Hungry? Bite into an Edible Book with UC Libraries

edible book

Me Cookie

The University of Cincinnati Libraries will celebrate the International Edible Books Festival with an event scheduled from 1-2 p.m., Tuesday, April 3, in the fifth floor lobby of Langsam Library.

At the event, a record 26 participants will present their edible creations that represent a book in some form. There are few restrictions in creating an edible book — namely that the creation be edible and have something to do with a book. Submitted entries include edible titles such as “Dragons Love Tacos” and “How to Eat Fried Worms.” Best sellers “The Help” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” are represented along with favorite children’s books “The Poky Little Puppy,” “Humpty Dumpty” and “Curious George at the Baseball Game,” among other literary greats. This year’s event will even feature two mother-daughter teams.

Interested in creating an edible book? E-mail melissa.norris@uc.edu by Tuesday, March 27 with your name and the title of your creation.

As in past years, entries will be judged according to such categories as “Most Literary,” “Most Delicious,” “Most Adorable” and “Most Gruesome.” In addition, the “Top Student Entry” and “Best Overall Entry” will receive a special prize. After the entries are judged they will be consumed and enjoyed by all in attendance.

According to the International Edible Book Festival website, the edible book was initiated by librarian and artist Judith A. Hoffberg during a 1999 Thanksgiving celebration with book artists. It became an international celebration in 2000 when artist Béatrice Coron launched the Books2Eat website. Traditionally, the event is celebrated on April 1 (April Fools’ Day) to mark the birthday of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), a French lawyer and politician who became famous for his book, Physiologie du gout (The Physiology of Taste). You can see images of the 2017 edible books on the Libraries Facebook page.

books by the banks logoThe Libraries International Edible Books Festival is free and open to the public. It is sponsored in part by Books by the Banks: Cincinnati Regional Book Festival. Come to celebrate (and eat) “books good enough to eat.”

UC Libraries and IT@UC Host Data and Computational Science Series

DCSThe University of Cincinnati Libraries and IT@UC Research & Development and are pleased to announce the Data & Computational Science Series (DCS2) 2018, a speaker series supported by a Universal Provider award from UC’s Office of the Provost for faculty development.

The first speaker in the series, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, March 22 and 23, in the Walter C. Langsam Library room 475, will be led by Jeremy Fischer, a senior technical advisor from Indiana University’s Information Technology Services, who will host sessions on Jetstream. Funded by the National Science Foundation, Jetstream is a user-friendly cloud environment designed to give researchers and students access to computing and data analysis resources on demand — from their tablets, laptops or desktop computers. People interact with the system through a menu of “virtual machines” designed to support research in many disciplines including biology, atmospheric science, earth science, economics, network science, observational astronomy and social sciences. http://jetstream-cloud.org

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UC Libraries Seeks Books Good Enough to Eat for the International Edible Books Festival

edible bookKnow of a good book to eat?! Create an Edible Book for UC Libraries International Edible Books Festival!

It’s time once again for the fan favorite International Edible Books Festival scheduled for 1-2 p.m., Tues, April 3, in the Walter C. Langsam Library’s fifth floor lobby. UC Libraries is seeking people interested in creating an edible book for the enjoyment (and consumption) of all in attendance. There are few restrictions – namely that your creation be edible and have something to do with a book – so you may let your creativity run wild.

As in previous years, entries will be judged according to such categories as “Most Delicious,” “Most Creative,” “Most Checked Out” and “Most Literary.” Special prizes will be awarded for the “Best Student” entry and “Best Overall” entry.

If you are interested in creating an edible book, e-mail melissa.norris@uc.edu by Fri, March 23 with your name and the title of your creation.

books by the banks logoLooking for inspiration? Visit UC Libraries on Facebook to see photos from the 2017 festival.

Edible Books, 2018 is sponsored in part by Books by the Banks: Cincinnati Regional Book Festival.

Save the Date: Cecil Striker Society Annual Lecture May 3

The Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions and the Cecil Striker Society for the History of Medicine will host the 9th Cecil Striker Society Annual Lecture on Thurs., May 3, 2018.

Michael Farrell

Michael Farrell

This year’s lecture will focus on the contributions and historical relevance of Pediatrics in the Cincinnati region with a primary focus on The Children’s Hospital.  Michael Farrell, M.D. and Bea Katz, Ph.D. will serve as our co-lecturers for the event. Dr. Farrell is currently Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He was Director of the Pediatric Residency Programs until 2001 and Chief of Staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center until 2015. His major interests are general pediatrics, the history of medicine and gastroenterology/nutrition. Bea Katz, Ph.D., the editor of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (2008) by Arcadia Publishing, has chronicled the history of Children’s Hospital for 30 years, first as a writer in the hospital’s Marketing and Communications Department and later, post-retirement, as an independent author and researcher.

Their lecture is entitled Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Impacting the Health of Children in Our Community and the World: The Past, Present and Future and will be held from 5:00-6:30pm in Kresge Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, 231 Albert Sabin Way. A reception will immediately follow the lecture from 6:30-7:30pm held outside of the Lucas Boardroom; with an accompanying exhibit inside of the Lucas Boardroom highlighting the pediatric history of Cincinnati.

bea katz

Bea Katz

Originally formed in 1976, the initial purpose of the Society was to promote and perpetuate an interest in the history of medicine and all related disciplines in the health care field. Currently, the lecture helps to engage the local community in topics related to the history of medicine; brings people together who have a common interest in the history of medicine; and fosters positive attention to the Winkler Center through publicity and scholarly activities.

__________________________

The Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions gratefully recognizes the generosity and foresight of the following individuals and organizations who have provided significant support to establish the Cecil Striker Lecture Endowment Fund.  This endowment fund is a vital permanent resource to strengthen the annual lecture program.

Presenting Sponsor

Dr. and Mrs. Carl Fischer

Dr. and Mrs. Theodore W. Striker

Dr. John E. Bossert

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center


Supporting Sponsor

UC Health

Additional support provided by Dr. and Mrs. Michael K. Farrell and Cecil L. Striker, PhD.

To discuss a gift to the Winkler Center, contact Christa A. Bernardo, Director of Development, at (513) 556-0055 or christa.bernardo@uc.edu.

Talking About “Style” and the UC Alum Behind It

By:  Kevin Grace

Strunk Cover     If you took a composition course in America, chances are you were faced with the seminal book in writing well, William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style.  And if you were fortunate, you had a high school teacher or college professor whose teaching could match the plain elegance and helpful guideposts of this little book.  The Elements of Style is arguably the most referenced guide to writing in American education.

But how many of us know the story behind this famous text?  Chances are we’re all familiar with E.B. White, the decades-long columnist for the New Yorker and the author of modern classics like Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, One Man’s Meat, The Second Tree From the Corner and a host of other books.  Curmudgeonly almost to a fault and a writer with uncommon regard for the simple declarative sentence, White was one of the great literary stylists of the 20th century.  And William Strunk?  He happened to be an English professor at Cornell University during White’s undergraduate days, White graduating from Cornell in 1921.  Strunk developed a little handbook for writing that he used in his classes and decades later White wrote an essay for The New Yorker about Strunk’s lessons for usage and style.  At the urging of a publisher, White revised Strunk’s work, added an introduction and The Elements of Style was born.

William Strunk

William Strunk, Jr.

Now to the University of Cincinnati connection: William Strunk, Jr., the author of this famous guide, grew up in Cincinnati and was an 1890 graduate of UC.  For the Archives & Rare Books Library’s “50 Minutes” lunchtime series of talks, Greg Hand returns to campus on Thursday, February 22, to relate in his well-informed fashion the story of Mr. William Strunk, and an interesting one it is.  As always, Mr. Hand tells his tales with great aplomb and guaranteed satisfaction for all, earning the favor of everyone in attendance.  He will speak of facts and fictions, of parodies and paradoxes, and if he were to offer an elegant phrase or two of his own, we would not mind in the least.  The talk begins at 12:00 noon in Room 814 of Blegen Library and will last until everyone is ushered out around 1 pm.  Bring your lunch, a friend, and acceptable manners (note the Oxford comma).  There will also be a random drawing of select and relevant books.

Happy Year of the Dog!

This weekend, the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce hosted their annual Lunar New Year Gala. I was happy to attend, along with many of my UC colleagues.

Some of you may remember that the Walter C. Langsam Library hosted its own Lunar New Year celebration in 2015. I always welcome the opportunity to celebrity this important Chinese holiday. Happy Year of the Dog!

Me and my wife Wendy, along with some of my UC Libraries colleagues

UC Libraries’ Global Services Librarian Hong Cheng (center, in red dress) with a group of our JCI partners from College of Engineering and Applied Science

 

 

The John Miller Burnam Classics Library Hosts “An Evening with Ovid”

Ovid

Ovid

Join the John Miller Burnam Classics Library 5:30-7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 29 in 417 Blegen Library for “An Evening with Ovid,” an event celebrating the life and work of the Roman poet. We will raise a glass in his honor in connection with his birthday and the 2,000-year anniversary of his death.

The evening will begin with welcoming remarks by Rebecka Lindau, head of the Classics Library. Bridget Langley, visiting assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Classics, will give a brief presentation of Ovid’s life and work. Colin Shelton, adjunct professor in Classics, will follow with a reading of two of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Latin and in translation by modern English poet Ted Hughes. Jenny Doctor, head of the Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library, will introduce a musical performance by modern English composer Benjamin Britten, “Six Metamorphoses after Ovid,” featuring College-Conservatory of Music oboist Yo Shionoya.

Ovid's Metamorphoses

Ovid’s Metamorphoses

The evening will conclude with refreshments Ovid and his contemporaries would have enjoyed. The event will be presided over by Emperor Augustus himself in the form of a copy of the original marble head discovered at Troy during an excavation led by UC’s Classics Department. Additionally, the library will feature a book exhibition with works of Ovid, including rare editions of the Metamorphoses.

The event is free and open to all. RSVP to Cade Stevens at stevencd@ucmail.uc.edu or 513-556-1314 by Friday, March 23.

Feb. 28 Digital Humanities Speaker Series to Feature Two Speakers from the University of Iowa

digital humanities speaker series

Sponsored by the Digital Scholarship Center, the next Digital Humanities Speaker Series event, scheduled for Wed., Feb. 28 in both the Walter C. Langsam Library and the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library, will feature David Eichmann, director and associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science, and Blaine Greteman, associate professor of English, both from the University of Iowa. Both sessions are free and open to all.

Blaine Greteman

Blaine Greteman

David Eichmann

David Eichmann

10:00 a.m.-noon: [Keynote]: “Networking Print: Small Worlds, Phase Transitions, and Hidden Histories in 500,000 Early English Books.” Led by: Blaine Greteman. Co-Presenter: David Eichmann.  Location: Walter C. Langsam Library 462

Noon-12:45 p.m.:  Lunch- all welcome, Langsam 462

1:30-3:30 p.m.:  “Identification of Collaborator Networks in Biomedicine (and How They Relate to the Printing/Publishing Community of Pre-1800 England).” Led By: David Eichmann. Co-Presenter: Blaine Greteman. Location: Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library, Dr. Stanley B. Troup Learning Space (MSB G005G)
David Eichmann has conducted research in relational database theory, software reuse and reengineering, web search engines and intelligent agents, biomedical informatics and ontology-based research profile harvesting and visualization.  His current projects include Shakeosphere (modeling the social network of the print community in England 1540-1800), CTSAsearch (aggregating research profiles from 70+ institutions), CD2H (an informatics coordinating center for the CTSA consortium) and Linked Data for Libraries (LD4L) (where he is part of a consortium exploring the next generation of library catalogs).

Blaine Greteman writes regularly for popular publications including The New Republic, Slate, TIME and The Week. His first book was The Poetics and Politics of Youth in Milton’s England (Cambridge University Press, 2013); his forthcoming book, Networking Early English Print (Stanford University Press), is based on Shakeosphere, a digital project built in collaboration with David Eichmann. Greteman holds an M.Phil from Oxford, where he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship, and a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley.

Located in the Walter C. Langsam Library, the Digital Scholarship Center (DSC) is a joint venture of the University of Cincinnati Libraries and the College of Arts and Sciences. Launched in September 2016 as an academic center, the DSC provides faculty and students across the university with support for digital project conception, design and implementation. For more about the Digital Scholarship Center, visit  http://dsc.uc.edu.

Join Us for Poetry at a Glance “Black History through Poetry”

phillis wheatleyIn celebration of Black History Month, UC Libraries is holding an event featuring poetry and poet Phillis Wheatley, the first published African-American poet.

February 22, 2:00 – 3:30pm

462 Langsam Library

At the event, Kevin Grace, head of the Archives and Rare Books Library and university archivist, will present the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Book, part of the library’s rare books collection. Following, there will be poetry readings by UC students, staff and guests. Those in attendance can also enjoy a taste of cultural cuisine. The event is free and open to all.

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) is the first African American, and one of the first women, to publish a book of poetry in the colonies in 1773. At the age of eight, she was kidnapped from West Africa, enslaved and sold to a family in Boston where her owner’s wife and children taught her to read and write English, Greek and Latin.  She published her first poem at the age of 12.

A table display featuring African-American poets and poetry is on display on the 4th floor of Langsam. A bibliography of the works on display is available online.

Registration Now Open for Third Annual UC DATA Day Scheduled for March 6

The University of Cincinnati Libraries and IT@UC announce the third annual UC DATA Day. Scheduled for 8:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m., Tuesday, March 6 in Nippert Stadium West Pavilion on UC’s Main Campus (see directions), UC DATA Day 2018 offers a full schedule of engaging events that will reveal solutions to data challenges and foster a community of best practices around improved data management. All events are free and include lunch. The public is welcome.

Registration is now open at http://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/blogs/dataday/registration/. Seats are limited, so register early.

Patricia Flatley Brennan

Patricia Flatley Brennan

The UC DATA Day 2018 keynote speaker is Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The NLM is the world’s largest biomedical library and the producer of digital information services used by scientists, health professionals and members of the public worldwide. Prior to her work at the NLM, she was the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

The day will include panel discussions on “Game Changing Data: How Data is being used to Affect Change,” “Big Data” and “Data Solutions: Your Questions Answered.” In addition, attendees can participate in two technical sessions on data analysis and data visualization with Python. During lunch, service providers will speak on how they support researchers and research data management.

For more information on UC DATA Day 2018, contact Tiffany Grant, interim assistant director for research and informatics, at (513) 558-9153 or tiffany.grant@uc.edu.