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The E.B. White Collection
By Kevin Grace, University Archivist and Head of the Archives and Rare Books Library So you want to be a writer? Whatever for?? Has someone unduly directed you toward that endeavor? Author Flannery O’Connor once offered her own opinion on budding writers: “Everywhere I go, I’m asked if the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.” A bit harsh, that, but there was encouragement of a sort from Dorothy Parker, known more for her witticisms today than her short stories and poetry: “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present…
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Interviewing Dean Wang and Liz Scarpelli about the University of Cincinnati Press
Last month, the University of Cincinnati Press celebrated its first anniversary. We caught up with Dean and University Librarian Xuemao Wang and Press Director Liz Scarpelli to discuss the state of the Press and its progress so far. What is your vision for the University of Cincinnati Press? Xuemao: When talking about my vision for the Press, I like to start with an opportunity that surfaced about two years ago. It began with a conversation between me, a former board of trustee member and former UC President Santa Ono about how the University of Cincinnati, an R1 Research University, did not have a strong arm for the dissemination and creation…
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Dr. Mont Rogers Reid Surgical Films Digitized
By Gino Pasi, Archivist and Curator for the Winkler Center The Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions concluded a year-long project funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation. Partnering with Colorlab, a full-service motion picture film lab in Rockville, Maryland, the Winkler Center digitized three rare 16-mm films depicting surgeries performed by renowned surgeon Dr. Mont Rogers Reid in the mid-1930s. In addition to their digitization, the films were cleaned, restored, re-plasticized and rehoused by Colorlab. Thirteen films of Reid’s were found in UC’s Department of Surgery, but only three were salvageable as many were on Kodacolor acetate, a film type known for its rapid…
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Uncovering a Paleontologist and Philosopher in Langsam Library
By Kevin Grace, University Archivist and Head of the Archives and Rare Books Library He has wandered the stacks and niches of the libraries for decades, placed here and then there by librarians and deans, wherever there was a shelf sturdy enough to hold him. In the previous Main Library (now Blegen), he took up residence in a reference room and then near the circulation desk. When the new Central Library (now called Langsam) was constructed on the north end of campus in 1978, the movers crated him up and delivered him to a new shelf on the fourth floor. And now, he is on the fifth floor in the…
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Cincinnati and Shakespeare: The Bard Abides
By Kevin Grace. Enoch Carson was enthralled with William Shakespeare. While the 19th century Cincinnati entrepreneur and civil servant made his fortune in the lamp and gas business, he considered his real wealth to be the hundreds of Shakespeare volumes that he accumulated. For the most part Carson was a self-educated man, attributing his intellectual development to his years spent reading the plays. So, he devoted his life to building a library of as many editions of the bard as he could afford. At one point Carson took his volumes of the prominent Charles Knight 1839 London edition of the plays and disbound them so he could insert the huge…
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Welcoming the Newest Bearcats to UC Libraries
This summer, the Walter C. Langsam Library is a busy place as over 5,000 incoming students participating in UC’s New Student Orientation visit and learn about the spaces, places and people of UC Libraries. While in Langsam, they engage in activities designed to be both engaging and informative about the various research resources, assistance and services students can utilize when they begin classes in the fall, including the Starbucks café, the various group study rooms and quiet study areas, the Desk@Langsam, the classrooms and more. The students are participating in entertaining and interactive activities such as writing on the Information Chalkboard as they learn about how to find and evaluate…
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Staff News
People – the second pillar of our Strategic Plan – has as its goal to “transform the evolving role of the information professional.” We will accomplish this by becoming more dynamically engaged partners with colleges, departments and units —integrating new methods for collecting, accessing, utilizing and preserving streams of data and information in support of the teaching and research mission of the university. We will become leaders in defining the changing role of academic libraries in the global library community. Below are some of the activities the UC Libraries staff have engaged in recently as we work to expand our active engagement in research, teaching, learning and clinical practice. Publications…
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New Website Showcases LOOKING EAST: William Howard Taft and the 1905 U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Asia.
In 1900, Cincinnatian William Howard Taft successfully completed his tenure as Dean of the University of Cincinnati’s College of Law and began an appointment under President William McKinley as Governor-General of the Philippines. As a federal administrator and diplomat, Taft negotiated amicable trade and cultural interactions between East and West, and in 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt dispatched him on a mission to China, Japan, and the Philippines to further improve U.S.-Asian relations. His large entourage included prominent fellow Cincinnatians and the president’s daughter, Alice, as well as photographer Harry Fowler Woods and a host of American diplomats. In the book Looking East: William Howard Taft and the 1905 U.S. Diplomatic…
