The exhibit, Women of the Movement: Leaders for Civil Rights and Voting Rights, currently on display on the 4th floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library, profiles female leaders of the fight for civil and voting rights. Beginning with Sojourner Truth, former slave and abolitionist, and including contemporaries Diane Nash, a key player in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Cincinnati’s Marian Spencer, a champion for Civil Rights both locally and nationally, the exhibit spans history into current times.
Included in the exhibit are women instrumental to the Suffrage fight – Sojourner Truth who worked closely with Susan B. Anthony; Mary Church Terrell, founder of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 as part of the Suffrage Movement after black women were excluded from the Women’s Suffrage Movement; and Mary McLeod Bethune who led voter registration drives following passing of the 19th Amendment.
Civil Rights activists on display include Fannie Lou Hamer, who famously said, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired;” Daisy Bates, an integrated schools advocate; and Ida B. Wells, a journalist, educator and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The exhibit’s design is inspired by a recently created ArtWorks mural in Cincinnati’s Avondale neighborhood honoring Louise Shropshire, composer of the hymn, “If My Jesus Wills,” that became the well-known mantra “We Shall Overcome” during the Civil Rights Movement. Louise Shropshire’s papers are located in the Archives and Rare Books Library.
Women of the Movement: Leaders for Civil Rights and Voting Rights was curated by June Taylor-Slaughter, public services supervisor in the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library, and was designed by Michelle Matevia, UC Libraries communication design co-op student. A handout is available at the exhibit with more information on the women featured in the exhibit.
UC Libraries’ Rebecca Olson, Tiffany Grant and Don Jason have been accepted into the RDM 102: Beyond Research Data Management for Biomedical & Health Sciences Librarians (Spring 2020) course, offered through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Training Office (NTO).
The major aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the support of data science and open science with the goal of developing and implementing or enhancing data science and data literacy training and services at UC. Threaded throughout the course will be the librarian’s role in research reproducibility and research integrity and include practice in using Jupyter Notebooks. The course topics include an overview of data science and open science, data literacy, data wrangling, data visualization and data storytelling.
Rebecca, business and social sciences informationist, Tiffany, research informationist, and Don, clinical informationist, are all members of the Research & Data Services Team and are working on forwarding the mission of the team and digital integration efforts across the Libraries. Participation in this course will afford both the opportunity to demonstrate improved skills in research data management, as well as to gain the knowledge and ability to support data science services here at UC.
Please join us in celebrating their initiative and accomplishment!
This past year the University of Cincinnati marked its Bicentennial led by the tenants: To Honor the past. Elevate the present. Bend the future. While
celebrating the Libraries’ vital role in the past 200 years of the university, we also took this opportunity to reflect on our goals, objectives, accomplishments and gaps as the next phase of our strategic direction.
Our year of reflection has resulted in the need for the creation of an emerging, and even bolder, Strategic Framework – one built upon the knowledge of our strengths and challenges, coupled with the needs and perspectives of our users, and that will propel us forward as we strive to become the globally engaged intellectual commons of the university – now and well into the future.
The University of Cincinnati Libraries Annual Progress Report, 2018/2019, available online at https://issuu.com/uclibraries/docs/uclannualreport18_19, makes note of the accomplishments and happenings of the previous year, as well as celebrates the people and donors integral to us fulfilling the work 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.
The Luna application, which houses some of our digital collections, will be upgraded to the latest version available from the vendor this morning, Dec. 12 starting at 10:00 am, so that we may patch some security vulnerabilities that were discovered from a recent scan of the server. Once the upgrade has been completed an all clear will be sent out for the server.
Modern Greek Studies in the United States and Grecian Cincinnatians
Modern Greek Studies generally finds its home in Classics departments in the U.S. (which was true also for UC which used to have a professor and lecturers in Modern Greek in addition to a curator of the Modern Greek collection in the Classics Library, Eugenia Foster) in acknowledgement of its Ancient Greek legacy. Also, most librarians of Modern Greek Studies at U.S. institutions are classicists. I guess because Modern Greek is closer to Ancient Greek than Italian is to Latin and Greeks do not share the same influential medieval and Renaissance past as Italians (although one might argue that the importance of Byzantium has been much undervalued), so contemporary Greeks feel maybe a closer connection to antiquity. Italy was also not ruled by a foreign empire for several hundred years, thus not allowing for more modern Greek cultural expressions to develop. The concept of Philhellenism, love of Greece, is also still alive and well among many humanities scholars, especially among ancient historians, classical archaeologists, and philologists. However, there are some American institutions that have recently opened Centers for Hellenic Studies focusing primarily on Modern Greece such as UCLA and the University of Chicago. The UC Classics Library is aware of its history and believes very strongly in continuity with regard to collection strengths. Even though some might argue that our Modern Greek collection fills no function since UC does not teach Modern Greek at the moment, we acknowledge that academia is not immutable and that having a distinguished historic collection requires curating it and continuing to acquire important titles to remain an important resource and that UC as an academic research institution has a responsibility towards scholarly communities beyond UC.
James Lee has been appointed associate vice provost for digital scholarship and associate dean of libraries effective November 1, 2019.
“James’ new role is a direct investment from university leadership to support UC Libraries’ growing responsibility to lead our institution’s enterprise-wide digital scholarship and digital integration vision,” said Xuemao Wang, vice provost for digital scholarship and dean and university librarian.
In May 2019, Provost Kristi Nelson and Vice President for Research Pat Limbach jointly announced that UC Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Center (DSC) was selected as one of the first six anchor teams for the Digital Futures initiative. Digital Futures is integral to the Next Lives Here vision in UC’s strategic plan: “It will empower diverse teams of thinkers and doers to push the boundaries of what’s possible,” President Neville Pinto said, “to bend the future in Cincinnati’s direction.” In July 2019, Provost Nelson announced Dean Wang’s expanded responsibilities as vice provost for digital scholarship, describing his new portfolio as “…covering a broad spectrum of areas including the DSC, Scholar@UC and research and data management, but also digital archives and preservation, digital records and assets management, scholarly communication and digital publishing, as well as the rapidly evolving movements of open science, open education resources, open data and open access.” Continue reading James Lee Appointed Associate Vice Provost for Digital Scholarship and Associate Dean of Libraries
Zorro Turns 100: The Hispanic Legacy
of America’s First Superhero
In 1919, an unknown U.S. pulp fiction writer created a masked California hero who fought for the people against tyranny. The dashing Zorro not only became America’s first superhero—he influenced the creation of Batman and other cape crusaders in years to come.
Join us to learn about Zorro’s Hispanic legacy and why, without him, we wouldn’t have today’s superhero universe.
Who: Dr. Mauricio Espinoza, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature
When: Wednesday, October 23, 2 PM-3:30 PM
Where: Walter C. Langsam Library Digital Commons (by the Triceracopter)
“Artful Books,” on display now through the end of fall semester on the 4th and 5th floor lobbies of the Walter C. Langsam Library, features books created by members of the Cincinnati Book Arts Society (CBAS) inspired by and in celebration of UC and UC Libraries.
Earlier this year, CBAS members visited the Archives and Rare Books Library where they researched and reviewed various collections for inspiration – the results of which are now on display in two cases with over 15 artists’ books covering a wide range of subjects, forms and mediums. Select highlights of the exhibit include:
Jan Thomas, “Shooting Star.” In 1952, Marian Spencer, along with her sons, was not permitted at segregated Coney Island, Ohio, Amusement Park. This singular event became the catalyst for a life of public service as a civil rights advocate, community leader and champion.
Marguerite and Doug Katchen, “Bearcats and the Past.” Bearcats have been symbols of UC at least since the early 20th century. Wooden plagues of the map of Ohio were used as pages on which was described a brief history of the University of Cincinnati and on which were displayed Bearcat and Ohio patches.
Beth Belknap Brann, “Queen’s Icons.” This hand-drawn book is a celebration of Cincinnati’s architectural gems of the late 19th century. It was inspired by the historic photo archives in UC’s Archives and Rare Books Library.
Smruti Deoghare, “200 Years of Red, Black (and White),” the University of Cincinnati colors are more than just college colors. This bold palette of tricolor represents unity in diversity. Over the last 200 years, the University has provided education to people from all walks of life and colors – red, black, white, and all shades in between. The artist feels Tangeman University Center is the ideal architectural symbol of inclusivity on campus.
A brochure describing all of the books on display is available at the exhibit and online.
“Artful Books” was curated by Jessica Ebert, conservation technician in the Preservation Lab and CBAS member, and was designed by Michelle Matevia, communication design co-op student.
The Cincinnati Books Arts Society began in 1998 and is a non-profit organization comprised of professional and amateur book artists, paper artists and creators. Their membership includes bookbinders, print makers, paper marblers, book artists, archivists, conservation professionals and book enthusiasts interested in learning more about books and how they are created. Interested in learning more about CBAS? Check out their website and follow them on Facebook (Cincinnati Book Arts Society).