Tag Archives: collections

Standing in solidarity against systemic racism

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The University of Cincinnati Libraries supports our colleagues from the American Library Association and the Association of Research Libraries in their statements and actions against racism and violence perpetrated against black men and women and all people of color. We agree with President Neville Pinto’s message “that the time to act is now.” As libraries, we provide access to resources and information professionals so that citizens can educate themselves on how to contribute to meaningful change and combat systemic racism.

stamped from the beginningBelow is a short list of UC Libraries resources. While some do require UC affiliation, there are others that are open access. It contains a mix of current and historical perspectives as this is not a new issue our country is confronting, but the time to listen and to learn is now. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but a starting point for education and conversation.  

Videos

Current exhibit on display in the Walter C. Langsam Library

women of the movement graphic

The Urban Studies Collection of the Archives and Rare Books Library holds information on two of the women featured in the exhibit, Louise Shropshire, originator of the Civil Rights anthem “We Shall Overcome,” and Marian Spencer, local Civil Rights icon, as well as Theodore “Ted” Berry, the first African American mayor of Cincinnati.

The University of Cincinnati Press

  • Issues in Race and Society, biannual journal distinguishes itself as an interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and global examination of the increasingly racial and racialized world that connects us all.

UC Libraries planning to begin offering access to print collection materials

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book stacksWhile all UC Libraries’ physical locations remain closed until further notice, we are finalizing plans to provide users with access to print collection materials in order to support UC teaching and research.

A print collection retrieval and pickup service is being planned to begin soon after June 8. Once all preparatory activities are completed, we will announce an official start date of the service. Library users will not be allowed inside library spaces, but will be able to request and pick up library materials in designated locations.

Details on exact timing and how to utilize the retrieval and pickup service will be forthcoming. For updated information, please visit https://libraries.uc.edu/about/covid-19.html.

In the meantime, the University of Cincinnati Libraries remains open and available online to provide users with access to library resources and services.

Women of the Movement: Leaders for Civil Rights and Voting Rights

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women of the movement graphic
The exhibit, Women of the Movement: Leaders for Civil Rights and Voting Rights, currently on display on the 4th floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library, profiles female leaders of the fight for civil and voting rights. Beginning with Sojourner Truth, former slave and abolitionist, and including contemporaries Diane Nash, a key player in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Cincinnati’s Marian Spencer, a champion for Civil Rights both locally and nationally, the exhibit spans history into current times.

Included in the exhibit are women instrumental to the Suffrage fight – Sojourner Truth who worked closely with Susan B. Anthony; Mary Church Terrell, founder of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 as part of the Suffrage Movement after black women were excluded from the Women’s Suffrage Movement; and Mary McLeod Bethune who led voter registration drives following passing of the 19th Amendment.

Civil Rights activists on display include Fannie Lou Hamer, who famously said, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired;” Daisy Bates, an integrated schools advocate; and Ida B. Wells, a journalist, educator and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The exhibit’s design is inspired by a recently created ArtWorks mural in Cincinnati’s Avondale neighborhood honoring Louise Shropshire, composer of the hymn, “If My Jesus Wills,” that became the well-known mantra “We Shall Overcome” during the Civil Rights Movement. Louise Shropshire’s papers are located in the Archives and Rare Books Library.

Women of the Movement: Leaders for Civil Rights and Voting Rights was curated by June Taylor-Slaughter, public services supervisor in the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library, and was designed by Michelle Matevia, UC Libraries communication design co-op student. A handout is available at the exhibit with more information on the women featured in the exhibit.

Bibliography:

  • Alexander, Shawn Leigh. An Army of Lions : The Civil Rights Struggle Before the NAACP. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. Print. LANGSAM; CLERMONT E185.61 .A437 2012
  • Bracey, Earnest N. Fannie Lou Hamer: The Life of a Civil Rights Icon. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2011. Print. LANGSAM E 185.97.H35 B73 2011
  • Brooks, Maegan Parker. A Voice That Could Stir an Army: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rhetoric of the Black Freedom
    Movement. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. Print. LANGSAM E 185.97.H35 B76 2014
  • Harwell, Debbie Z. Wednesdays in Mississippi: Proper Ladies Working for Radical Change, Freedom Summer 1964. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. Print. LANGSAM E185.93.M6 H37 2014
  • Christenson, Dorothy H, Keep on fighting: the life and civil rights legacy of Marian A. Spencer. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2015. LANGSAM  F499.C553 S643 2015
  • Frontline feminism 1975-1995 : essays from Sojourner’s first 20 years / edited by Karen Kahn ; foreword by Robin Morgan. San Francisco : Aunt Lute Books, c1995. LANGSAM. HQ1402 .F76 1995

The GDJA at the MGSA Symposium in Sacramento, CA

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Modern Greek Studies in the United States and Grecian Cincinnatians
Modern Greek Studies generally finds its home in Classics departments in the U.S. (which was true also for UC which used to have a professor and lecturers in Modern Greek in addition to a curator of the Modern Greek collection in the Classics Library, Eugenia Foster) in acknowledgement of its Ancient Greek legacy.  Also, most librarians of Modern Greek Studies at U.S. institutions are classicists. I guess because Modern Greek is closer to Ancient Greek than Italian is to Latin and Greeks do not share the same influential medieval and Renaissance past as Italians (although one might argue that the importance of Byzantium has been much undervalued), so contemporary Greeks feel maybe a closer connection to antiquity.  Italy was also not ruled by a foreign empire for several hundred years, thus not allowing for more modern Greek cultural expressions to develop. The concept of Philhellenism, love of Greece, is also still alive and well among many humanities scholars, especially among ancient historians, classical archaeologists, and philologists. However, there are some American institutions that have recently opened Centers for Hellenic Studies focusing primarily on Modern Greece such as UCLA and the University of Chicago. The UC Classics Library is aware of its history and believes very strongly in continuity with regard to collection strengths. Even though some might argue that our Modern Greek collection fills no function since UC does not teach Modern Greek at the moment, we acknowledge that academia is not immutable and that having a distinguished historic collection requires curating it and continuing to acquire important titles to remain an important resource and that UC as an academic research institution has a responsibility towards scholarly communities beyond UC.

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Arlene Johnson to Head New Collection Development Services and Engagement Department

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arlene johnsonThe University of Cincinnati Libraries announce a new strategic endeavor and department aimed at creating a holistic strategy for collections and the services provided for them. Effective Oct. 1, the new department is called Collection Development Services and Engagement and is to be led by senior librarian Arlene Johnson.

In her new role, Arlene will be responsible for:

  • development of a collections development services strategy for UC Libraries.
  • oversight and day-to-day management of all UC Libraries resource sharing activities.
  • development of services and strategies for remote storage of physical collections.
  • continuation as the selector and liaison to the Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures Department.

The goals of this new initiative and department are to create a sustainable collection development services approach by looking across all disciplines at UC Libraries, understanding OhioLINK and other nationwide and international trends in resource sharing and ensuring that long-term remote storage needs will meet and exceed users’ expectations. Over the next six months, Arlene will work collaboratively with College and Departmental Library heads, liaison/selector faculty librarians and content management faculty and staff to perform an environmental scan of current best practices, as well as national research trends and approaches, so as to identify and articulate a series of recommendations to the UC Libraries community for feedback, development and implementation.

Arlene has 19 years of service and scholarship with UC Libraries, serving previously as co-director of the Digital Scholarship Center and before that head of the Libraries’ Circulation and Multimedia Services Department.

“Arlene brings an outstanding skill-set and experiences to lead this important strategic endeavor,” said Brad Warren, associate dean of public services for UC Libraries. “Her understanding of the role of the liaison coupled with the changing landscape of scholarship and the unique needs of the academic community, make her the ideal choice to head up this new department.”

“I would like to thank Arlene for her recent work with the Digital Scholarship Center,” said Xuemao Wang, vice provost of digital scholarship and dean and university librarian. “She played an instrumental role in introducing the concept of digital humanities to both UC Libraries and to our colleagues at the university, as well as in the early establishment of the Digital Scholarship Center.”

Congratulations to Arlene on her new position and responsibilities!

Book of the Month for September 2019

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Your UCBA Library’s Book of the Month for September:

Money: 5000 Years of Debt and Power 

by Michel Aglietta 

Money book cover 

As the financial crisis reached its climax in September 2008, the most important figure on the planet was Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The whole financial system was collapsing, with little to stop it. When a senator asked Bernanke what would happen if the central bank did not carry out its rescue package, he replied, “If we don’t do this, we may not have an economy on Monday.” 

What saved finance, and the Western economy, was fiscal and monetary stimulus – an influx of money, created ad hoc. It was a strategy that raised questions about the unexamined nature of money itself, an object suddenly revealed as something other than a neutral signifier of value. Through its grip on finance and the debt system, money confers sovereign power on the economy. If confidence in money is not maintained, crises follow. Looking over the last 5,000 years, Michel Aglietta explores the development of money and its close connection to sovereign power. This book employs the tools of anthropology, history and political economy in order to analyse how political structures and monetary systems have transformed one another. We can thus grasp the different eras of monetary regulation and the crises capitalism has endured throughout its history. 

Is it checked out?  Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered: 

The Ascent of Money: a Financial History of the World (DVD)
HG171 .A83 2009 

Bestselling author, economist and historian Niall Ferguson takes a look at how money evolved, from the concept of credit and debt in the Renaissance to the emergence of a global economy and the subprime crisis we face today 

A History of Money (E-Book) 

A History of Money looks at how money as we know it developed through time. Starting with the barter system, the basic function of exchanging goods evolved into a monetary system based on coins made up of precious metals and, from the 1500s onwards, financial systems were established through which money became intertwined with commerce and trade, to settle by the mid-1800s into a stable system based upon Gold. This book presents its closing argument that, since the collapse of the Gold Standard, the global monetary system has undergone constant crisis and evolution continuing into the present day. 

Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money 
HG1710 .P68/ 2015

The notion of a new currency, maintained by the computers of users around the world, has been the butt of many jokes, but that has not stopped it from growing into a technology worth billions of dollars, supported by the hordes of followers who have come to view it as the most important new idea since the creation of the Internet. Believers from Beijing to Buenos Aires see the potential for a financial system free from banks and governments. More than just a tech industry fad, Bitcoin has threatened to decentralize some of society’s most basic institutions. An unusual tale of group invention, Digital Gold charts the rise of the Bitcoin technology through the eyes of the movement’s colorful central characters, including a British anarchist, an Argentinian millionaire, a Chinese entrepreneur, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Bitcoin’s elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Already, Bitcoin has led to untold riches for some, and prison terms for others. 

 

by Christian Boyles

Libraries Moving to Mediated Service Model for Kanopy Streaming Videos

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kanopy home screen
Kanopy, the University of Cincinnati Libraries’ on-demand streaming video service available at http://uc.kanopystreaming.com, is a content-rich, much-used resource. However, the Libraries’ materials budget cannot sustain the current level of spending for Kanopy. It is important to note that films obtained in Kanopy are not owned, but leased for one year at $135 per lease. When the lease has expired, the film can then be triggered for another one-year lease.

In the past, Kanopy films were automatically leased after 30 seconds of viewing by any user with access to the library, including walk-in visitors. In an effort to eliminate purchases triggered by casual users and to focus on course-related use of the rich academic material included in Kanopy, UC Libraries is moving to a mediated leasing model beginning the 2019 fall semester.

University of Cincinnati students, faculty, and staff will continue to have immediate access to films currently leased by UC (approximately 645 titles as of June 2019) until they expire. People will still be able to search in Kanopy for films the Libraries does not already lease, however, when attempting to access such a film, users will have the option to select the “request” button next to the film, fill out the form, and the Libraries will work to fulfill the request, typically obtaining a new lease within one business day.

For additional streaming video sources, or for further information on the mediation of Kanopy films, please visit the Libraries’ Kanopy LibGuide at https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/Kanopy/FAQ.

For more information regarding Kanopy’s streaming service please read the following article from the May 2019 issue of Film Quarterly at https://filmquarterly.org/2019/05/03/kanopy-not-just-like-netflix-and-not-free/.

New Langsam Library Exhibit – “Animals in Antiquity” as Reflected through Books and Artifacts in the John Miller Burnam Classics Library

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animals in antiquityOn the fifth floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library is the exhibit “Animals in Antiquity: An exhibition from the collections of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library.”

Curated by Rebecka Lindau, head of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library, and Michael Braunlin, assistant head of the  Classics Library, and designed by Michelle Matevia, library communication design co-op student, the exhibit highlights the role and importance of animals in Antiquity.

Bastet the Cat

Cats were sacred in ancient Egypt. There was even a cat goddess, Bastet.

Animals were divinities, especially in Egypt.  In Ancient Greece and Rome they were the companions or theomorphic stand-ins for gods and goddesses. Many animals were considered sacred to the ancient Greeks and Romans. However, as humans went from a nomadic existence to one of settlers and farmers, they began taming and using animals for their own purposes and so the status of animals began to decline.

After their domestication, bulls, cows, horses, donkeys, pigs, sheep and goats were used to plow fields, to provide milk and meat, transportation, and clothing. Wild boars were hunted for food and for “displays of manhood” by well-to-do young men as were various birds, deer, hares and even lizards.  Some animals were made companions or pets such as sparrows, pigeons, doves, dogs, cats, monkeys and even wild animals, gazelles and cheetahs. Animals in Greece, rabbits, dogs, roosters and doves, were given as presents, also in courtship as “love gifts.”

Foxes were wild and often considered a nuisance for wine growers because they liked eating the vines.

Various kinds of fish were eaten in antiquity, but they, too, could be pets and were sacred to the gods. Animals such as horses and elephants were used in war and as entertainment, for example, among the Romans at the Colosseum where lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, bears, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, wild donkeys, hyenas and ostriches were forced to fight to their deaths. Greek and Roman authors such as Plutarch, Aelian and Pliny the Elder wrote about animals in works on ethics, morals and natural history and prose, poetry and history writers such as Homer, Aesop’s Fables, Lucretius, Ovid, Seneca, Dio Cassius, Diodorus Siculus frequently used animals to tell stories and to illustrate the human experience.

Sections of the exhibit inform how animals were used as entertainment, as companions, for ritual sacrifice, even in war. In addition, the exhibit features animals in art, displayed on coins, vases and statues. A bibliography of resources used in the creation of the exhibit is available on site and online as a PDF.

To learn more about Animals in Antiquity, read about or visit the Classics Library located on the fourth floor of Blegen Library where the books and artifacts featuring the texts and images in this exhibition are housed and where the librarian is happy to answer questions and offer research advice on this or any other topic concerning classical antiquity.

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

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

In this edition of Source, Dean Xuemao Wang writes about the university’s Bicentennial and we announce an exhibit of books from the libraries that document the university’s 200 years.  We interview Brad Warren, associate dean of library services, and focus on the Visualization Lab located in the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library.

An article from Rich Puff, assistant vice president of public relations & communications, Academic Health Center, honors Lucy Oxley, MD, ‘a pioneer and a servant leader.’ University archivist and head of the Archives and Rare Books Library Kevin Grace writes about James Landy’s 1876 images celebrating William Shakespeare

Lastly, we promote to upcoming events: Hidden Treasures: An Adopt-A-Book Evening on March 14 and the Cecil Striker Society Annual Lecture on May 15.

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.

August Book of the Month

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by Christian Boyles

Book cover of How To Choose Your Major

How to Choose Your Major
by Mary E. Ghilani
LB2361.5 .G55 2017

About the book

Entering the workforce after college can be scary to say the least, especially if a graduate is unprepared or ill-equipped to seek out an appropriate career path or job opportunity. This practical manual Continue reading →