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UCBA Librarians in the Big Easy

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by Michelle McKinney and Kellie Tilton

Michelle McKinney, Reference and Web Services Librarian

After a five year conference break, I was very excited to attend #ALAAC2018 in New Orleans! I spent the majority of the conference working with and for this year’s class of Spectrum Scholars. I had the honor of being named a Spectrum Scholar in 2005 and am currently serving as a member of Spectrum Advisory Committee. This year’s class of scholars networked, attended panels featuring Spectrum Alumni and took part in the greater conference, which included an Opening Session featuring Former First Lady Michelle Obama and Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden.

Spectrum Scholars group photo

         Michelle (front row, second from right) with other scholars awaiting Michelle Obama

I had the chance to reconnect with many colleagues and library friends, including fellow Spectrum Scholars from my class, during the Spectrum Scholars Founders Reception.

Michelle McKinney and three library colleagues

   Michelle and fellow 2005 Spectrum Scholars: Brenda Linares, Nancy Kirkpatrick and Nia Lam

When I wasn’t in sessions or meetings, I wandered around the Exhibit Hall and enjoyed some of the local cuisine, including the required serving of beignets.

Kellie Tilton, Instructional Technologies Librarian

Unfortunately, my #alaa18 trip was way too short. I flew in to attend my last official duty as a member of the Alex Award Committee, which presents an award to 10 books published for adults that has a unique appeal to young adults. (Check them out!) Luckily, the last event is also one of the best, as we honor the award winners with a program and book signing for anyone to attend.

Alex Awards Book Signing

I also was able to visit the exhibit hall to say hello to many vendors and publicists and check out the new products coming to libraries near you!

ALA Conference Decorations

It was awesome to be in New Orleans for its 300th birthday and the best way to celebrate was a late night run to Cafe du Monde for their famous beignets!

NOLA 300th birthday sign

It may have only been about 48 hours, but ALA is always a blast and a reminder how awesome the library profession is!

Bookish Travels

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by Christian Boyles, Michelle McKinney and Kellie Tilton

UCBA Library staff and faculty, Christian Boyles (Collections Services Manager), Michelle McKinney (Reference and Web Services Librarian) and Kellie Tilton (Instructional Technologies Librarian) hit the road and visited a few bookish places over the holiday season. Click on the images to get a better view of the photos.

Christian Boyles / Washington DC / Library of Congress: In December, the missus and I went to DC for her birthday.  Along with visiting many great Smithsonian museums, walking a gazillion miles, seeing grand architecture, priceless works of art and ephemera and the new Star Wars film, we went to the Library of Congress.  For someone who has worked in libraries for a gazillion years, going there felt like what going to the Vatican must feel like to a Catholic.

The building itself is an amazing and imposing structure designed in the Beaux-Arts style with a bonkers fountain out front featuring the Roman god Neptune, some sea monsters and a bunch of naked people riding what I guess are horse snakes.  What that has to do with literature and the centralized housing of knowledge was lost on me.  Inside is no less impressive.  Walking in, I was legitimately awestruck by the LOC’s grandeur.  Imagine if St. Peter’s Cathedral and some enlightenment era French king’s home had a baby and you’re still nowhere close to how awesome it is.  Probably the crown jewel of the place is the reading room. Housed under a dome, it is a masterpiece of archetecture featuring arched stained glass windows, semetrical study carrells, Corinthian columns, and statues of some of the great minds in religion, poetry, commerce, philosophy, etc.  Just looking in on that, I’m pretty sure I felt my IQ nudge up a couple points.  Throughout the building, there were displays of ancient manuscripts going back hundreds and thousands of years.

Unfortunately, we were running short on time, so we couldn’t take the tour.  But, we did manage to check out a very cool exhibit on the American experience of World War 1.  In a perfect world, I would have spent a day, if not more, discovering all the cool features and offerings.  Insider tip: if you’re in DC and are having a sugar crash, the LOC’s vending machines are very comprehensive and cheap.

Michelle McKinney / Louisville, KY / Wild Fig Coffee & Books: In early January, I treated my husband to a quick trip to Lexington for his birthday. Before heading back home, I discovered a bookstore just down the street from where we were having breakfast. Wild Fig Coffee & Books is located near UK’s campus and is owned by award-winning author, Crystal Wilkinson. The independent bookstore has an eclectic selection of new and old books, including a wide range of graphic novels. Wild Fig also carries a variety of bookish and feminist gifts such as mugs, socks and greeting cards. The coffee is pretty tasty too!

Kellie Tilton: On Christmas Day, 2017, a friend from college and I hopped the pond to begin an epic two week, three country excursion that was kick started because we snagged tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II in the West End. With our tickets falling in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we decided to make the most of the time frame.

We spent a handful of days in London – mostly in pursuit in all the Harry Potter-related attractions London had to offer – then it was up to Edinburgh, Scotland to bring in the New Year with their Hogmanay celebrations. We made a quick trip across the Channel via the Chunnel to have a gandar at Paris (and basically eat a million croissants) before landing back in London to spend one more weekend catching the things we missed the first time.

Highlights of this adventure include, but are not limited to, The Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour, The British Library (and it’s History of Magic exhibition in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone publishing), the play (obviously), Hogmanay, Kensington Palace, and the Paris Catacombs. I brought back four new editions for my Harry Potter in Translation Collection. It just goes to show, your literary loves will provide ample reasons to travel the world!

UCBA Librarians Present Bullet Journaling 201 Workshop

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Bullet Journaling 201 Workshop Flier

Please join UCBA Librarians Michelle McKinney and Kellie Tilton for Bullet Journaling 201.

10 am – 11:30 am, Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Muntz 117, Learning & Teaching Center

This workshop is open to UCBA faculty, staff and students and will include:

  • Tips and tricks for setting up Bullet Journals
  • A BuJo Petting Zoo to try out supplies and tools
  • Hands-On time to work or start planning your Bullet Journal

Please register at http://uc.libsurveys.com/bujo201

If you have Bullet Journaling supplies (i.e. notebooks, pens, etc.), please bring them to the workshop!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation, Part II

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by Kellie Tilton

Hi, again! Kellie Tilton, UCBA Librarian, back to give you part two of my Summer Vacation Library Adventures. If you miss the first one, it is available here!

Kellie and Becky posing in front of the EduLearn sign.

                              Our very official EduLearn portrait.

In July, I was fortunate enough to travel to Barcelona, Spain to present at the 2017 EduLearn Conference with Becky Leporati, my colleague in the Langsam Library. We had submitted two presentations for consideration and both were accepted. The first, A Flipped Classroom is an Inclusive Classroom, was about incorporating Universal Design into eLearning projects and the second, Format Choices are Content Choices, involved selecting the right format to design eLearning projects.

The conference itself was an international, with 80 countries represented. I met educators from the UK, South Africa, Sweden, Australia and more and was able to learn so much about the similarities and differences in our approach to technology in education.

It was also my first trip to Spain and it was absolutely beautiful. I took a few days of vacation so I was able to visit Madrid and Toledo, as well. All three cities were awe-inspiring, the people were friendly and welcoming and taking in the culture and heritage of Spain there only made me want to go back again.

It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful I was able to present and attend!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Part 1

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By Kellie Tilton

Kellie Tilton taking a photo in front of the Bean.

Paid a visit to The Bean while in Chicago!

Hi, all! Kellie Tilton, UCBA Librarian, here to tell you a bit about how I spent my summer vacation. As luck would have it, I was lucky enough to have two pretty major library-related trips this summer. This is all about the first one.

Back in February, I told you about my trip to the American Library Association’s MidWinter Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. While there, my fellow committee members on the Young Adult Library Services Association’s (YALSA) Alex Award and myself were tasked with selecting ten winners of our award. It was so rewarding to see the amazing feedback based on the list we talked, debated and voted on.

At ALA’s Annual Conference this past June, the 2017 Committee gathered again to honor those award winners. We were lucky enough to have six of our ten authors in attendance and they were all charming, wonderful and hilarious in the speeches they gave. After that, there was a massive author signing. It was an amazing end to over a year of work.

People in line at the YALSA book signing.

Our fabulous authors signing their fabulous books!

Cover of Die Young With Me book.

One of our winners gives an Alex Award shout out in the new printing.

Simultaneously, I was also meeting with the 2018 Alex Award Committee. (Committee appointments are two years long!) Once again, we gathered in a hotel conference room to discuss the massive amount of books we’ve been reading, all with the aim to award the 10 best with the Alex Award next year. I’m looking forward to experiencing the entire whirlwind again!

If you’re interested in seeing the our ten winners, the list is here!

Kellie Tilton Attends the American Library Association’s Midwinter Conference

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by Kellie Tilton

Over the weekend of January 20th, UC Blue Ash Librarian traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, for the 2017 American Library Association’s MidWinter Conference. Although the purpose for attending was committee work on the Alex Awards, she had the chance to visit the exhibit halls, meet with other librarians (including the Librarian of Congress!), and visit local museums and restaurants.

Below are a few pictures she took on her travels.

UCBA Librarians Attend ALA Annual Conference

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by Heather Maloney and Kellie Tilton

UCBA Library Director, Heather Maloney and Instructional Technologies Librarian, Kellie Tilton headed to Orlando, Florida for the American Library Association Annual Conference.

Heather Maloney attended a pre-conference session on Transforming the Contributions of Student Employees in Your Library and thoroughly enjoyed listening to the passionate opening session speaker, Michael Eric Dyson. The exhibit floor was filled with the familiar and the new and probably a few too many giveaways…but how do you say no to a free book?!

Kellie Tilton spent a good chunk of time at ALA sitting in a, thankfully, air-conditioned hotel conference room for her super-secret Alex Committee meetings. She also managed to check out the fireworks at Epcot (sorry, IllumiNations) and had a blast wandering the exhibit hall. Swag she was most excited about? The Ruth Bader Ginsburg tote bag she will add to her collection.

 

Exploring the UC Libraries

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by Kellie Tilton

As many may know, the University of Cincinnati contains 13 awesome libraries amongst the three campuses of Uptown, Clermont and Blue Ash. As a librarian at the UCBA Library on the Blue Ash campus, I’ve been to Langsam Library numerous times and have visited a few others due to various meetings. In the two and half years I’ve worked for UC, however, I hadn’t really had the opportunity to really explore many of these collections. Over spring break, I had the chance to get the behind-the-scenes tour in eight of the 13 libraries.

By walking ten minutes across (and up!) the Uptown campus, I went from delighting over the DAAP Library’s vast snowglobe collection to admiring one of the Archive and Rare Books Library’s pre-printing press manuscripts. The resources available to all UC students, faculty and staff in the UC collections are vast, fascinating and one of the many great things about the University of Cincinnati.

If you have a chance, be sure to go seek out the many gems in the UC Libraries! To see some of my adventure, check out the photos below!

UCBA Library Display Celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.

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by Kellie Tilton

mlkdisplay

Celebrate the life and impact of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by borrowing a book from the “Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” book display in the UCBA Library.

Books on display include titles written by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning King, all volumes of King’s papers and works written about King and his impact on the Civil Rights Movement and his legacy in America’s history.

Continue to read about his life and legacy at The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change’s website, the Nobel Peace Prize website or listen to his speeches on the NPR website. Twitter also released the Top 10 quotes by King that were shared in this post.