Introducing the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) Library

With the merger of the College of Applied Science (CAS) and the College of Engineering to form the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS), the University of Cincinnati Libraries are merging the CAS and Engineering Libraries. The collections and services previously located in the CAS Library are moving to the existing Engineering Library located in Baldwin Hall. The combined library is called the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) Library.

As of July 1, only CEAS faculty, staff, and students will have keycard access to the CAS Library facility. Hours of operation will be posted. For the rest of 2010, the primary function of the library at the Victory Parkway campus will be as a study and computer space. A core collection of reference books and limited course reserves will remain on site. The library at the Victory Parkway Campus will close at the end of Fall Quarter.

With the CEAS Library, users should expect the same level of quality library service and access to premier research collections they have come to rely on. Popular CAS Library services such as use of computers in the InfoCommons, wireless network access, and studying in group study rooms are available in the CEAS Library. Users who used the CAS Library to check out media equipment such as cameras, camcorders, and laptops should refer to Langsam Library’s Circulation and Multimedia Services Department, (513) 556-1424, for this service.

More information about the merger of the Engineering and CAS Libraries will be announced as plans progress. In the meantime, please consult the CAS Library or CEAS Library websites,
for current information.

A Look Back at the CAS and Engineering Libraries

The Naming of the Timothy C. Day Technical Library (CAS Library)

Timothy C. Day never knew he was earning naming rights to a library. When the Ohio Mechanics Institute (OMI) began in 1838, he was only nine years old. While Day was pursuing various interests including a career in Congress, developing real estate, and traveling the nation and world, the city’s libraries were evolving. One of the first attempts to establish a library in the city was the Circulating Society of Cincinnati in 1812. The Apprentices’ Library opened in 1821 for skilled manual workers. A year after OMI’s founding (now a part of the College of Engineering and Applied Science), approximately 600 books from the Philosophical Society of Cincinnati were added to the Institute’s collection of books. In 1837, the Circulating Society of Cincinnati merged with The Apprentices’ Library and moved to OMI in 1852. This combined library was named the Mechanics Institute Library.

In 1869 at the death of Timothy C. Day, the Ohio Mechanics Institute became the beneficiary of a portion of his real estate. The funds from this property were to be loaned to the students of the Ohio Mechanics Institute to help them through school. When this fund reached the sum of $30,000 it was no longer to be loaned to students, but the income was to be appropriated for the purchase of books for the library of the OMI. On account of the public-spirited generosity of Mr. Day, the library was named after him. As a lifelong learner who enjoyed displaying his own books in a room designated as “the library” in his home, certainly Timothy C. Day would have been honored with his namesake.

Excerpts from “A Library in the Making” by Susan Hight, Source, vol. 3, no 3, Spring 2004; and “History of the Timothy C. Day Technical Library” by Frederica Miller, Librarian, April 25, 1922. Read the full history online.

The Beginnings of the Engineering Library

The College of Engineering was established at the University of Cincinnati in 1900. The library in the College of Engineering started as departmental libraries within the college. In his 1915 Annual Report, Dean Schneider noted that the Engineering College needed a "library properly equipped in our own building, (filled with) not only technical literature, but also copies of (the) non-technical works with which every educated man should be familiar." In 1916, the departmental libraries combined to form the Engineering College Library. By 1930, there were over 9,000 volumes in the library.

Part of the planning for the new Engineering College building, Rhodes Hall completed in 1971, included the renovation of the Engineering Library. There was discussion about whether the Engineering Library should move into the proposed new central library, but finally it was decided to leave the Engineering Library in Baldwin Hall and to expand it beyond its current one room to include all the front half of the center section of the eighth floor. The renovation was completed in January of 1974, and that spring the first professional librarian was hired, Dr. Dorothy Byers.

The library expanded again in 1980. This time library space increased by 50% and the library took over all of the center section of the eighth floor. In 1984, with a grant from G.E., the Engineering Library was the first library at UC to begin to convert its print catalog records into machine-readable form. In 1986, the catalog of the University of Cincinnati Libraries came online.
By 2003, the Engineering Library had 120,000 catalogued items in Baldwin and another 70,000 in remote storage. The library subscribed to 700 journals, all but approximately 200 of which were available electronically.

Excerpt from “The College of Engineering Library at the University of Cincinnati” by Dorothy Byers, April 19, 2004. Read the full article online.

Source Index