Cramming for an exam? Need a safe, quiet place to study?
Langsam Library will offer extended hours until 2am from Sunday, April 13 through Wednesday, April 23.
A Poem in Your Pocket All Month Long: T.S. Elliot
Morning at the Window
by T.S. Eliot
They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.
The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.
On John Milton and "Reading Blood"
By: Kevin Grace
On the south parapet of Blegen Library are carved these words from John Milton’s Areopagitica written in 1644:
For books are not absolutely dead things
But do contain a potencie of life in them
To be as active as those whose progeny they are.
Milton (1608-1674) is one of the greatest poets and essayists in the English language. The quote, which is part of his work condemning censorship and pleading for free speech, is part of the architectural design in the library, which opened as the University of Cincinnati’s Main Library in 1930. Intended to inspire students and scholars, they are words meant both to establish the primacy of books and the written word in human culture and to draw the reader within the building to explore, to learn, to consider, and to share knowledge.
The Department of English and Comparative Literature sends this information for a lecture this Friday at 1:00 pm in 814 Blegen, the Schott Seminar Room in the Archives & Rare Books Library: Continue reading
National Poetry Month and ARB
By: Kevin Grace
Because April is celebrated as National Poetry Month, over the next few weeks the Archives & Rare Books Library will blog about some of its significant holdings in the Rare Books Collection. Perhaps the best subject with which to begin is ARB’s outstanding collection of 18th century poetical pamphlets. Eighteenth-century literature is one of the hallmarks of the rare books holdings, encompassing drama, poetry, fiction, philosophy, theology, travel, history, and geography. And the core of this area is what we have traditionally called the Anonymous Poetical Pamphlet Collection.
UCBA Library Fun Facts: Bad Book Habits
Question: Do you have a bad book habit?
Heather Maloney, Library Director: Getting too many and letting them pile up on my bedside table. I try to answer all of life’s quandaries with a different book.
Michelle McKinney, Reference/Web Services Librarian: Accidentally re-reading books. I’ll borrow a book from the library and realize a few chapters in that I’ve read it before.
Kellie Tilton, Instructional Technologies Librarian: Using the dust jacket flaps as a bookmark. Not as bad as earmarking the page, but still not as good as an actual bookmark.
Lauren Wahman, Instruction Librarian: Finding too many good ones and running out of time to read them all. And, occasionally, picking up one that I’ve already read!
Rachel Lewis, Technical Services Manager: Not at all!
Tammy Manger, Public Services Manager: Falling asleep only after two pages…I hate that!
Chris Marshall, Public Services Assistant: Earmarking the pages. Bad Habit!
Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library Ranked 14th Most Impressive Medical School Library
The Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library was ranked 14th amongst “the 25 most impressive university medical school libraries in the world” according to The Best Master’s Degrees Reviews and Rankings, a public site that explores and ranks the vast world of Master’s degrees in all the disciplines.
Culture of Books and Reading Students Deposit A Ghost Story in the Archives
By: Kevin Grace
Recently returned from a study tour to Edinburgh, Scotland over spring break, the students in the University Honors Program seminar “The Culture of Books and Reading” added one of their assignments to the ARB website – a story entitled “The Sin-Eaters Ghost.” A group project written by each student contributing a page, the story is just one of the assignments for this course in which the traditional and emerging reading habits and the heritage of books are explored in cultures around the world.
Join Us for the Annual Cecil Striker Society Annual Lecture
The Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions and the Cecil Striker Society for the History of Medicine will host the Cecil Striker Society Annual Lecture Thursday, April 10.
The evening will include a reception from 4-5 p.m with an exhibit on John Shaw Billings in the Lucas Room. At 5 p.m., Dale Smith, PhD, will present, “John Shaw Billings and the Medical College of Ohio: Shaping Twentieth Century Medicine,” in Kresge Auditorium.
A Poem in Your Pocket All Month Long
April is National Poetry Month. In celebration of this, UC Libraries has mounted an exhibit on the fourth floor of Langsam Library celebrating poetry and poets.
Included in the exhibit is information about the Elliston Poetry Room, some Ohio poets, poets with a Cincinnati connection, and a sampling of UC poets including Armando Romero, Danielle Deulen, Don Bogen, James Cummins, John Drury and Nicasio Urbina.
ARB's Final Lunchtime Lecture for 2013-2014
By: Kevin Grace
The Archives & Rare Books Library will hold its final “50 Minutes-1 Book” presentation of the academic year on Thursday, April 17, at 12 noon in 814 Blegen Library. Greg Hand, associate vice president for Government Relations and University Communications, will talk about Winsor McCay, a recognized pioneer of American comic strips. McCay’s genius as an artist, cartoonist and animator has been hailed by Maurice Sendak and celebrated by a “Google Doodle.” His “Little Nemo In Slumberland” is recognized as the pinnacle of comic strip art and his “Gertie The Dinosaur” was unsurpassed until the Golden Age of Walt Disney and Chuck Jones. It is little known that McCay spent 13 years in Cincinnati. Continue reading