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Beginning Anew: The 2022-2023 University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Report
By Liz Kiscaden, Dean and University Librarian Announcing the 2022-2023 University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Report. My tenure as dean and university librarian began in mid-August 2023, a time of great growth at the University of Cincinnati. I’ve spent these past six months learning as much as I can about the Libraries – how 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” supports the university’s NEXT Lives Here Strategic Directions. Documents such as the Annual Report have been key to my education. In this Annual Report, we look back at the top…
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Poetry Stacked – beyond the bookshelves
Tasked to enrich and engage the University of Cincinnati campus and community, UC Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room partnered to create Poetry Stacked, a interdisciplinary reading series staged in the 6th floor east stacks of the Walter C. Langsam Library and curated with 21st-century values. Poetry Stacked brings faculty, staff, student and community poets together in-person and live streamed. After only a year and a half of programming, Poetry Stacked has enjoyed many successes, addressed challenges and expanded past just the poetry readings with exciting plans for the future. Poetry Stacked coordinators Melissa Cox Norris, director of library communications, Ben Kline, assistant department head of research, teaching and services,…
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An interview with Liz Kiscaden, Dean and University Librarian
On August 14, 2023, Elizabeth Kiscaden began her tenure at the University of Cincinnati Libraries as dean and university librarian, coming to UC from Creighton University where she was the university librarian and assistant vice provost of library services. Following is an interview with Liz about her professional background, immediate goals for the new position and her early impressions of UC Libraries, as well as how she is having fun exploring Cincinnati. Please tell us your professional background Prior to beginning my tenure at UC, I was the university librarian and assistant vice provost of library services at Creighton University, a Jesuit university located in Omaha, NE. At Creighton, I…
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The art of cataloging Japanese design books
Sometimes being a cataloger is somewhat like being a detective. Looking for clues on a book or item, researching its history and provenance, filling in blanks left from librarians or book sellers of the past. Such was the case for Mikaila Corday, library associate and Japanese language cataloger in Content Services, when she was sent volumes from the Archives and Rare Book Library with the request to find out what she could so that they could be properly cataloged. It helps that Mikaila speaks and reads Japanese from her time living in Japan as a child. Her knowledge of Japanese art and culture also served her well as she researched…
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Data & Poetry might predict the future
By Amy Koshoffer, assistant director for Research and Data Services, and Ben Kline, assistant department head of Research, Teaching and Services On Tuesday, September 12, 2023, students, staff and faculty from around campus and the community gathered in the Walter C. Langsam Library’s Elliston Poetry Room for Data & Poetry | Poetry & Data Workshop: Attributes of the Code & the Line. Featuring participants that included University of Cincinnati law faculty, librarians, data scientists and community poets, this event invited attendees to explore relationships between data and poetry, how emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs might change the nature and our perceptions of poetry and literature, as well as the implications…
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Note from the Dean
How does that saying go about change? “The only constant in life is change.” We who work in academia know this to be very true – change, both enacted and exacted, is constant. Each year we see students graduate in the summer and then a whole new cohort of students begin at the university in the fall. We welcome new faculty and researchers to the library. We bring in new collections and update and create services and spaces to meet the changing needs of our diverse user group. This past year, serving as your interim dean, I’ve been both an active agent of and a witness to great changes in…
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Announcing Elizabeth Kiscaden as the next Dean and University Librarian
Elizabeth Kiscaden, MLIS, AHIP, has been named dean and university librarian of the University of Cincinnati Libraries, effective Aug. 14, pending approval by the UC Board of Trustees. Kiscaden currently serves as university librarian and assistant vice provost of library services at Creighton University. While at Creighton, she has worked to modernize legacy library systems and infrastructure to support an anytime, anywhere, any device philosophy and is overseeing the development of a single library enterprise, bringing together campus and health sciences libraries. “We conducted a national search for a new leader to guide the University of Cincinnati’s renowned libraries, and Elizabeth Kiscaden emerged at the top,” says Valerio Ferme, PhD,…
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Annual Progress Report
A Year of New Beginnings… Welcome to the 2021-22 University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report – 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…
