Please note that ILLiad, the Interlibrary Loan service, will be unavailable 8am to approximately 12pm on August 20 so that the ILLiad server can be upgraded. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Welcome Students
UC’s Welcome week kicks off Wednesday, August 21, and UC Libraries have fun activities planned.
Students visiting any of the 10 UC Libraries locations August 21 through September 6 can enter their name in a drawing for a $10 Visa gift card. Entry forms are available at the public service desks in each library. Continue reading
Photographic Collections and Archive Repositories: A Balancing Act = Adventures in the Subway and Street Improvements Digitization Project
By: Angela Vanderbilt
The University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library (ARB) maintains numerous collections containing records of historic value for research and scholarly use. These materials are comprised of a variety formats, including printed documents, university records, sound recordings, and photographic prints and negatives.
One of these collections is the Ohio Network collection, comprised of historic local government and public records. The City of Cincinnati Engineer Records is part of this collection, and contains records produced by the engineer’s office from 1851 through 1957, including those of the Rapid Transit Commission for the subway and Central Parkway construction, as well as other street improvements carried out by the city within the same timeframe. And among these records are the negatives and photographic prints that are currently being digitized and that will be made available online via the ARB and Digital Collections web sites.
Explore the HSL Subject Guides
Find research help, subject specific resources, and more in the Health Sciences Library (HSL) Subject Guides. These guides put together by HSL librarians to help you find the resources and information you need.
Included in these guides:
- subject specific resources
- how to access resources and full text from off campus
- how to request an article or book if UC doesn’t have it
- mobile health resources
- NIH public access policy
- research impact, citation analysis & altmetrics
- tutorials on many topics
Find the HSL Subject Guides on the HSL home page http://libraries.uc.edu/hsl under Express Links. Click on Subject Guides to explore the wealth of information and resources that are available to assist you with your studies, your research, and your access. Other guides will be added as they are developed.
Questions and suggestions are welcome. Contact Edith Starbuck at edith.starbuck@uc.edu or 558-1433.
From Potter's Field to Union Terminal: The History of Lincoln Park = Adventures in the Subway and Street Improvements Digitization Project
By: Angela Vanderbilt
In my June 25 blog, “Ezzard Charles Drive: The Making of a Parkway,” I described how over time, many of the streets and locations captured in the Subway and Street Improvements images no longer exist, or have been altered in name or appearance, as they have been adapted for new uses. The area discussed in that blog is currently the site of the Cincinnati Museum Center, which occupies the former Union Terminal. Most residents of Cincinnati are familiar with the most current use of this building as well as its original purpose, a major railroad terminal by which passengers and freight from all over the United States passed through the Queen City. However, this area served two other purposes prior to the building of the terminal station, the first of which may surprise you. Continue reading
Clinical Key Off Campus Access
As of August 1, 2013, off campus access to Clinical Key is via the UC SSL VPN (Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Network) only. Clinical Key has been available via the proxy server since April during a trial. UC Health decided not to subscribe to Clinical Key. Therefore, proxy server access to Clinical Key for UC Health employees ended when the trial came to an end July 31, 2013.
UC SSL VPN access to Clinical Key is available for users with a UC central login. Information about how to set up VPN access is available here http://libraries.uc.edu/hsl/vpnsetup2013.pdf . For more information about off campus access or the VPN, go to http://libraries.uc.edu/hsl/reference/remoteaccess.html .
Clinical Key eBook Full Text Access On and Off Campus
One other Clinical Key requirement is to set up an additional personal account in order to access ebook full text both on and off campus. If you already have a personal Scopus account, that login will also work with Clinical Key.
Questions? Please contact Edith Starbuck at edith.starbuck@uc.edu or 558-1433.
A Look at Doing Time in Cincinnati: The Workhouse Jail Registers
By Janice Schulz
Researchers know that life events tend to leave some amazingly informative paper trails and that sometimes you can find good things in seemingly bad places. For some individuals, a prison sentence was a significant, formative life event, and the paper trails that prison stays provide can tell some interesting stories. The Cincinnati Workhouse, which operated from 1869-1985, tried to take those prison sentences and turn them into more positive experiences for inmates and society through rehabilitation, emphasis on moral ideals, and hard work. As part of our Ohio Network of Local Government Records collection, the Archives and Rare Books library holds jail registers from the Cincinnati Workhouse for the years 1877-1945.

The Cincinnati Workhouse in an idyllic, undated postcard from ARB’s Nelson and Florence Hoffmann Cincinnati Postcard Collection
On March 9, 1866, the Ohio General Assembly passed an act authorizing any Ohio city exceeding 100,000 in population to erect and maintain a workhouse. A workhouse was a new concept in the field of criminal justice, responding to the emerging idea that crime was related to societal and moral issues, and providing not only punishment, but rehabilitation as well. A workhouse aimed to rehabilitate by stressing moral values, providing inmates with something productive to do, and possibly introducing them to a new trade. Additionally, they were seen to be more cost-effective than traditional jails, as inmate labor contributed to the institution’s operations and provided outside income. Continue reading
Nursing Reference Center Now Available
Nursing Reference Center™ is a point-of-care clinical resource based on the latest and best available scientific evidence from CINAHL®, MEDLINE, National Guideline Clearinghouse, and others.
Nursing Reference Center offers Quick Lessons and Evidence-based Care Sheets; drug information; practice guidelines; customizable patient education handouts, and more.
Find the Nursing Reference Center in the Health Sciences Library Nursing guide http://guides.libraries.uc.edu/nursing on the Information Resources & Databases page and the UC Health guide http://guides.libraries.uc.edu/uchealth on the Databases page .
Finding Aid for the Esther Zocher Freese Collection Now Available

Esther V. Zocher (later Freese) was a 1922 graduate of the Bethesda Hospital School for Nurses in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Esther Zocher Freese archival collection, which provides insight into nursing education during the 1920′s in Cincinnati, is now available for research at the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions.
According to an annual catalog found in the collection, the Bethesda Hospital Training School for Nurses was organized in 1914 and required students to study for 3 years.[1] Esther V. Zocher (later Freese) graduated from the school in 1922. A great group of photographs that document nurses and nursing during Freese’s time at the school are found in this small collection. Continue reading
David Blackburn: A Performer and Teacher is Remembered at UC
By: Suzanne Maggard

Blackburn in Serenade with Alyce Taylor (standing), and Colleen Giesting
On June 15, 2013, David Blackburn passed away and the Cincinnati dance community lost a beloved teacher and friend. Blackburn served as a professor of dance at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music for over 30 years and played a vital role in the history of the Cincinnati Ballet as a dancer and then as Assistant Artistic Director.