraries.uc.edu/ucba-facultyresearch

Langsam Library’s 4th Floor Now Open 24/7

As the university’s main library, the Walter C. Langsam Library — and especially the busy fourth floor — is a destination of choice for University of Cincinnati students. Beginning Aug. 21, UC students, faculty and staff looking for a place to study for an exam, access a public computer or meet with a project team to finish an assignment now have access to the fourth floor of Langsam Library 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Langsam Library

No library staff or services requiring assistance will be available after The Desk@Langsam closes; however, security will be present thanks to UC’s Public Safety. A valid UC ID is required to enter the library after The Desk@Langsam closes. The hours for The Desk@Langsam and the Student Technology Resources Center (STRC) are listed online at http://www.libraries.uc.edu/about/hours.html. Continue reading

ARB’s “50 Minutes” Series Return Next Week

By:  Kevin Grace

The Archives & Rare Books Library will usher in its 7th year of the “50 Minutes” lunchtime talks this August with “A Skeleton, Some Lions, Pigeons, and Gods! The Seldom-Noticed Art in UC Architecture.”

The talk is scheduled for Thursday, August 25, at 12 noon in 814 Blegen and as always, the “50 Minutes” presentations are very informal and conversational.  Bring your lunch, relax, ignore the clock on the wall which is invariably an hour behind (though we may climb on top of the piano beneath it and change the battery this year), and enjoy a look at the history and culture of the “hidden” campus.  Not advertised in the title, we will also be looking at semi-naked people in the architecture.

50 minute talk, August 2016

Continue reading

Visit UC Libraries Welcome Weekend for Treats and Selfies with Einstein and Neil Armstrong

LangsamoutUC’s Welcome Week kicks off Wednesday, August 17 as new students begin moving in. UC Libraries is part of the weekend festivities to acclimate students to campus.

Stop by Langsam Library Saturday and Sunday, August 20 & 21 from 1-5pm for lemonade, cookies AND a free print of your class schedule.

Neil ArmstrongVisit any of the three Science and Engineering Libraries (College of Engineering and Applied Science, Geology-Mathematics-Physics, and the Chemistry-Biology) from 1-5pm on Sunday, August 21 for treats, beverages and brief tours of the libraries.  At CEAS Library, visitors are welcome to grab a respectable selfie with Neil Armstrong (outside the library entrance) or with Albert Einstein (in the reading room)! 

Welcome to UC Libraries!

 

Scholar@UC 2.1 released

Scholar@UC version 2.1 is now available.  With this update, Scholar@UC enforces a 3 GB limit for files uploaded or downloaded through the online interface, but also directs users to a form for requesting help with larger files.  The Scholar@UC team will manually or bulk load larger files directly to the repository, and provide an asynchronous method for authorized sharing of larger files when requested.

Note that 3 GB files may be extremely slow, until IT@UC has completed the work to add memory resources to the Scholar@UC production environment.  The Scholar@UC team will continue to lobby for improvements to this environment.

College and Departmental fields are now available as facets, and appear on all input forms, pre-populated (except for theses and student works) with the College and Department of the submitter, as provided by UC identity management.  These default values can be overridden.  The Scholar@UC team will add these values to past works.

We have improved the load time for Collections containing a large number of works.  In addition, a ‘Search within collection’ button takes the user to a browsable view of the collection, where facets and keyword searching can be applied.

See the Scholar@UC Change Log on GitHub for a complete list of bug fixes and changes.


Source: Scholar@UC

The Steelyard Balance : Notes from the Oesper Collections, No. 39, July/August 2016

A recently acquired 19th-century Chinese steelyard or so-called “opium balance” with an 11” ivory beam and accompanying “teardrop” storage case

A recently acquired 19th-century Chinese steelyard or so-called “opium balance” with an 11” ivory beam and accompanying “teardrop” storage case

Issue 39 briefly outlines the history and principles underlying traditional single pan or “steelyard” balances and illustrates their evolution using examples from our museum collections.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need Video? Find streaming content here!

Kanopy

UC Libraries offers thousands of streaming video titles with unlimited concurrent users for classroom or independent use. Award-winning collections include 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. When a title is accessed four times, a one year lease is automatically created. Contact a subject librarian with any questionshttp://www.libraries.uc.edu/help/subject-librarians.html