CEAS Library displays supplies from a 1950’s Mechanical Engineering student

Are you interested in what a student brought to college over 70 years ago? The College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) Library helps answer that question with their newest display. Featured at the library, is a sample of original supplies a Mechanical Engineering student used while enrolled at University of Cincinnati in 1950.

Display of supplies from a 1950's student.

For current students enrolled in Mechanical Engineering, their supply list might include a laptop, scientific calculator and access to CAD software. While the student from 1950 differs with supplies needed for hand drafting.

While visiting the CEAS Library at 850 Baldwin Hall, make sure to view the other displays, such as the tokens on display from the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition.

UC Libraries resources in celebration of Black History Month

Throughout February, we shared UC Libraries resources and collections in celebration of Black History Month. Below is a list of those highlights, as well as others, so you may continue exploring and learning Black history throughout the year.

Theodore M. Berry Papers Project
An exhibit highlighting the 2010 project to completely process the papers of Theodore Moody Berry, Cincinnati’s first African mayor.

Louise Shropshire: An Online Exhibition
An online exhibit featuring Louise Shropshire a Cincinnati Civil Rights pioneer and composer.

Marian Spencer: Fighting for Equality in Cincinnati
An alumna of the University of Cincinnati (Class of 1942), Marian Spencer fought for Civil Rights in Cincinnati for nearly seventy years. This exhibit examines her career and her papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library.

The Colored Citizen
Published in Cincinnati sporadically from the height of the Civil War in 1863 until approximately 1869, The Colored Citizen was edited by a group of African American citizens from Midwestern cities, including Cincinnati. It was a paper with general news, but with a focus on the political, economic, and cultural affairs that had an impact on African Americans of the age. The Archives and Rare Books Library hold one issue of this paper.

Phillis Wheatley
In 1773, at the age of 20, Wheatley published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, making her the first published African-American poet.

Lucy Oxley
Source article highlighting Lucy Oxley, MD, the first person of color ever to receive a medical degree from the College of Medicine. Continue reading

CEAS Library displays Cincinnati Industrial Exposition tokens from 1870-1874 

ceas displayThe Ohio Mechanics Institute (OMI), founded in 1828, is one of the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s (CEAS) source institutions and provided vital technical education during the early development of Cincinnati. In 1870, OMI partnered with the Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce to present the first “Grand Industrial Exposition.” These showcases attracted exhibitors nationwide representing industrial developments and artistic achievements of the day. 

Commemorative tokens from the expositions were adorned with visual reminders of the events. Many of the tokens feature the buildings that housed the exposition, such as the Saengerfest Hall, a structure that sat at the intersection of Elm and 14th streets. Other common symbols found on tokens represent the industrial exposition subjects: agriculture, science, art, and learning. 

A sampling of these tokens are currently on display in the CEAS Library.

Welcome, Lauren Reder, to the University of Cincinnati Libraries

Lauren Reder has recently joined the Content Services Team as a temporary employee working primarily with the Classics and Modern Greek collections. She will be updating invoices for payment, cataloging material, reviewing records and assisting with other catalog data quality projects as the team continues to explore improvements in workflow, updating procedural documentation, and identifying how this work can be most efficiently performed for UC Libraries. She will also assist the Digital Collections Team with accessibility remediation for the project underway of digitization of the UC News Record issues from 1980-1985. 

Lauren received her MS in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Previously, she earned her BA in Classical Languages & Cultures from Wright State University, where she studied Latin and Greek and also minored in English and Art History. She held two previous UC Libraries’s internships at the John Miller Burnam Classics Library during her undergraduate career, served as President of Wright State’s chapter of the Eta Sigma Phi Classics honorary and tutored students in Latin for several years. 

While deeply passionate about the humanities, Lauren also feels drawn to librarianship as a way to serve others by connecting them to the information they need. She has spent the past few years working as a Job Developer and HR Generalist at an employment agency serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Lauren finds it incredibly rewarding to accompany her clients as they work to create resumes, apply to jobs and obtain meaningful employment. Informed by this experience, she hopes to have the opportunity to assist with accessibility initiatives within UC Libraries in order to ensure that patrons of all abilities can access our materials and services. For more about Lauren see her LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-reder

Welcome, Lauren!

UC Libraries closed Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 6

All UC Libraries locations are closed Monday, Sept. 6 for Labor Day. The Libraries will reopen as scheduled Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday.

And for more information on labor, check out the exhibit Working for a Living, featuring the University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library labor collections.

working graphic

Click & Collect Retrieval and Pickup Service Expanded to Daily, Monday-Friday

Lookinclick and collect graphicg for library print materials for research or study? The Click & Collect retrieval and pickup service (now expanded to a daily service!) allows UC users to request printed library materials in the Library Catalog for pickup at designated locations. Requests made daily Monday-Friday are typically available the next 1-2 business days. Users should wait for an e-mail pickup notice before coming to the library to pick up requested items. There is a limit of 10 items per request/25 a week.

Due dates have been automatically set for February 15, 2021. When searching for print materials in the Library Catalog, items with the status of “Click & Collect” are available for request. Items from one library location cannot be requested for pickup at another library location.

Click & Collect pickup locations and details per participating library are available on the Libraries web site.

Items requested from SWORD (Southwest Ohio Regional Depository) will be sent to Langsam Library only for pickup. Please note – SWORD will initially appear as the pickup location at the time of request, but will change to Langsam as the request is processed.

Updates to Click & Collect will continue to be posted online.

For other research and library service needs, the University of Cincinnati Libraries remains open and available online to provide users with access to library resources and services.

UC Libraries Announce Phased Approach to Re-Open Library Facilities

With the start of fall semester, UC Libraries will begin to re-open library facilities to the UC community in a limited, phased approach to ensure social distancing. Our priority remains to provide access to library resources to the extent possible while maintaining the health and safety of students, faculty and staff. The availability and use of locations and spaces within the libraries will be reviewed on a continual basis and updates will be posted on the Libraries website.library with tables and chairs


Beginning August 10
, the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library (HSL) is open for fall semester with limited in-person accessibility to library spaces.

Beginning August 17, the UC Blue Ash College Library is open with services available in person, virtually or both.

Tues-Fri, August 18-21, the 400 level of the Walter C. Langsam Library will be open from 10am-4pm. No library services will be available during this time.

Beginning August 24, the Walter C. Langsam Library, Albino Gorno Memorial (CCM) Library, John Miller Burnam Classics Library, Archives and Rare Books Library and UC Clermont College Library will open with limitations and protocols to ensure social distancing. Location specifics are listed at https://libraries.uc.edu/about/covid-19.html.

Other library locations remain closed at this time, but are under review for re-opening at a date to be announced. UC Libraries remains open and available online to provide users with access to library resources and services.

With limited exceptions in the Classics and CCM Libraries, there is no browsing of library materials in the stacks. The Click & Collect retrieval and pickup service allows UC users to request print library materials in the Library Catalog for pickup at designated locations. Pickup location details are available on the Click & Collect webpage.

Library users can once again request OhioLINK & Interlibrary Loan materials. Details are posted on the Libraries website.

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

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

In this issue of Source, Dean Xuemao Wang remarks on the national and global protests sparked off by the May 25th murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and how libraries must join the fight against systemic racism.

Read about how when UC Libraries closed its physical locations in mid-March in response to COVID-19, student supervisors transitioned quickly not just their own work online, but that of their library student workers. In addition, this issue highlights work to provide library services and resources online to UC faculty and staff during a crisis.

While working remotely, consider suggestions of resource and tools from Maggie Patel, business and data analytics librarian. Download Libraries backgrounds for your next Zoom meeting or spend time with the labor collections in the Archives and Rare Books Library.

Elizabeth Scarpelli, director of the University of Cincinnati Press, announces the launch of Platforms and Pathways in Social Innovation as part of the Press’s dynamic, open access publishing platform.

While the University of Cincinnati Libraries remains open and available online to provide users with access to library resources and services, the Click & Collect retrieval and pickup service allows UC users to request print library materials in the Library Catalog for pickup at designated library locations.

Lastly, in this issue of Source, we remind UC faculty and staff to submit their 2019 creative and scholarly works for including in the re-imagined Life of the Mind.

Read these articles, as well as past issues, on the web at http://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/source/ and via e-mail. To receive Source via e-mail, contact melissa.norris@uc.edu to be added to the mailing list.

UC Libraries Expands Click & Collect Retrieval Service to Additional Library Locations

Users can request print library materials by 9am Wednesday for Thursday pickup.

click and collect graphicThe University of Cincinnati Libraries is expanding its Click & Collect retrieval and pickup service providing users with access to print collection materials in order to support UC teaching and research. Users may now request print items for pickup at the following additional library locations:

  • College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) Library
  • College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) Library
  • Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library
  • Walter C. Langsam Library

Plans are underway to provide access to the John Miller Burnam Classics Library collection to Classics faculty and graduate students and details will be announced soon.

The Click & Collect retrieval and pickup service allows UC users to request print library materials in the Library Catalog for pickup at designated library locations. Requests made by 9am Wednesdays will be available for pickup between noon-4pm on Thursdays. Due dates have been automatically set for August 10. When searching for print materials in the Library Catalog, items with the status of “Held By Library” are available for request. Items from one library location cannot be requested for pickup at another library location. Continue reading

UC Libraries launches Click & Collect service to offer phased access to library print materials

Request library materials by 9:00 am Wednesday for Thursday pickup at select locations.

click and collect graphicBeginning immediately, the University of Cincinnati Libraries is providing users with phased access to print collection materials in order to support UC teaching and research.

The Click & Collect retrieval and pickup service allows UC users to request printed library materials in the Library Catalog for pickup at designated locations. Requests made by 9:00 AM Wednesdays will be available for pickup between noon – 4:00 PM on Thursdays. Due dates have been automatically set for August 10.

At this time, Click & Collect is available for print collections in the Albino Gorno Memorial (CCM) Library, the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP), the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library and to some degree the Archives and Rare Books Library (see details below).

Plans to expand the Click & Collect library collection retrieval service are underway for other library locations and will be announced soon. Continue reading