Gretchen Gueguen joins the Press as temporary journals and digital projects coordinator

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Gretchen GueguenWelcome, Gretchen Gueguen to the University of Cincinnati Press. Gretchen has been hired as temporary journals and digital projects coordinator and will manage the Press’s seven journal clients and Sophia Triantafyllopoulos, journals graduate student assistant. Gretchen will also be a vital member of the Open Education Resources (OER) initiative serving as technical project manager and an associate editor for interactive Open Access (OA) projects hosted on Manifold and OMEKA.

Gretchen holds an MLIS from the University of Maryland and a BA in English from Penn State University. Since 2015 she has taught Digital Libraries in the MLIS program at Clarion University. Gretchen has worked remotely as an independent library consultant for the past six years. Previously, Gretchen worked as data services coordinator and network manager for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), where she managed member relationships and served as a liaison to DPLA Hubs. Before DPLA, she served as head of archival activities for the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library, Digital Initiatives Librarian at East Carolina University, and the Digital Collections Librarian for the University of Maryland.

Welcome, Gretschen!

Samantha Schaffer joins UC Libraries as computer systems administrator

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samantha schafferSamantha Schaffer joined the University of Cincinnati Library May 2 as a computer systems administrator in the Library IT Department. She will be responsible for the day-to-day management of on-premise and cloud-based servers, as well as the deployment and monitoring of software applications for UC Libraries.

Samantha comes to UC from Boise, Idaho, where she most recently worked as a systems engineer for Synoptek, supporting Windows, macOS and Linux systems, as well as VMware servers and Azure. Samantha has worked in the systems administration area since 2014 and will be a great addition to the team.

Welcome, Samantha.

This Year’s Top Titles at UC Clermont Library

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Most checked out titles this school year, 2021-2022:

The Bluebook : a uniform system of citation / compiled by the editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal

From the Book’s Preface: The current edition of The Bluebook retains the same basic approach to legal citation established by its predecessors. The layout of the Bluebook has been updated to make the information easier to access. Some citation forms have been expanded, elaborated upon, or modified from previous editions to reflect the ever-expanding range of authorities used in legal writing and to respond to suggestions from the legal community.

Mutual aid : building solidarity during this crisis (and the next) / Dean Spade

Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world. Around the globe, people are faced with a spiraling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to – or actively engineer – each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable. Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid. This book is about mutual aid : why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout. Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity. Continue reading →

Summer Semester at UC Clermont

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Beginning May 2, the Clermont campus library will be open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Friday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. You can also request an appointment online to visit the campus library outside of these hours.

The UC Clermont Library will be closed on the following dates: Monday, May 30; Monday, June 20; and Monday, July 4.

Don’t forget you can use online resources 24/7 at libraries.uc.edu/clermont

Lori Harris named Interim Associate Dean

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lori harris

Lori Harris

Lori E. Harris was named interim associate dean of the University of Cincinnati Libraries on March 1, 2022.  She continues to serve as assistant dean and director of the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library and the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions.

Lori initially joined the Libraries in 2015 as an associate fellow from the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine. She permanently joined the University of Cincinnati Libraries in 2016.

 In her new role, Lori will provide leadership and coordination for the daily operations of both the Libraries on West Campus as well as the Health Sciences Library and the Winkler Center on East Campus.

Lori will continue to work directly with UC Libraries’ senior leadership to move aspects of the Libraries’ strategic framework to operational with special emphasis on initiatives relating to research and health informatics.

Hello, Central!: Telephones in Illustrated Sheet Music

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hello centralBy Theresa Leininger-Miller,

This two-part exhibition commemorates the 145th anniversary of the invention of the telephone (1876) that took place in 2021; COVID-19 slightly delayed the celebration. Displayed on the 4th floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library are reproductions of 68 vibrant, chromolithographic covers of illustrated sheet music dating from 1877 to 1939.

The display outside and inside the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art & Planning (DAAP) features two dozen original pieces of sheet music, along with ten vintage telephones. The name of the device, from the Greek, means “far speaking” a way of increasing human earshot. With it, people can make themselves heard and understood around the world with a whisper. Continue reading →

Library resources in celebration of National Arab American Heritage Month

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April is National Arab American Heritage Month. Below is a list of library resources for further exploration of Arab cultural and history.

Online

UC librarians Olga Hart and Sally Moffitt created two research guides with links to information related to the Arab world. The Arabic Languages and Cultures guide provides an overview of Arabic language, literature and culture resources at the University of Cincinnati. The Middle Eastern Studies guide offers suggestions for conducting cross-disciplinary research into the history, politics, culture and social structures in the modern Middle East. The guide focuses on the Middle East after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. With the exception of Egypt, North Africa is included only when that region is part of a more comprehensive survey of the Muslim Mediterranean world. Continue reading →

Read Source for the news, events, people and happenings in UC Libraries

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source image

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

In this issue of Source, we announce our updated Strategic Framework – NEXT Directions. We celebrate Mikaila Corday receiving the 2022 Marian Spencer Ambassador Award for Staff and meet OhioLINK Luminaries intern Marvin Jones. We look back at three recent big events – the Oesper Musuem’s receipt of National Landmark designation, the six-part lecture series The Illustrated Human: The Impact of Andreas Vesalius and the ever-popular International Edible Books Festival. Finally, we look forward to Preservation Week with a sneak peek of The Preservation Lab.

Read these articles, as well as past issues, on the website. To receive Source via e-mail, contact melissa.norris@uc.edu to be added to the mailing list.

CECH Spotlight: Black Fairy Tales

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CECH Spotlight highlights recommended books in the the UC College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) Library.

Black Fairy Tales / written by Terry Berger / 1969
The People Could Fly / told by Virginia Hamilton / 1985
The Six Fools / collected by Zora Neale Hurston / 2006

The stories we tell our children are possibly the most important in our entire fictional memory, and foremost among these stories are fairy tales and folktales. Harkening back to the legends and myths of old, fairy and folk tales expand children’s imaginations, teach lessons, and reveal the reality in which they live. This is not more apparent than in Black Fairy Tales by Terry Berger, The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton, and The Six Fools by Zora Neale Hurston.

Coming from a wide variety of sources, origins, and peoples, these three books represent different oral traditions collected and written by a variety of authors. While storytelling traditions are much more expansive than what is contained within these books, they serve as an amazing introduction to fairy tales and folktales from African and African American cultures. Not only do they stand alone as great examples of children’s literature, but they serve as greater tools for change in the diversity they provide, as well as the history they present. “This book was done especially for the Black children who have never read Black fairy tales,” Terry Berger wrote in the dedication of his book.

These books present culture and stories which have long been ignored, and each provide unique perspectives to life, virtue, and our potential. Be it trying to catch sunshine in a wheelbarrow, marrying a great serpent king, or the fables of Bruh Rabbit, these books expand our imagination and deepen our appreciation.  .

All three titles are available from the CECH Library, as well as the OhioLINK and Search Ohio lending networks.

Review by Linus Sinnard, CECH Library Student Assistant | Secondary Education, CECH 2025