Tales from the Rare Books Room

By:  Sydney Vollmer

GhostWhat’s more chilling than a good book? Perhaps the ghost that guards them. It’s been awhile since my encounter…but I decided that the world needed to know about our much rumored ghost.

Whether it is a he or she, we cannot say. For the sake of time and space, let’s call it a “he.” He resides in our rare books room here in the Archives & Rare Books Library in Blegen—one level above the library space that is open to the public. Some background on the rare books room:  it’s cold (necessary for preservation), it’s dark, (again, necessary), and it’s spooky (necessary for Ghost and Internpreservation?).  When you get up the stairs and open the massively heavy door, all the lights are off. Each individual row of book shelves has its own light. Last year, one didn’t. Continue reading

Celebrating the History of Nursing at the 7th Annual Cecil Striker Society Lecture April 14

cecil striker imageThe Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions and the Cecil Striker Society for the History of Medicine will host the seventh annual Cecil Striker Society Annual Lecture on Thursday, April 14, 4-6:30pm in Kresge Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, 231 Albert Sabin Way. Julie Fairman, Nightingale Professor of Nursing and Chair of the Biobehavioral Health Sciences Department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, will present this year’s lecture, “Making History: From the University of Cincinnati to the Future of Nursing.”

Sponsored by UC Health, the evening will include the talk from 4 to 5 p.m. followed by Q&A and a reception at 5:30 p.m. The Cecil Striker Lecture is free and open to the public, but RSVP’s are requested to (513) 558-5120 or chhp@uc.edu.

Dr. Fairman’s presentation is supported by the UC College of Nursing. The Winkler Center gratefully recognizes the generosity and foresight of the following individuals and organizations who have provided significant support to establish the Cecil Striker Endowment fund: Presenting Sponsors: Dr. and Mrs. Carl Fisher and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; Supporting Sponsors: Cecil L. Striker, PhD, Dr. and Mrs. Theodore W. Striker, UC Health; Additional Support provided by Dr. and Mrs. Michael K. Farrell.

For more on the history of the College of Nursing, specifically the 100th anniversary of the offering of a Bachelor of Nursing degree, read an article by Winkler Center student Nathan Hood on the Libraries blog.

Jonesing for Some Good Illustrations

By:  Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern

Winter's Tale CoverIt’s always a surprise what you’ll find when you go up to the rare books room. Last week, Kevin (our head here in the Archives & Rare Books Library) asked me to go find half-a-dozen beautiful Shakespeare volumes for a presentation given to the dean’s advisory committee. I went upstairs. There were the Charles Knight editions. They’re nice, but we’ve done so much with those already. I pulled the Rackham, Dulac, and Thompson volumes, because they’re classic illustrations that everyone enjoys seeing. I still needed at least three volumes…

Winter's Traces, Act 1, Scene 2 Continue reading

View the Winners from the 2016 International Edible Books Festival

very hungry caterpillar

The University of Cincinnati Libraries celebrated the International Edible Books Festival for the 14th year on April 1, 2016. Fifteen UC students, librarians and staff submitted entries that included edible books made of cakes, cookies, candy and Peeps.

For more information about the participants and the International Edible Books Festival, read the News Record article. View the entries and the winners on the Libraries Facebook page.

 

New Exhibit, “Poems of UC’s Past,” Combines Original Works with Historic Photographs

bearcat image

One of the images from the Archives and Rare Books Library collections used in the exhibit.

A new exhibit on display on the 5th floor lobby of Langsam Library features original poetry describing historic images from the collections of UC’s Archives and Rare Books Library.

Referred to as “Ekphrastic poems,” they use “vivid descriptions of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the ‘action’ of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.” (Poetry Foundation.org)

In this exhibit, six graduate-student poets in the McMicken College of Arts and Science’s English department do not aim to simply “amplify and expand” the meaning of the images, but rather through their words, these pictures come more vibrantly to life. Continue reading

Poetry at Clermont: A Guide to Writing Poetry

Did you know Clermont College Librarypoetry has a Poetry at Clermont research guide for students?

What’s on the guide?

  • links to poems
  • databases that connect to a variety of poetic information
  • a list of books available for check out
  • reference sources
  • websites that aid in writing and understanding poetry
  • information about the annual haiku contest
  • proper citations

The guide also gives the poet a source for inspiration from other writers’ work as well as links to poetry associations.

Happy Poetry Month!

Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager

UCBA Fun Facts: Personal Lending Policy

Question: What is your policy on book lending?

Heather

Heather Maloney, Library Director: I share! Unless it’s a library book then I’m a little more protective. 😉

 

 

Michelle Michelle McKinney, Reference/Web Services Librarian: It depends on the book and who I’m lending it to…I’ve lost a few faves over the years and those folks can’t borrow from my anymore. 

 

KellieKellie Tilton, Instructional Technologies Librarian: I am an advocate of book lending! But only if I know the person well enough to know the book is coming back at some point. 

 

LaurenLauren Wahman, Instruction LibrarianNo policy. All of my books come from the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County. 

 

 

julierobinsonJulie Robinson, Library Operations Manager: Hardly ever. Streamlined my collection to keep mainly my absolute favorite hardcovers and first editions which I NEVER lend and the rest I borrow from the library.

 

pamadler Pam Adler, Public Services Assistant: Depends on the book. I rarely loan my hardcovers but if I have an ebook it’s yours to borrow.