Tag Archives: UC Libraries

Hungry? Bite into an Edible Book with UC Libraries, April 5-9

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Celebrate books good enough to eat at the International Edible Books Festival to be held online April 5-9.

At the event, over 30 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 such edible titles as “Coffee,” “LuLu’s Giraffe Bakery,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Donut Feed the Squirrels.” Best sellers “Lord of the Rings,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Catch-22” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” are represented along with children’s books like “Super Fudge,” “Hair Love,” “Rainbow Fish,” “Little Blue Truck Leads the Way” and “Madeline,” among other literary greats.

Rather than gathering at a designated time and place, this year’s Edible Books Festival will take place the week of April 5-9. Each day, a few edible book entries will be showcased on the Libraries Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram feeds. As in previous years, entries will be judged according to such categories as “Most Delicious,” “Most Creative,” “Most Checked Out.” At the end of the week, the entries that receive the most likes will be crowned “Top Student Entry” and “Best Overall Entry.”

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).

‘CAN UC my mask’ canned food sculpture temporarily installed in Langsam Library

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"CAN UC my mask" canned sculpture.

“CAN UC my mask” canned sculpture. Photo/Melissa Cox Norris

The masked Bearcat is showing school pride while reminding everyone to stay safe by wearing a mask

“CAN UC my mask,” a canned good sculpture currently on display on the fourth floor of the Walter C. Langsam Library, is the creation of students in UC’s Construction Student Association. The students spent the fall semester designing and preparing the sculpture with hopes to participate in Cincinnati CANstruction, an annual event where students and local businesses construct large structures out of cans of food, which are then displayed around Cincinnati before the cans are donated to a local food pantry. Due to the pandemic, the organizers of the 2021 Cincinnati CANstruction moved the event online. Looking for an opportunity to construct their design, and with the desire that their UC-themed sculpture could be seen on campus, the group’s faculty adviser, Mandy Albrecht, assistant dean of academics in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, reached out to UC Libraries to inquire if the Walter C. Langsam Library could play host to their canned sculpture. Of course, the answer was yes.

students constructing canned sculpture

“CAN UC my mask” under construction. Photo/Kaikou Uchiyama

On display now on the fourth floor of the library, “CAN UC my mask,” was assembled by a team of students led by Matthew Adkins, construction management major pursuing his MBA, and Blake Reinstedler, construction management major, and including Phillip Stoll, Blake Brower, Jacob Mitsch, Colby Sipos, Nicholas Bartholomew, Kaikou Uchiyama and Andrew Bush. Inspired by their Bearcat pride, and a desire to spread a message of being safe during the pandemic, the 6.5-foot cubed rendition of the UC Bearcat wearing a mask took 4,700 cans of food to create and 10 hours to construct.

“We really appreciate the opportunity to construct ‘CAN UC my mask’ in Langsam Library and are very grateful to the library for letting us display it in such a prominent location,” said Adkins. “We explored other potential locations on campus, but this one seemed the safest for the cans and social distancing and will allow for the most attention and publicity.”

The canned sculpture will remain in Langsam until mid-April when it will be dismantled and the cans of food donated to the UC Bearcats Pantry. “The messages we are spreading through the donation of canned goods and staying safe from Covid-19 are positive ones creatively expressed through art,” Adkins concluded.

Students from the Construction Student Association pose in front of their canned sculpture

Students from the Construction Student Association pose in front of their canned sculpture. Photo/Kaikou Uchiyama

“This project is always fun because it’s a great learning opportunity for the students, as well as a great way to encourage donations to local food pantries. It’s an especially great way for freshmen and sophomores to get involved in the Construction Student Association and to contribute to their community in a meaningful way,” said Albrecht. “Students who haven’t yet learned about construction estimating, scheduling and logistics can start flexing those muscles by designing, estimating, procuring and building a canned food structure like this.”

University of Cincinnati Art Collection now available online

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painting of ballerinas

Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo by P. Davison,1940

The University of Cincinnati Art Collection, with over 4,200 works, is now available online for viewing, as well as to be used in teaching, research and in the creation of university exhibits.

Available at artcollection.uc.edu, users of the database can locate works by portfolio, through searching or by browsing by medium/technique, artist/maker or artwork classification. Once located in the database, individual items can be starred and then saved or printed in list format. In addition, the UC Art Collection website includes links to learn more about exhibits, related university collections and archives, the museum studies program and arts news.

painting of men on a pier

Nooning on the Pier by Julie Morrow DeForest

The UC Art Collection is international in scope and includes paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, furniture, ceramics and decorative arts spanning five millennia, from ancient Greece to the present day. Works of art from the U.S. forms one of the core areas in the collection with the art of Cincinnati, especially that produced during the late-19th and early-20th centuries, as a particular strength with pieces from Elizabeth Nourse, Lewis Henry Meakin, Frank Harmon Myers, Herman Henry Wessel, Louis Charles Vogt and John Ellsworth Weis.

In 2020, the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) and the University of Cincinnati Libraries announced a new collaboration to manage the collection and to bring more visibility, accessibility and use of this valuable resource. This creation of the database project has been made possible through the generous support of executive vice president for academic affairs and provost Kristi Nelson; Tim Jachna, dean of DAAP; Xuemao Wang, vice provost for digital scholarship and dean and university librarian; the Art Collection Executive Committee, the Art Collection Advisory Committee and Planning, Design + Construction.

University of Cincinnati Press publication co-edited by UC’s Rebecca Wingo named the National Council on Public History’s Best New Book of the Year

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digital community engagement book coverThe University of Cincinnati Press publication edited by Rebecca S. Wingo, Jason A. Heppler, and Paul Schadewald, Digital Community Engagement: Partnering Communities with the Academy has won 2021 Best New Book of the Year from the National Council on Public History. Each year, the Council selects one book in the area of public history theory, study or practice.

Available via open access on Manifold, Digital Community Engagement brings together cutting-edge campus-community partnerships with a focus on digital projects. Through a series of case studies authored by academics and their community partners, this collection explores models for digital community engagement that leverage new media through reciprocal partnerships. The contributions to this volume stand at the crossroads of digital humanities, public history, and community engagement.

“The team at UC Press made the whole process easy, and the TOME grant made the open access publication possible. My co-editors and I decided early on that this book in particular required open access publication. We spoke to a lot of different presses and we most closely matched with UC Press’ mission,” said Rebecca Wingo, editor of Digital Community Engagement.

“It is fitting that our first award-winning book was published in open access and print in order to inspire engagement to the widest audience possible. As a university press focused on publishing interactive books designed to brings authors and readers together, we are delighted to see this edited volume win a national prize in a discipline that connects the academy to the community,” said Elizabeth Scarpelli, director of the University of Cincinnati Press.

Love Data Week, Feb 8-12, 2021.

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Love Data Week 2021

Love Data Week 2021

Love Data Week takes place the week of Valentine’s Day. Created to raise awareness of research data management, sharing, reuse, and preservation of data, it has been promoted by library and data professionals since 2016 in both online and in-person events.  You can see some of the events taking place around the world at the International Love Data Week 2021 schedule.

One of the ways we at RDS/UCL celebrate is to participate in the Adopt a Dataset program that ICPSR hosts every year.  ICPSR choses to highlight interesting data sets from their collection for individuals to explore to learn more about data. Once a dataset is chosen, you may fill out the Dataset adoption form and have your name added to the wall of adopters.  Adopters are encouraged to delve into the data by reading about the research, look at the variables, try out the analysis tools online, and read related publications.

ICPSR is a member consortium that UC belongs to that provides access to datasets from over 15,000 studies, over 5.6 million variables, which have had over 95,000 publications that cited those studies. It also provides curated data repository services for researchers, including secure data enclaves, which fulfill finding requirements for data management plans. Although most studies are quantitative in the social and behavioral sciences, there are also themed collections in the arts, humanities, and some health sciences. Teaching resources, online analysis tools, and pre-made exercise modules also are available to members.

There are a wide variety of datasets to choose from this year, ranging from education, to social media, social justice, to health. I chose to adopt one on music, Study of Jazz Artists, 2001 (ICPSR 35593). I started out by looking at the description of the study and how it was conducted. I then jumped into browsing the variables, one of the tabs found on the data set page. One of the great features of ICPSR is that you can search by variable if you are looking for specific studies to replicate or want to see if your own survey questions fit what others have asked in the past.

One variable jumped out at me – Q32- Age Began Playing First Instrument. My own children play instruments and I always wonder if we’ve started them at the right age or not. Looking at the result for this variable, I can see the unweighted results, including summary statistics and a variables chart. The median age was 9, the mode was 10, the maximum was 35, and the minimum was 1! I guess there’s still hope if you’re in your 30s to pick up an instrument to become a professional jazz musician!   The sweet spot to start your child appears to be the 8-10 year old range.

If you have questions about Love Data Week,  ICPSR, Data, Data Management Plans, Cleaning, Storing, Finding, or Using Data, contact us at Research and Data Services here at UC Libraries. We would love to help you with your projects, offer a workshop to your department or class, or discuss your data needs.

UC Libraries Closed Monday, Jan. 18 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. from LIFE Magazine

UC Libraries will be closed Monday, Jan. 18 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day . The libraries will resume normal hours on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Want to read up on Martin Luther King, Jr., his impact and legacy? Check out these library resources.

Welcome to spring semester. Check out service updates and library location hours.

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cech libraryWelcome back, Bearcats, to spring semester 2021!

Check the Libraries website for any spring semester service updates and for operating hours by location. With limited exceptions, there remains no browsing of library materials in the stacks. The Click & Collect retrieval and pickup service allows UC users to request printed library materials in the Library Catalog for pickup at designated locations.  CHAT and email reference services are available to answer any question.

UC Libraries remains open and available online to provide users with access to library resources and services.

Have a productive, successful and safe semester.

Liz Scarpelli awarded a UC Staff Excellence Award

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liz scarpelliAt a virtual ceremony held Wednesday, Dec. 15, Liz Scarpelli, director of the University of Cincinnati Press, was awarded a Staff Excellence Award for her work starting the Press and also for her commitment to the university and to the Next Lives Here philosophy.

Her nominator noted her work on the development of the Toward Open Access Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) review committee and the creation of the first-ever regional university press/publisher information technology Development Tech Exchange. Moreover, she is committed to improving the academic mission of UC by directly recruiting, consulting and supporting faculty authors on all three of its campuses. “In just a few short years, UC Press has already published three TOME funded books, placing UC in the top 20% of all participating publishers. But that’s not all. During this short time, under Liz’s direction, the University of Cincinnati Press has already cranked out scholarly books, a textbook and journals!”

“My work in Cincinnati over the last three years has been rewarding. To be acknowledged from individuals outside the publishing world, specifically by my own university, is indeed an honor. This acknowledgement signals to me that a university press is not only of value to the institution, but is also able to move university initiatives forward while maintaining integrity and rigorous peer review within the American University Presses core values, service-oriented Library Publishing and the innovative University of Cincinnati model.  I am excited that our unique model has created 12 published books, a pipeline of 50 projects and six academic journals authored by scholars from both within and outside of the university. While this award is being presented to me, I am grateful for the support of everyone on the Press’s board for their continued support and advice, the authors who believe in us, my colleagues in UC Libraries, our dean Xuemao Wang and my staff at the Press, Mark Konecny, Sarah Muncy and Sean Crowe, who work tirelessly to make these books–open access and otherwise–come to fruition,” said Liz of the honor.

The Staff Excellence Awards ceremony was emceed by Chris Collins, chair of the Staff Senate, and Heidi Pettyjohn, incoming chair of Staff Senate, with remarks from President Neville Pinto, Provost Kristi Nelson and Bob Ambach, senior vice president for administration and finance. In addition to Liz, five other UC Libraries’ staff members received nominations: Michael Alfieri, Dean Bachelder, Ben Kline, Yu Mao and Rebecca Olson.

Congratulations, Liz!

The University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report, 2019-2020: A Year Like No Other

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annual progress report graphicWhat a year it’s been.

The University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report, this year completely online, covers July 2019 through June 2020, an academic year that started off normally, but in the spring would be disrupted in ways never thought possible because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fall semester was business as usual with students, faculty, researchers and staff accessing our facilities and resources for research and study, or simply to grab a cup of coffee between classes. Librarians and staff provided instruction on how to find the best research materials, offered reference assistance, collected and made our collections available and collaborated with faculty and researchers to translate information and data into knowledge. The usual activities in the library would come to a sudden halt spring semester.

This year’s report reviews how we responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it also celebrates our numerous accomplishments, highlights new special collections and library exhibits, spotlights the achievements of our faculty and staff and provides usage stats and financial information.

As the semester and 2020 come to a close, we wish you warm wishes for the holiday season. May the new year bring you health, harmony and joy.