Beginning Sunday, March 19, just in time for the semester crunch time, the Walter C. Langsam Library will offer extended hours. Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, March 19 through April 26, the library will remain open until 3am.
The Desk@Langsam will continue to close at midnight, but library space will be available for studying.
BONUS EXAM HOURS: Wednesday and Thursday, April 19 and 20, Langsam Library will be open until 3am.
The full list of library hours is available online.
2022’s Best Overall – Rebecca Tabaja’s “Fairy the Farting Unicorn”
Once again, the University of Cincinnati Libraries will celebrate the International Edible Books Festival with an event scheduled for Monday, April 3rd from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. on the 4th floor of the Walter C. Langsam Library.
At the event, nearly 20 participants will present 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 intriguing titles such as “Hello, Lighthouse” and “Blue Water.” Animal-themed books are popular this year with “Bone Dog from Nettle and Bone”, “The Nest”, “Grey Bees”, and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Thrillers such as “Frankenstein” and “1984” will intrigue attendees, while numerous children’s books will make people smile with such titles as “Winnie The Pooh”, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and “The Day the Crayons Quit.”
2022’s Best Student Entry – Milly Diaz Perez’s “To the Boy Who Lived”
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 UC swag. 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 1st (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).
The Libraries International Edible Books Festival is free and open to the public. Following the event, pictures of the edible books and their awards will be posted on the Libraries Facebook page. Come to celebrate (and eat) “books good enough to eat.”
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The University of Cincinnati Libraries has migrated its Digital Resource Commons (DRC) repository to a modern software platform. The former site ran on outdated software with broken features and security vulnerabilities that could not be resolved. The new site includes an updated interface and the potential for additional upgrades and features.
Some of the new site’s features are not yet available, but our software vendor is continuing to fix issues and add enhancements. We are aware that images must be downloaded to view them, and some thumbnail images are not displaying. We hope to have these issues resolved soon. Additional enhancements and fixes will be made to the DRC when our vendor releases a software update later this spring.
Questions or comments about the site are welcome as we continue to develop the DRC.
As of Monday, Feb. 27, Edward Snyder is now a full-time member of the UC Libraries staff as an endpoint specialist in LibraryIT Services.
Eddie has been with UC Libraries since October of 2020 both as a co-op and student assistant providing IT support throughout the various library locations and units. Since graduating from UC in May of 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, he has worked full-time with the Libraries as a temp employee. In that time, he has proven to be a valuable member of the IT team and we are happy that he has decided to continue his employment with us.
Welcome, officially, Eddie to UC Libraries!
Know 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 Monday, April 3, 2023, 11 a.m. on the 4th floor of the Walter C. Langsam Library. UC Libraries is seeking people interested in creating an edible book for the enjoyment 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.” Those awarded “Best Student Entry” and “Best Overall” will win UC swag.
If you are interested in creating an edible book, e-mail melissa.norris@uc.edu by Friday, March 24 with your name and the title of your creation.
Looking for inspiration? Visit UC Libraries on Facebook to see photos from the previous festivals.
Nimisha Bhat joined the University of Cincinnati Libraries on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023 as assistant librarian and liaison to the departments of History, Anthropology, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Students.
Nimisha holds an MS in library and information science from Pratt Institute, School of Library and Information Science.
She comes to UC from Smith College where she was the visual arts librarian, planning and implementing research, instruction and reference support for faculty and students, as well as developing and managing collections in print, electronic and other formats for the visual arts, architecture, film and media studies. Prior to Smith College, Nimisha worked at Columbus College of Arts and Design and The Ohio State University Libraries.
Welcome, Nimisha!
The University of Cincinnati Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room announce the next roster of poets for Poetry Stacked, a semi-regular poetry reading series held in the 6th floor east stacks of the Walter C. Langsam Library.
At the next event, scheduled for Wednesday, March 8 at 4:30pm, three poets will read their work.
Felicia Zamora is the author of six books of poetry including, I Always Carry My Bones, winner of the 2020 Iowa Poetry Prize (University of Iowa Press, 2021) and the 2022 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry, and Body of Render, Benjamin Saltman Award winner (Red Hen Press, 2020). She won the 2022 Loraine Williams Poetry Prize from The Georgia Review, a 2022 Tin House Next Book Residency, and a 2022 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, AGNI, The American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry 2022, Boston Review, Georgia Review, Guernica, Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Orion, Poetry Magazine, The Nation and others. She is an assistant professor of poetry at the University of Cincinnati and associate poetry editor for the Colorado Review.
Caroline Plasket’s work has been published or is forthcoming in numerous journals, including, Gulf Coast, Sycamore Review, Pleiades, Copper Nickel, The Cortland Review and Threadcount Magazine. She was a mentee in the AWP Writer to Writer Program. She currently teaches writing at Northern Kentucky University. She is working on three books and is fulfilled sharing her love of writing (and the power that lies within it) with others. She lives in Northern Kentucky.
Hussain Ahmed is a Nigerian poet and environmentalist. He holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Mississippi and is currently a PhD student at the University of Cincinnati. His poems are featured in AGNI, Poetry Magazine, The Kenyon Review, A Public Space, The American Poetry Review and elsewhere. He is a winner of the 2022 Orison Poetry Prize, 2022 finalist for the University of Wisconsin Press’s Brittingham Prize and Felix Pollak Prize poetry competition, 2021 Semi-finalist Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and several others. He is the author of a chapbook “Harp in a Fireplace” (Newfound, 2021) and a debut collection “Soliloquy with the Ghosts in Nile” (Black Ocean Press, 2022). He is currently an Editorial Assistant for Seneca Review and Cincinnati Review. Continue reading
On display in the Walter C. Langsam Library are two new exhibits created and installed for Black History Month. The first pays tribute to Cincinnati African American Medical Trailblazers – Lucy Oxley and O’dell Owens. The second exhibit displays the enormous loss of life in The Middle Passage.
On display on the 4th floor lobby of Langsam Library, this exhibit features materials from the collections of UC Libraries about Lucy Oxley, MD, the first person of color to receive a medical degree from the UC College of Medicine, and O’dell Owens, renowned physician, former Hamilton County coroner and the first African American to sit on the board of the University of Cincinnati.
On the 5th floor lobby of Langsam Library is a large map depicting the Middle Passage, which commonly refers to the experience of enslaved African people as they traveled across the Atlantic Basin to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade. Illness, insanity, hunger, dehydration, torture, revolt, suicide and ship wreck led to the death of ~1.8 million Africans at sea during their Middle Passage.
The exhibit corresponds with the Uncommon Read of the book “Slavery at Sea: Terror, Sex, and Sickness in the Middle Passage” by Sowande’ M. Mustakeem. A Lunch and Learn with the author is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 23 from 12:30-2pm in the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library’s Stanley J. Lucas M.D. Boardroom (E005HA). Register to attend the Lunch and Learn.
Both exhibits were curated by UC Libraries faculty and staff: Meshia Anderson, Susan Banoun, Sidney Gao, Tiffany Grant, Gino Pasi and June Taylor-Slaughter. It was designed by UC Libraries communications design co-op Jakob Elliott.
Aja Bettencourt-McCarthy joined the University of Cincinnati Libraries on February 1, 2023 as the science & engineering global services librarian.
Aja holds an MLIS degree from University of Washington and Bachelor’s degrees (French, community and regional development) from the University of California, Davis.
Aja may be a familiar face to many as she comes to UC Libraries from the Faculty Enrichment Center, located in the Walter C. Langsam Library, where she was the manager of special projects and programs. Aja brings a wealth of experience in science and engineering academic librarianship, including previous positions in instruction and public services. Prior to arriving at UC, Aja was the STEM instruction librarian at the University of Kentucky (UK). Before UK, she worked as instruction coordinator / head of public services at the Oregon Institute of Technology’s Library.
Welcome, Aja to UC Libraries!
Announcing the 2021-22 University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report: A Year of New Beginnings…a year that saw the broad return of students, faculty and staff to campus for fall semester. The transition from virtual to in-person was an extensive process as library spaces were re-evaluated to allow for a safe return to working and studying on campus. We welcomed students, faculty and staff back to campus with refreshed spaces, enhanced safety protocols for social distancing and a revived appreciation for working together in person.
The year also saw the announcement of our renewed Strategic Framework: NEXT Directions. The University of Cincinnati’s NEXT Lives Here Strategic Directions focus on the core areas of Academic Excellence, Urban Impact and the Innovation Agenda in order to engage people and ideas – and to transform the world. The University of Cincinnati Libraries is key to what’s NEXT.
In this Annual Report, we look back at the top News & Events, applaud Staff Accomplishments & Milestones and look at the Libraries By the Numbers and Financially.
While we celebrate the accomplishments of the past academic year, we also continue to move forward in pursuit of our vision of being the globally engaged, intellectual commons of the university – positioning ourselves as the hub of collaboration, digital innovation and scholarly endeavor on campus and beyond. I invite you to be a part of our journey – a journey led by our Guiding Principles of Investment in our People; Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; and Digital Transformation.
The Annual Progress Report is available online via Sway. Happy Reading!