ARB's Historical Textbook Collection

By Jameson Tyler, Archives & Rare Books Intern

One of the most recent collecting areas in the Archives & Rare Books Library is the Historical Textbook Collection, transferred from the Curriculum Resources Center (now the CECH Library).  Created by former CRC librarian Gary Lare, the Historical Textbook Collection is comprised of American textbooks from the 19th century to the end of the 20th.  As part of the 2010-2011 ARB intern project, the collection will be organized and fully inventoried, and a collection development policy will be developed.   An online exhibit has been initiated (http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/exhibits/historic-textbooks/index.html) to showcase select volumes as well as to provide a “textbook timeline” in the United States and to give a brief history of textbook publishing in Cincinnati.  There are, of course, McGuffey readers, along with spellers, science books, history texts, social studies volumes, and the entire range of K-12 education textbooks.  It is the aim of this project to position the collection for full cataloging and formal naming. Continue reading

Update on William Morris Project

By Lilia Walsh

A wood-engraved portrait of Morris by John Depol, from the book William Morris Master-Printer by Frank Colebrook

A wood-engraved portrait of Morris by John Depol, from the book William Morris Master-Printer by Frank Colebrook.

William Morris was a designer of stained glass, tapestries, wallpaper, chintzes, furniture, books, and typefaces. He was also a preservationist, socialist, poet, novelist, lecturer, calligrapher, translator of classic Icelandic and early English sagas, and founder of the Kelmscott press. He was born in 1834, and died at 62 in 1896, due to (according to his physician); “simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men.” Morris became involved with socialist causes in the late 1870s. He found it impossible to separate esthetic issues from social and political ones, to him social reform was simply an extension of his arts and crafts production. Continue reading

UC Faculty-Submit Your 2010 Published Works to Authors, Editors & Composers

On Tuesday, April 12, 2011, the University of Cincinnati Libraries will once again recognize the publishing and creative accomplishments of UC’s faculty at the annual “Authors, Editors & Composers” event. Scheduled for 3:30pm in the Russell C. Myers Alumni Center at UC, “Authors, Editors & Composers” will pay tribute to the 2010 scholarly and creative works of UC’s faculty with a reception, presentation of selected works, a printed bibliography, and an exhibit.

To submit your 2010 published works for inclusion in “Authors, Editors & Composers,” complete the online form.

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Introducing Images, a New Database of Images in Biomedical Literature from the National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)  introduces Images, a new resource of images in Biomedical Literature.    This collection of more than 2.5 million images and figures are from medical and life sciences journals contained in NCBI’s PubMed Central full-text digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.

The Images database is expected to have a wide range of uses for a variety of user groups. These include the clinician looking for the visual representation of a disease or condition, the researcher searching for studies with certain types of analyses, the student seeking diagrams that elucidate complex processes such as DNA replication, the professional or educator looking for an image for a presentation, and the patient wanting to better understand his disease.

The Images database is available at <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/images>.  There is also a link to it on the Health Sciences Library “Online Images” page at http://libraries.uc.edu/hsl/reference/elec/digitalimages.cfm.

See the NIH News Release at http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2010/nlm-28.htm.

Are You Looking for Some Primary Sources?

In the library, 1950If you are looking some primary sources, try searching the OhioLINK Finding  Aid Repository.  The site contains descriptions for over 700 archival collections at 46 institutions in Ohio including large universities, small colleges, community colleges, museums, historical societies, public libraries, and special libraries.  Guides to over 200 collections at the University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library and the Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions are also available through this database.  Additional finding aids are added every day. Continue reading

RefWorks, a Bibliographic Management Tool, Adds RefShare, a New Sharing Module

RefWorks is a Web-based personal bibliographic management service that enables users to electronically collect, manage, and organize bibliographic information and full-text articles.  RefWorks also facilitates the research report and manuscript composition process by automatically creating in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies in nearly 2,000 different output styles.  In short, RefWorks can save countless hours of time spent on resources management and manuscript or report production. 

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Oh Paoletta!

Mark Palkovic, Head of the CCM Library, with the bust of Pietro Floridia

Mark Palkovic, Head of the CCM Library, with the bust of Pietro Floridia

It’s a total bust!  Really.  A bronze sculpture of composer Pietro Floridia has been donated to the University of Cincinnati and has found a home in the Gorno Memorial Music Library in the Blegen Library Building.  The setting is entirely appropriate because back in 2004, the UC Libraries were about to add the 3,000,000th volume to its collections, with the desire that this addition be suitably rare and unusual, and, reflect the University’s historical ties to the City of Cincinnati.  Dean Victoria A. Montavon marked this noteworthy event by designating the purchase of a collection of music, costume drawings, and documents of the opera, Paoletta, composed by Floridia as the official “Three Millionth.”  The materials joined the collections in the UC Libraries’ Archives & Rare Books Library. Continue reading

ARB Intern Project Near Completion

The Archives & Rare Books Library’s 2009-2010 intern is headed toward the completion of her special project.  Lilia Walsh, a University of Cincinnati Honors student, has been working for the past nine months on compiling an annotated bibliography and web exhibit of ARB’s rare books on William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement.

Morris (1834-1896) was an artist, designer, writer, and socialist in England, and a giant presence in the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts & Crafts art worlds, particularly with his emphasis on a resurgence in craftsmanship.  Continue reading

Libraries Awarded NEH Grant to Digitize the Correspondence and Photographs of Albert B. Sabin

Albert SabinThe University of Cincinnati Libraries have received a $314,258 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to digitize the correspondence and photographs of Albert B. Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine and distinguished service professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Research Foundation from 1939-1969.

The primary source documents to be digitized include 35,000 letters totaling 50,000 pages of correspondence between Sabin and political, cultural, social, and scientific leaders around the world. Also included will be 1,000 photographs documenting the events and activities worldwide that were part of Sabin’s crusade to eradicate polio.

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UC Libraries Put 16th-Century Spanish Antiphoner Online

Spanish AntiphonerThe University of Cincinnati Libraries have made available via the Digital Projects Web site the Spanish Antiphoner, a 16th-century Gregorian chant choir book handwritten on vellum pages approximately 16 by 24 inches in diameter with neumatic notation and illuminated capitals.  Pages 65 through 72 of the choir book are missing, but 242 pages remain intact. 

Available online at http://digitalprojects.libraries.uc.edu/spanishantiphoner/index.asp, the Spanish Antiphoner can be viewed in its entirety as both PDF (download Adobe Acrobat Reader) files or by using Book Reader software. When viewing the Spanish Antiphoner through the Digital Projects database option, viewers can view thumbnails and large versions of the images, and then can rotate, zoom in and out, magnify particular areas, download, and print the images.

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