We have a way with words — empowering exploration and sparking crucial conversations.
Connecting across disciplines, we are educating, collaborating and crafting the future in collaboration with our campus and community.
Intentionally focused on equity, we’re organizing and increasing access to information for and about everyone, from scrolls to screens (and everything in between).
Researchers have a multitude of options when submitting a manuscript for publication. One consideration is whether their selected journal publishes open access (OA), as opposed to paid, subscription-based access. University of Dayton Libraries faculty and staff support the ongoing open access movement and facilitate opportunities to ensure research is shared widely — without paywalls. To celebrate International Open Access Week (Oct. 24-30), we’re sharing some of our stories.
Open and Free
Thanks to agreements between OhioLINK and two major publishers, UD authors can publish open access at no charge in Cambridge University Press-published journals and Wiley hybrid journals. By publishing open access, articles are available without a subscription or fee to read, increasing access to scholars worldwide.
Congratulations to the following UD authors who have published their research as open access as a result of the OhioLINK agreements:
Li Cao (Chemical and Materials Engineering), Donald Klosterman (Chemical and Materials Engineering), Rose M. Eckerle (UDRI): “Development of Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Nickel-Based Nanocomposites Using Laser Powder Bed Fusion” in Advanced Engineering Materials (In Production)
Last year, coordinator of electronic resources Simon Robins shared usage data of open access material. He found that UD students, faculty and staff are easily able to find open access content from databases such as Academic Search Complete, UDiscover, and SocINDEX. This access has been facilitated since 2020 by Unpaywall and through our custom links to the Directory of Open Access Journals, an independent directory of open access journals financially supported by organizations and libraries like ours. By turning these two features on within our databases, UD users are able to reach the full text of articles more seamlessly.
Host with the Most
eCommons, UD’s institutional repository, hosts eight open access journals in seven disciplines. Some journals started on eCommons; others made a transition from a subscription model in print format to digital form with open access. eCommons provides a dashboard for editors and authors to track downloads and views. As of Sept. 30, their articles had been downloaded more than 600,000 times from thousands of institutions, agencies and organizations worldwide.
The University Libraries also publish proceedings of some academic and professional symposia and conferences on eCommons. Some examples include the Alumni Chair in Humanities Global Voices symposia; the 2016 conference of the Modern Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (MAICS); the Proceedings of the Berry Summer Thesis Institute; and the Electronic Proceedings of Undergraduate Mathematics Day.
In addition, faculty and researchers can use eCommons to provide open access versions of research they’ve published in outside publications. Send an email to request an appointment.
— At the University Libraries, Katy Kelly is a professor and the coordinator of marketing and engagement; Tina Beis is an associate professor and the director of collections strategies and services; and Maureen Schlangen is the e-scholarship and communications manager.
On Thursday, Nov. 10, campus partners and library donors celebrated the opening of the Marian Library’s new Christmas exhibit, Juggling for Mary: Vocation, Gifts and Performing for Our Lady. This exhibit is the first of three that will provide UD students with innovative hands-on learning opportunities made possible by gifts to the Libraries for One Day, One Dayton in 2022.
Students, faculty, staff and community members visit during opening week. Photo by Ryan O'Grady.
The exhibit is curated in a way for visitors of all ages to experience the Christmas story of the Juggler as it has been adapted through the centuries in books, operas, ballets and animated films. Here’s how the story goes:
A humble juggler struggles to find an appropriate Christmas gift to offer to the Virgin Mary; finally, he offers the gift of a juggling performance, and a statue of Mary miraculously comes to life!
Student and Faculty Participation
Visitors will see the gifts (in some cases, performances) of many faculty, staff, volunteers and students, coordinated by the Marian Library’s faculty and staff, led by Sarah Cahalan, director. Associate professor and archivist Kayla Harris, assistant director, and Eve Wolynes, library assistant, facilitated experiential learning opportunities for students.
Story Walk
Story walks, popular in public libraries, combine literature, learning and physical activity. Students of Mary-Kate Sableski and Jennifer Adams in EDT 350, Foundations of Literacy through Literature, created an interactive story walk about Tomie dePaola’s version of the Juggler, The Clown of God. Using dePaola’s materials, students gained a deeper appreciation for the way stories can be retold and adapted for different audiences, which informed their work. Participate in the story walk by following the white sandwich boards around campus, beginning and ending outside the main entrance to Roesch Library.
Children pantomime juggling as prompted by the student-produced story walk. Photo by Kayla Harris.
Story Times
Students will also practice the art of reading stories aloud at scheduled story times. Each children’s book in the gallery’s library relates to finding and sharing unique gifts and talents. View the schedule on the exhibit website.
Teacher education students practice reading aloud. Photo by Tash Nelson ‘23.
Original Performance
A cast and crew of students directed by theater professor Jerome Yorke created Simple Gifts, a cabaret of stories performed last weekend. Simple Gifts explored Marianist clowning as part of the multifaceted exhibit. Each story celebrated how we each contribute to the common good in our own unique ways.
Professor Jerome York and students perform Simple Gifts. Photo by Sarah Cahalan.
Rituals of Healing: Body, Mind, Spirit (Feb. 8–April 20, 2023) will be curated by UD first-year students in Professor Liz Hutter’s writing seminar and co-facilitated by Marian Library faculty and staff. Students will write narratives to explore what groups believe about religion, medical expertise and healing.
In fall 2023, artists’ books will be showcased in the Stuart and Mimi Rose Gallery, organized by a group of students and coordinated by Professor Suki Kwon in the Department of Art and Design.
Last summer, a team of library faculty and staff members completed a project to overhaul the language used to describe Indigenous peoples. At the beginning of Native American Heritage Month, we wanted to share how we can be better stewards of materials relating to the history of Indigenous people and to centralize their voice in how those materials are described.
One of the ways libraries assist patrons in accessing and using the materials that they have is to assign subject headings. To ensure reliable organization, most academic libraries in the United States look to the Library of Congress, which has developed its own controlled vocabulary. This is a list — a very big list — of preferred terms with specific meanings attached in order to create conformity in library description and improve findability. Due to the size of this list of preferred terms and the administrative process involved in updating subject terms that reflect current use, the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are often outdated and reflect racial and cultural biases of those who created and maintain the system, many of whom were/are white and Christian. Many librarians and libraries recognize these terms can inhibit accessibility and representation, as well as perpetuate trauma to groups outside of that dominant perspective.
For example, the current approved terms for Indigenous communities around the world is the culturally insensitive term “Indians.” Several libraries and archives have audited the terms used for Indigenous groups and have developed additional controlled vocabulary terms that reflect inclusive language. In Canada, in response to historic abuse in residential schools coming to light and a report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, libraries and archives have worked with tribes to improve Indigenous peoples’ access to tribal knowledge and materials. The Association for Manitoba Archives (AMA) published its list of updated terms after consulting with members of local tribes along with Indigenous experts around the world. In the spring of 2022, Roesch Library searched for terms related to Indigenous groups in the Library catalog and decided to update these terms using the list created by AMA.
As an example, the Library of Congress subject heading of “Indians of North America” was deleted, and the subject heading “Indigenous peoples – North America” replaced it.
Through the first phase of this initiative, about 6,000 subject headings were updated with culturally appropriate subject headings and keywords relating to Indigenous peoples, allowing for better discovery and decreasing the likelihood of encounters with traumatic and culturally insensitive terms.
The first phase only concerned headings of physical books owned by the Library; future phases will include a variety of materials including electronic books. Another future project will incorporate “red flags” for other sensitive subject terminology and allow for patron feedback. These are just some examples of how Roesch Library is looking at better ways to describe materials and improve accessibility for our students, faculty, staff and community.
— Grace Huffman is special collections cataloging and circulation assistant; Jill Crane is an associate professor and coordinator of cataloging and metadata.
Editor's note: This blog contains information from The Exponent, a student publication from 1903 to 1969; its digitization was made possible through donor gifts on One Day, One Dayton in 2021. Thank you!
As I was passing through the Archives hallway, I couldn’t help but stumble upon a display for Latinx Heritage Month, highlighting the Latinx student experience at the University of Dayton from as early as the early 1900s.
When reading the different labels, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride and also amusement knowing that individuals from my culture — who look like me and come from similar backgrounds — shared similar experiences to mine when going through the college experience. I didn’t expect the history of Puerto Ricans at UD to go so far back.
From the showcase some individuals that stood out to me were 1910 St. Mary’s High School graduate George Gonzalez and UD graduates Peter Babb ’26; Robert Babb ’27; Eugene Santaella ’38; and Hernan Maldonado ’60.
Eugene Santaella
Santaella was one of only a handful of Latinx students on campus, and one of even fewer Puerto Rican students, during the 1930s. He was described as being heavily involved in campus groups/organizations — something that I relate to. He started a bowling league, played saxophone in the band, and was a ROTC cadet. He studied business during his time at UD. In an article in the University of Dayton News, he discusses an event in Puerto Rico called the Carnival — a 10-day event ending on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. This was a community celebration where everyone participated, from children to adults. The thing that surprised me most about reading this article was learning about an event that I had no prior knowledge of. It was as if I was learning something about my culture firsthand within the Archives hallway. This showed me that there is always something to learn from your culture or history.
Hernan Maldonado
In the gallery of images below, you can see Hernan Maldonado ’60 of Lima, Peru, experiencing his first snow. I can relate to this experience of Latinx students experiencing their first snow while studying out of their home country. Before coming to UD, I had never seen snow. I experienced that same joyful yet unfamiliar feeling of having snowflakes falling down your face during your first winter snowfall. You can see a picture of me during my first year of college experiencing my first snow.
George Gonzalez
Like Santaella, Gonzalez was heavily involved on campus. He played the violin in the orchestra, played basketball and was the first Latinx student to have work published in a university publication. The Exponent published a wide range of articles, poems, and student journalism. Gonzalez wrote a poem titled “To My Father” (May 1909, Page 251), where he deals with the loss of a father.
Brothers Peter and Robert Babb
Peter Babb (1926) and Robert Babb (1927), two brothers majoring in engineering, also had works published in The Exponent. Peter Babb wrote a poem titled “Our Father” (October 1926, Page 11), which is about God.
It really surprised me the level of depth both Gonzalez and Peter Babb were able to write at the time.
Come explore the archives
I encourage you all to learn more about these individuals and the history of UD. You can learn more about these issues and topics within eCommons or by contacting the University of Dayton Archives and Special Collections.
— Camila Sánchez-González is the 2022-23 OhioLINK Luminaries intern in the University Libraries.
Research Sanctuary
For four weeks this past summer, the reading room of the Marian Library offered me a research sanctuary of sorts as a resident scholar. During my fellowship, I focused on examining the Marian Library’s collection of pamphlets, postcards, photographs, case studies and other artifacts related to Lourdes, the Marian shrine in France commemorating apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.
As a scholar with interests in the health humanities, disability studies and technical communication, I am drawn to Lourdes as a historic and contemporary sanctuary for the ways in which it centers ill and disabled bodies in experiences that are not only therapeutic and spiritual, but also medicalized and ritualized. The materials in the Marian Library collection readily supported my ability to examine Lourdes from multiple disciplinary perspectives. When I first began working in the collection, I dwelled on the volumes of the Bulletin of the International Medical Association of Lourdes, which regularly reported on notable cases of healing and documented the systematic process through which an individual’s cure might be recognized by the Catholic Church as an unexplained or miraculous healing.
As I spent more time reading in the collection, my perspective was necessarily challenged in productive ways. Sifting through newspaper clippings and other ephemera from the Mildred Sutton collection, for instance, encouraged me to consider how the organizational work of the Lourdes Medical Bureau and its role in adjudicating cures with no medical explanation were reported in Catholic trade publications. Encountering the ways in which stories of healing at Lourdes circulated in these publications pushed me to consider an audience of readers who, though they may never travel to the Grotto or join the candlelight procession, find the narratives of healing at Lourdes important nevertheless.
My experience as a Marian Library resident scholar has been one of the richest opportunities I have had as a UD faculty member. With access to study the collections in the Marian Library for an extended time, my understanding of Lourdes as a site of therapeutic and spiritual healing has developed in exciting ways. With the fall semester already underway, I not only have begun drafting a manuscript incorporating many of the materials I studied as a resident scholar; I also am using the experience to shape a pedagogical project. Students in my first-year writing course are collaborating with the Marian Library to curate a public exhibit around rituals of healing, drawing from artifacts in the Marian Library’s collections.
Exhibits for Everyone
Whether you’re a student looking for AVIATE activities to acquire points toward preferred housing, teaching faculty interested in instruction with special collections, or just taking a few minutes of respite on a hectic day, the Marian Library offers a variety of exhibits and programs this fall that connect to curricular goals and campus life.
A Living Library: Marian Acquisitions Through 2022 opens Sept. 6 and continues through Oct. 28. The exhibit highlights some of the Marianists who established the Marian Library collections; the role of collections work in librarianship; and the Marian Library’s position to advance inclusive excellence at UD. Related resources from the U.S. Catholic Special Collection are also on display. Afterward, drop by the sixth floor to see the nun dolls of the U.S. Catholic Pauline A. Money Collection!
Juggling for Mary: Vocation, Gifts and Performing for Our Lady is open Nov. 7 through Jan. 27 with live performances, a reading nook for families and a story walk. You can get a sneak peek of the exhibit in the Roesch lobby, where a stained-glass window by Jeffrey Miller, Sarah Navasse and Jeremy Bourdois is on display.
For students
AVIATE activities and various programs are being planned in connection with A Living Library and Juggling for Mary. Look for all of our PATH-eligible opportunities on 1850. Also, make sure to follow us on Instagram @MarianLibraryUD.
For faculty
An inaugural Teaching with Rare Books workshop for faculty and doctoral students will take place at 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, in the Scholars’ Commons on the second floor. Led by librarians and archivists in University Archives and Special Collections and the Marian Library, the 75-minute workshop includes materials across the two collections, and the interests and goals of attendees will drive much of the material selection and conversation.
As always, we offer research assistance to anyone interested in research using the Marian Library’s collections! You can book an appointment online, via email at marianlibrary@udayton.edu or by phone at 937-229-4214. You can also use the catalog to browse collections and borrow many of the Marian Library’s books.
Our hours look a bit different this semester; beginning Thursday, Sept. 1, the Marian Library’s spaces, including the Marian Library Gallery on the seventh floor, are open by appointment only on Thursdays. We ask that you request appointments at least 48 hours in advance. But we’re still open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday if you’re dropping by to pick up a book, studying in the reading room or — of course — visiting an exhibit.
— Henry Handley stewards the Marian Library's rare, reference and circulating books, as well as its extensive collections of pamphlets and periodicals.
Connecting Classroom Learning to Library Employment
This spring, the Marian Library said goodbye to graduating senior Matthew Frabotta, who worked in both Roesch Library and the Marian Library for the past two years. The Marian Library student employees complete so many of the tasks that make our operations possible — from greeting visitors at the front desk to shelving books to assisting with exhibits and programming. The impact of their work often endures long after they graduate.
Frabotta, from South Bend, Indiana, connected his classroom experiences as a history major and Italian minor to several projects in the Marian Library. While organizing and describing a collection of pamphlets, artwork and other souvenir material from Marian shrines, he noted some of the unusual items such as wind protectors for taper candles at candlelight processions and pennants for particular shrines. This material inspired the fall 2021 exhibit Journeys of Faith: Shrines, Souvenirs, and Catholic Tourism. To physically introduce undergraduate students to the Marian Library, Frabotta assisted with developing a self-guided PATH-eligible event that brought over 600 students to see this exhibit during October 2021.
Frabotta indicated an interest in maps, so his expertise was especially helpful when developing Journeys of Faith into a digital exhibit using StoryMaps by ArcGIS. Using latitude and longitude coordinates, he plotted each shrine on a world map and uploaded digitized souvenirs to each location. This use of digital storytelling tools proved helpful as he completed his capstone project under the direction of professors Haimanti Roy and Laura Sextro. He used the digital humanities platform Scalar for his capstone project, Forging a Community: Italian Immigration to Ashtabula Ohio, 1888-1922, for which he conducted some genealogical research — another skill he used to enhance a Marian Library exhibit.
A Vision of Art and Faith: The Litany of Loreto and the Work of Ezio Anichini (1886-1948), explores the legacy of the Italian artist Anichini and recurring figures such as the Virgin Mary of the Litany of Loreto. Frabotta not only translated Italian text; he also conducted some preliminary genealogical research of the Anichini family that allowed curators to provide a more nuanced understanding of the artist.
The entire staff of the Marian Library congratulates and thanks Matthew for his many contributions!
– Kayla Harris manages the arrangement and preservation of the Marian Library’s archival materials including photographs, personal papers and other artifacts.
To celebrate Pride Month, the University Libraries announces its new LGBTQ+ Pride Resources guide for the University’s LGBTQ+ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and related communities).
You will find thoughtful reading suggestions, of course — fiction, biography, history, intersectionality and legal rights. For a newly active ally, the guide contains a glossary, a guide to symbols and some history beginning with the spontaneous uprising by the gay community in June of 1969. The uprising, sparked by a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, is the event remembered every June by Pride Month events.
A “Pride at UD'' section gives information about the Ally+ workshop available to the campus community; a list of student services and affinity groups; and a video about Marianist values and embracing those who identify as LGBTQ+.
Our Pride list in the leisure reading collection can help you find a great book to round out your summer reading. Our continually refreshed leisure reading collection is located in the lobby of Roesch Library.
— Joan Milligan is the special collections cataloger for the University Libraries and a member of the diversity and inclusion team.
