Season’s Greetings. Wishing you all a restful and restorative winter break. All UC Libraries locations are closed for Winter Season Days, December 24-January 3. We look forward to seeing you in the new year.
Liz Scarpelli awarded a UC Staff Excellence Award
At a virtual ceremony held Wednesday, Dec. 15, Liz Scarpelli, director of the University of Cincinnati Press, was awarded a Staff Excellence Award for her work starting the Press and also for her commitment to the university and to the Next Lives Here philosophy.
Her nominator noted her work on the development of the Toward Open Access Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) review committee and the creation of the first-ever regional university press/publisher information technology Development Tech Exchange. Moreover, she is committed to improving the academic mission of UC by directly recruiting, consulting and supporting faculty authors on all three of its campuses. “In just a few short years, UC Press has already published three TOME funded books, placing UC in the top 20% of all participating publishers. But that’s not all. During this short time, under Liz’s direction, the University of Cincinnati Press has already cranked out scholarly books, a textbook and journals!”
“My work in Cincinnati over the last three years has been rewarding. To be acknowledged from individuals outside the publishing world, specifically by my own university, is indeed an honor. This acknowledgement signals to me that a university press is not only of value to the institution, but is also able to move university initiatives forward while maintaining integrity and rigorous peer review within the American University Presses core values, service-oriented Library Publishing and the innovative University of Cincinnati model. I am excited that our unique model has created 12 published books, a pipeline of 50 projects and six academic journals authored by scholars from both within and outside of the university. While this award is being presented to me, I am grateful for the support of everyone on the Press’s board for their continued support and advice, the authors who believe in us, my colleagues in UC Libraries, our dean Xuemao Wang and my staff at the Press, Mark Konecny, Sarah Muncy and Sean Crowe, who work tirelessly to make these books–open access and otherwise–come to fruition,” said Liz of the honor.
The Staff Excellence Awards ceremony was emceed by Chris Collins, chair of the Staff Senate, and Heidi Pettyjohn, incoming chair of Staff Senate, with remarks from President Neville Pinto, Provost Kristi Nelson and Bob Ambach, senior vice president for administration and finance. In addition to Liz, five other UC Libraries’ staff members received nominations: Michael Alfieri, Dean Bachelder, Ben Kline, Yu Mao and Rebecca Olson.
Congratulations, Liz!
The University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report, 2019-2020: A Year Like No Other
What a year it’s been.
The University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report, this year completely online, covers July 2019 through June 2020, an academic year that started off normally, but in the spring would be disrupted in ways never thought possible because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fall semester was business as usual with students, faculty, researchers and staff accessing our facilities and resources for research and study, or simply to grab a cup of coffee between classes. Librarians and staff provided instruction on how to find the best research materials, offered reference assistance, collected and made our collections available and collaborated with faculty and researchers to translate information and data into knowledge. The usual activities in the library would come to a sudden halt spring semester.
This year’s report reviews how we responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it also celebrates our numerous accomplishments, highlights new special collections and library exhibits, spotlights the achievements of our faculty and staff and provides usage stats and financial information.
As the semester and 2020 come to a close, we wish you warm wishes for the holiday season. May the new year bring you health, harmony and joy.
Service Note: Interlibrary Loan Unavailable Dec. 15
Fall 2020 Recap for UC Clermont Library
If there is one thing that is for certain, it is that there was never quite a Fall semester like this one. Despite the upheaval, Clermont College Library persevered and provided a successful semester for its community.
New Books in the Science Libraries
We are back! Check out the new science books (mostly ebooks) that have been added to the Geology-Math-Physics and Langsam Libraries. GMP has added 24 ebooks from the American Mathematical Society (AMS). The print books in the list are available through the Click & Collect service.
Click here to access the September-October 2020 list.
If you have any questions about these books, contact Ted Baldwin, Director of Science and Engineering Libraries, at Ted.Baldwin@uc.edu.
UC Data Day Wrap-up
On Oct 23rd UC Libraries and IT@UC partnered for the 5th UC Data Day. This year’s all virtual event featured, two power sessions, a Keynote by Glenn Ricart of US Ignite, and an interactive panel session of multidisciplinary faculty.
The event started with the first power session by George Turner, Indiana University’s (IU) Chief Systems Architect with IU’s Pervasive Technologies Institute (PTI). Mr. Turner led participants through an introduction to high performance computing and demonstrated how to access the UC Advanced Research Computing (ARC) system.
Erin McCabe, Digital Scholarship Fellow with UC Libraries Digital Scholarship Center (DSC) led the second session on text mining and natural language processing. Both sessions had a hands-on component with participants accessing the ARC system as well as engaging with the DSC platform for text mining.
Glenn Ricart of US Ignite gave a keynote address steeped in his own personal data that highlighted how much data one individual creates and how this data is being used to make policy decisions, drive business and help us image the future. He also discussed the problems of our dependence on data and possible pitfalls and wrongdoings.
The closing session of the day was the interactive panel moderated by Michael Dunaway, PhD (UC Executive Director of the Digital Futures Resilience Program). Dr. Dunaway started us off by asking two questions:
- How is ubiquitous data changing your work as a Researcher, Educator, and/or Clinician, and its contribution to society?
- How is ubiquitous data changing society and shaping our sense of community?
Six faculty from very different disciplines who use data in very different ways shared their perspectives on the keynote and the state of data literacy education at UC. Glenn Ricart also participated in the discussion and affirmed the conclusions that was best stated by Whitney Gaskins (CEAS Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor- Office of Inclusive Excellence & Community Engagement) when she said “We need to educate students to be more numbers literate.” Dr. Achala Vagal (MD, Radiology) expressed that the amount of data will only continue to grow per the example of medical imaging data and its storage needs. Zvi Biener, PhD (Associate Professor Philosophy| History | Judaic Studies department, and the Center for Public Engagement with Science) highlighted how the approach to evaluating data changed with Newton, and we have to continue to question if we are truly gaining knowledge from all the data generated. Both Prashant Khare (Asst. Professor, CEAS Aerospace Eng & Eng Mechanics, Chair, Advanced Research Computing (ARC) center) and Sam Anand (Professor, CEAS ME, Director – Siemens PLM Simulation Technology Center) discussed the need for jobs to adapt to the data rich environment and that if we are educating our students to be more numbers literate, they will cope better in the future work environment. The panelists, Glenn Ricart and Michael Dunaway guided us through the changing and complex data rich world we now find ourselves and left us much to think about as to how our institute and community can face the challenges and ultimately benefit from this new environment.
Videos from the day are available on the STRC youtube page, as well as archived in a Data Day collection 2020 in UC’s institutional repository Scholar@UC. We invite you to review the sessions and continue the dialogue at AskData@uc.edu or attend an upcoming Data and Computational Science series event.
Sidney Gao takes on new role as digital collections manager
Sidney Gao, formerly the digital imaging coordinator in Preservation Services, has transitioned to a new role of digital collections manager in the Digital Collections unit of UC Libraries’ Content Services Team (CST). In her time at UC Libraries, Sidney has been deeply involved in the provision and planning of digital content services, far beyond digitization and production, and has worked extensively as a member of the Digital Collections team, including with James Van Mil, digital projects and preservation librarian. Bringing Sidney officially into the Digital Collections team in CST will provide greater synergy for digital content management and allow her to utilize her knowledge and skill set to its fullest.
In her new role Sidney will: manage digitization projects; oversee quality control workflows for in-house and outsourced digitization; report on digitization growth; assess collections status regarding digital preservation, accessibility and sustainability; analyze best practices for accessibility; assist stakeholders in grant writing; collaborate with digitization vendors; create submission information packages for aggregators; train and supervise student staff in digitization production; coordinate with the Preservation Lab to maintain and improve the digitization lab facility and to preserve and protect special collections materials during the digitization workflow; collaborate with colleagues in UC Libraries and other units on campus on digital projects including digital exhibits and outreach.
Please join us in congratulating Sidney on her new position and responsibilities.
UC Libraries closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday
The University of Cincinnati Libraries will be closed Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27 for Thanksgiving, with the Walter C. Langsam Library closing early on Wednesday, November 25 at 5pm.
Beginning Monday, November 30 library hours will vary by location with some closing their facilities and offering weekly Click & Collect library material retrieval and pick up service. Library hours and information about the Click & Collect service is available on the Libraries website.
Through the Online Library portal and CHAT reference service, UC Libraries remains open and available online to provide users with access to library resources and services.
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
Library Display: Celebrate Diversity!
By Lauren Wahman
This display showcases a selection of books (print/electronic) and streaming media available through the UC Blue Ash Library and includes a range of topics and authors. The display will be available until January 29, 2021 with physical items available to request via Click and Collect. Be sure to visit the Celebrate Diversity online display.
