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

source graphic

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

In this issue of Source, Liz Kiscaden, dean and university librarian, writes about Creating a shared vision for UC Libraries, and in an interview we learn more about her professional background, immediate goals for the new position and her early impressions of UC Libraries, as well as how she is having fun exploring Cincinnati.

We learn how Mikaila Corday did investigative work to catalog Japanese design books and the Digital Collections Team provides tips on how to digitize your home collections like a pro. We celebrate the return of the She-Wolf (Lupa) statue to Cincinnati and a new book published by the University of Cincinnati Press that focuses on the challenge for non-profits. We recap two recent events held in the Libraries: the Generational Summit and the Data & Poetry / Poetry & Data workshop.

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.

Seneca, Nero, Shostakovich, Stalin & Stoicism: “An Evening with Seneca”

Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 BCE-65 CE) is a controversial figure in the political, literary, and philosophical history of Rome. Seneca was a remarkably versatile and prolific writer whose life was affected by several emperors from Tiberius to Nero. Claudius caused his exile from Rome and Nero his death. Seneca wrote a large collection of letters, full of memorable quotes (e.g., “If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich,” quoting Epicurus, 16) and thoughtful philosophical essays about anger, death (shortness of life), leisure, the happy life, and tranquility, and also rather gruesome tragedies such as Medea and Thyestes, and even a satire with the impossible title Apocolocyntosis [instead of Apotheosis] divi Claudii (The Gourdification of the Divine Claudius) as well as a work on cosmology, meteorology, and astrology/astronomy. The main controversy stems from the seeming inconsistency of his adhering to a Stoic philosophy of decency, moral awareness, mindfulness, and moderation juxtaposed to his defense of the murderous dictator Nero and his own amassing of considerable wealth and power.  

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Learning Commons at the Library: Survey question 3

UC Clermont’s Frederick A. Marcotte Library appreciates your feedback on our survey questions related to our collaboration of our space with the Learning Commons!

Our third single-question survey is now live. We’re asking: In what ways does noise on the library’s second floor impact your work?

Please provide your response to this third survey by Monday, November 27th. Anonymous responses are collected through this online form or through our drop boxes in the McDonough lobby and across from the library’s main entrance.

Cougar PAWs for a T-Shirt

Cougar PAWS (Personalized Assistance With Searching) Research Appointment will make finding sources more efficient, easier, and higher quality results. Work with your Frederick A. Marcotte librarian at UC Clermont to get the best materials for your upcoming research assignment. Schedule your appointment to meet in the library or online. Those who attend their PAWS appointment for a research assignment will receive a UC Clermont t-shirt. 

Building Community with the CECH Library

The College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services celebrated Stress Less Week this year from October 1st – 7th. College departments participated in providing stress management resources to students throughout the week in conjunction with the theme of Building Community.

The campus community was encouraged to work together to reach great heights with a Community Build LEGO Project. Participants selected LEGO pieces to add to the community space with the goal of building the highest tower possible. As communities tend to do, though, the project took on a life of its own with the addition of LEGO people, animals, and even plants.

CECH Library users also got the opportunity to complete a community art project with a unique sticker-by-number mural. The image was only revealed once enough of the stickers were placed in the correct spaces — over 2,000 stickers were placed to create this beautiful mural.

While Stress Less Week is now over, the CECH Library has community programming through October 31st. Visit our Building Community Book Display to explore items in our collection that focus on human connection, choose a book from the Banned Book Display to celebrate the diversity of our communal stories, and work together to hunt ghosts inside the CECH Library.

The CECH Library is located in 300 Teachers-Dyer Complex.

Rachel Hoople
CECH Library / Operations Manager and Student Worker Supervisor

Join us November 1 for Poetry Stacked…and Live Art!

The University of Cincinnati Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room announce the next roster of poets for Poetry Stacked, a semi-regular poetry reading series held in the 6th floor east stacks of the Walter C. Langsam Library.

At the next event, scheduled for Wednesday, November 1 at 4:30pm, three poets will read their original work:

Alecia Beymer – poet and educator whose work has appeared in The Inflectionist Review, Sugar House Review, SWWIM, Rust & Moth, Radar Poetry, among others. She was a finalist for the Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry for her poem, “Tree Surgeon,” which appeared in Bellevue Literary Review. She was also a semi-finalist for the Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers from Nimrod Journal. She won second place in the Wisconsin People & Ideas contest; first place in the Kay Saunders Emerging Poet Award through The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and was a runner-up in the Ohio Writer’s Contest through Gordon Square Review. Alecia has worked at the Center for Poetry at Michigan State University, as an assistant editor at Autumn House Press, and as an assistant editor in Poetry for Fourth River. Several of her articles discussing variations on poetics, pedagogy, and methodology have published in English Education, Art/Research International, English in Education, Research in the Teaching of English among others. She graduated with her PhD in Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Currently, she is assistant professor – educator in the Department of English at the University of Cincinnati.

Kristen Renzi – associate professor of English at Xavier University, where she teaches classes in Victorian and Transatlantic Literature, feminist and queer theory, and poetry. She has published a critical monograph, An Ethic of Innocence (Suny Press 2019) and two books of poetry, The God Games (Main Street Rag press, 2017) and Saudade for a Breaking Heart (Dos Madres, 2022). She’s working on a new critical project involving Victorian-era love letters and a poetry collection on motherhood. She loves to create artist books and zines in her spare time.

Violeta Orozco – author of three poetry collections in English, The Broken Woman Diaries (Andante Books 2022), Stillness in the Land of Speed  (Jacar Press 2022) and Atlas of An Ancient World, available for preorder by Black Lawrence Press. An internationally multi-award-winning writer from Mexico City, Violeta Orozco is a bilingual Latina poet and fiction writer who has earned an honorific mention by the Academy of American Poets, The Latino Book Award, and The Rising Stars Award. Her first nonfiction collection in Spanish was published this year in Mexico City. She is currently studying her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Latinx Literature with a creative writing concentration at the University of Cincinnati.

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CECH Library Spotlight: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

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

The Honeys / written by Ryan La Sala (2022)

CW: transphobia, homophobia, hate crime, murder, grief, bullying

Book cover image of The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Ryan La Sala’s contemporary horror The Honeys could be a sibling to the A24 horror movie Midsommar. 

The novel follows Mars, a genderfluid teen, as he embarks on a journey to find out more about his twin sister Caroline’s horrific death. Mars attends the prestigious Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy, where his sister spent her summers leading to her death. This academy is the textbook definition for the gender binary, which Mars isn’t too fond of. But while he’s there, he meets Caroline’s old friends, the Honeys. But as Mars begins to get close to the Honeys, he starts to uncover the horrifying truth of what led to his sister’s death.

Throughout his novel, La Sala explores both the gender binary and grief explicitly. The novel is centered around Mar’s grief over losing his sister, as well as what it’s like living in a gender world where to him, gender is fluid. The novel utilizes vivid imagery to help build suspense and horror, leaving reads completely on edge the further in the book they go. 

This book is available from the CECH Library, OhioLINK, and the Search Ohio lending networks.

Review by Alice Somers, CECH Library Student Assistant | Early Childhood Education and Deaf Studies, CECH 2026

SERVICE NOTE: Power outage on Friday, Oct. 6 will impact access to some library websites

A power outage is scheduled for UC’s primary Data Center beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, October 6, and lasting as late as 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 8. Electrical maintenance will be performed in the Data Center during this time.

More information, and a list of UC services that will be affected during the outage, can be found in this news post.

The University of Cincinnati Libraries website (libraries.uc.edu) will remain up and available during the outage; however, some parts of the website will be unavailable.

The parts of the site that will be unavailable during the outage are:

•             Browzine integration with Summon

•             The staff directory

•             The student employment application

•             Some Contact Us forms

•             The “Journals” and “Books” search tabs on homepage

•             My Library Record

In addition, the following library sites/services will be unavailable during the outage:

•             uclid.uc.edu (staff and public Sierra)

•             scholar.uc.edu

•             journals.uc.edu

•             digital.libraries.uc.edu (including Luna)

•             data.libraries.uc.edu

•             libapps.libraries.uc.edu (including the Source, LiBlog, Omeka S, and Exhibits)

Health Sciences Library Newsletter – October 2023

Explore the news and recent happenings at the HSL with our latest newsletter…

Data, data, data! Data is everywhere and constantly growing – and we are here to help. Join us for the Future directions of Data with UC Data Day, get help with your data with RDS’s student assistant, and learn new skills to work with data with this month’s workshops. Need additional assistance? Let us know!

UC Libraries New Dean

On August 14, 2023 UC Libraries welcomed Elizabeth Kiscaden, MLIS, AHIP, as dean and university librarian. Prior to UC, Kiscaden served as university librarian and assistant vice provost of library services at Creighton University. Read more…

Need help with data?

Saurabh Verma is the new Data Literacy Research Consultant and Graduate Assistant for Research & Data Services. Saurabh will be housed in the Health Sciences Library Informatics Lab and provide research and data services across both the main and medical campuses. Saurabh has a bachelor’s degree in statistics and a master’s degree in economics, both earned from the University of Pune, India. Saurabh Verma is presently enrolled in the MS in Business Analytics program at Lindner College of Business, University of Cincinnati, and he brings to RDS more than seven years of extensive experience in the field of data science and analytics. Throughout his career as a data scientist, he has contributed his expertise to various sectors, including public relations, telecommunications, as well as sales and marketing. Email Saurabh to schedule an appointment.

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Midterm Events

Join us next week for Midterm Events next week!  On October 4th, from 11:00-1:00, join Clermont Library and the Learning Commons for the Citation Olympics in the Student Lounge!  Test your writing abilities to help you prepare for midterms and win prizes.  Create a cake masterpiece of your favorite book for Edible Books on Thursday, October 5th at 1 pm.  Entries for this event are due Wednesday, September 27th by the end of the day.   Drop into the library to take break the week of October 2nd and relax with coloring activities and puzzles.