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Dean’s Note: Looking back and forward
As we enter the mid-point of summer, I find myself both looking back at the previous academic year and forward as we begin planning for fall semester and the new academic year ahead. During 2025/26 we completed a number of initiatives within our Strategic Plan, including: In the coming year, we anticipate completing some projects and initiating others. Some of those include: All these initiatives, both those completed and those underway, are in support of our mission to empower discovery, stimulate learning and inspire the creation of knowledge by connecting students, faculty, researchers and scholars to dynamic data, information and resources. I wish you all an enjoyable rest of summer.
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2026 UC Open Research Day: A day of learning, sharing and community building
By Amy Koshoffer, Asst Director, Research & Data Services, and Andrea Ford, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders On May 27th, a cross-town collaboration brought researchers to UC’s uptown campus to explore a global movement—Open Research—that is reshaping the way we do science. UNESCO defines Open Research as “a set of principles and practices that aim to make scientific research from all fields accessible to everyone for the benefit of scientists and society as a whole. This approach aims to ensure not only that scientific knowledge is accessible but also that the production of that knowledge itself is inclusive, equitable and sustainable. By promoting research that is more…
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Across languages and borders: International collaborations at Oesper
By Mark Chalmers, Science & Engineering Librarian and Curator of the Oesper Collections The Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry, housed at the University of Cincinnati, are local in their physical setting but global in their reach. While the work of curating these materials involves preservation, description, stewardship and access, their broader significance often emerges through collaboration, particularly when scholars and organizations beyond the United States engage with them in new and exciting ways. Two recently completed international partnerships highlight how historical materials from the Oesper Collections continue to circulate, finding new audiences and new contexts across languages and borders. Reconnecting Greco-Egyptian texts through translation One such collaboration centers…
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Dean’s Note: A global library collaboration
Many universities establish partnerships with international universities for the purpose of collaboration on research and academic programs. The University of Cincinnati has established agreements with over 10 international universities, located on the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Given the nature of these agreements, there is not often engagement between the academic libraries, despite the unusually collaborative nature of our profession. Here at UC, the only strategic partnership that engaged our libraries previously was that with Chongqing University, where our librarians supported students participating in a joint co-op between the universities. This changed with an email from Mac-Anthony Cobblah, university librarian at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, who…
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Introducing the renovated CECH Library Reading Room
The beginning of spring semester brought with it the opening of the renovated College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services (CECH) Library Reading Room. Located on the 4th floor of the Teachers-Dyer Complex, and totaling more than 3,000 square feet, the reading room is accessible via the staircase in the CECH Library or directly for those with a Bearcat ID. Bathed in natural light, the renovated reading room features flexible, soft seating arrangements in the room’s south and north ends and four large study tables with integrated lighting (coming soon) and power access. An inclusive, reservable study room (400B) features adaptive lighting and study and focus tools. Print collections…
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In support of Evidence Synthesis
By Lynn Warner, Research & Health Sciences Librarian, Melissa Previtera, Academic & Research Services Specialist, and Aja Bettencourt-McCarthy, Science-Engineering Global Services Librarian UC Libraries is excited to share information about our growing network dedicated to supporting evidence synthesis. What is Evidence Synthesis? Evidence synthesis is a name given to a wide range of advanced reviews – from systematic reviews to scoping reviews and bibliometric analyses. Evidence synthesis originated in the health sciences as a means of leveraging discoveries across a range of clinical trials to inform best practices. Since then, evidence synthesis methods have spread beyond the health sciences where they have been used to guide research and inform policies…
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New online exhibit displays effort to desegregate Cincinnati public schools
By Julianna Witt, assistant archivist, and Catherine Cubera, digital archivist On December 10th, 1973, the seven-member Board of the Cincinnati Public Schools adopted a resolution to end segregation of the city’s public school system — a resolution that would go unfulfilled and prompt a lawsuit by the Cincinnati branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). A new online exhibit created by the Archives and Rare Books Library (ARB) showcases the NAACP Bronson v. Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati records, and documents the library’s efforts to create a finding aid for the collection. The exhibit gives users the opportunity to learn more about the collection…
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Making history visible: Chemistry displays help transform Old Chem
By Mark Chalmers, Science and Engineering Librarian and Curator of the Oesper Collections The scavenger hunt clue was discovered by accident, tucked inside the sliding glass doors to one of the Old Chemistry building’s new display cases. The typed note read: “They don’t speak, but they’ve seen it all — Minds that sparked the rise and fall. Pasteur, Franklin, Cannizzaro too — Their faces cast in quiet view. Find the wall where legends stare, and history lingers in the air.” Someone had incorporated the busts of famous scientists —Pasteur, Franklin, Cannizzaro—into their puzzle, working the display’s content into the clue itself. The clue was confirmation that the year-long installation project…
