The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: New Lesson Plans Available

Dr. Albert B. Sabin

Sabin project student assistant Katie Pintz created a couple of lesson plans to encourage the use of the the newly digitized materials in the Albert B. Sabin Archives. They are:

“Albert Sabin and the Cold War” – which is a lesson plan for high school United States history classes.
“Albert Sabin and Bioethics” – which is a lesson plan for high school biology classes.

We look forward to hearing what you think about these lesson plans. Please give us feedback either here on the blog, or you can send your comments to chhp@uc.edu.
Continue reading →

Service Notice: Library Catalog Unavailable Beginning 1pm April 29.

On Monday, April 29, at 1:00pm the Library Catalog will go offline for a planned software migration. It is estimated that the catalog will be back online and ready for use at 10:00pm on April 29.

In the meantime, the OhioLINK catalog is available.

Slip, Slide and A Parkway = Adventures in the Subway and Street Improvements Digitization Project

By: Angela Vanderbilt

Cincinnatians who drive along Columbia Parkway from downtown to the eastern suburbs know the parkway for its breathtaking scenic views of the Ohio River below. But these commuters also know the danger of driving along this parkway after a quick, heavy downpour or a prolonged period of rain-drenched days.

The hillside embankment along the parkway, cut at a steep angle when the road was constructed in 1938, is well known for becoming unstable after heavy rainfalls, causing mudslides that leave debris strew across the roadway as it passes over the low retaining wall at its base. One of three major urban projects undertaken by the city during the 1930s, nearly half the cost of the parkway was paid for by a grant from the Works Project Administration. In 1929, the city of Cincinnati passed an ordinance to upgrade and expand the existing road, which at that time was named Columbia Avenue and was a simple dirt and gravel road that meandered above the Ohio River eastward from downtown. Continue reading →

The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: An Unsolved Mystery

Albert Sabin and Basil O’Connor pose with Dr. Sabin’s bust, sculpted by Edmond Romulus Amateis.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) recently launched, and, of course, I wanted to see if there was anything Sabin-related in the collection. Doing a quick search for Albert Sabin revealed a bust which resides at the National Portrait Gallery. According to the DPLA, this bust, a 1966 cast after 1958 terra cotta original, was originally sculpted by Edmond Romulus Amateis.[1] This bust was originally created for the Polio Wall of Fame in Warm Springs, Georgia. We have a photograph in our collection of Dr. Sabin and National Foundation President Basil O’Connor posing with the bust created by Amateis. Continue reading →

And the Winners Are: Library Research Contest Results

Friday Challenge Winner:
Madhavun Candadai

Madhavun used the library catalog to find the book and searched its contents to find the answer to the question.

Grand Prize Winner:
Raj Kapadia

Our virtual Oscar: a librarian action figure

Throughout the week Raj demonstrated proficiency with the library catalog as his preferred search tool. Indeed, if used efficiently, the catalog can provide you with a lot of information and unlock many useful sources.
Raj also used Google Books to search for the text in the book. This is a wonderful research tool for finding text fragments, especially for books not available electronically in the UC collection.

See the names of other winners in our earlier post.

Congratulations, winners!

Many thanks to all the students who took part in the contest!

Good luck with your exams and have a great summer!

Library Research Contest: Lessons from the Winners

During National Library Week UC Libraries celebrated the library users by offering them an opportunity to demonstrate their research skills and win prizes by participating in a research skills contest.

It was interesting for us to see how different students approached the same challenges and what tools and strategies they used. Here are some lessons from our participants and winners. Continue reading →

Need A Caffeine Boost while Studying for Exams?

Understanding the need to refuel while studying in the library, UC Libraries have installed two coffee vending machines in Langsam Library. One is located by the main entrance on the 4^th floor of the library and the second is located in the UCit@Langsam 24/7 lab. Continue reading →

Student Project Shows Value of Libraries

Librarians are used to getting any kind of questions and requests at the InfoCommons. However we were pleasantly surprised when one day student Ashley Kraus approached us with a question about UC Libraries. She wanted to get all kinds of facts and numbers about libraries. Ashley explained that she needed to do a visual project for a class assignment. We were delighted that with any topic in the world to choose from, Ashley chose to demonstrate the value of libraries. Following is more about her work. Continue reading →

UC Libraries Donation Becomes a Sizeable Challenge in Preservation

By Dawn Fuller

UC Libraries will host a special reception to celebrate the installation of one of the most extraordinary urban maps in the Western world in the Archives & Rare Books Library. The reception will take place from 3-5 p.m., Monday, April 22, in the Reading Room of the Archives & Rare Books Library, located on the 8th floor of Blegen Library.

Continue reading →

UC Libraries Pay Tribute to Authors, Editors & Composers at UC

aeclogoweb The annual Authors, Editors and Composers reception and program was held Tuesday, April 9, in the Russell C. Myers Alumni Center. At the event, UC Libraries honored 321 faculty members and their 481 creative and scholarly works published in the year 2012. Participating faculty members represented every UC college plus the Division of Professional Practice, and the Libraries.

Continue reading →