The Research Commons at The Ohio State University is a fantastic resource for students and faculty embarking on projects at any point in the research process. Located in the 18th Avenue Library, the Research Commons’ mission is to
leverage campus partnerships to provide support services at each stage of the research lifecycle. It enhances the Libraries’ mission by providing a hub for collaborative, interdisciplinary research that is both expertise and technology enabled.
The library offers a wide range of resources, including workshops, one-on-one consultation and high-tech workspaces. The Research Commons maintains a balance of providing research support and resources to support research.
When the Research Commons was created in 2016, a task force began to identify the needs of the campus. Support for geographic information system (GIS) services, information management and data management were uncovered. The Commons’ resources are scalable, free and available. Services include research impact, designed to help measure projects through metrics and enhance their impact, and data management, providing resources to help manage data throughout a project’s lifecycle. With librarians and experts on hand, the Research Commons provides assistance, connects experts with resources and teaches research best practices.
Head of Research Services Meris Longmeier shared launching and growing the Research Commons has been a great experience. When she joined the university six years ago, the Research Commons was just an idea. She has helped to shape the space and programming. Now, she manages a growing staff of 10 employees and continues to identify and support new initiatives as the popularity of the Research Commons spreads.
The Research Commons showcases the work of the researchers across the university. By featuring projects on screens in the library and promoting the work of research collaborators through campuswide communications, students and faculty learn of their colleagues’ work and the Research Commons demonstrates its support. Through monthly faculty forums, professors share their accomplishments. Additionally, the library also hosts special events, including GIS day, collaborative events with the City of Dublin and partnerships with Ohio State Advance.
Research Commons partners and collaborates across the university with industry liaisons, the Office of Research, the Supercomputer Center and many other organizations to highlight services and share information. Upcoming workshops include Corporate Research Engagement and introductory classes on an assortment of advanced software available for use in the Research Commons computer lab.
The library offers a variety of spaces available for classes and groups of all sizes to reserve. The newly designed space is bright, clean and attractive, with easy-to-arrange furniture to accommodate the needs of groups attending events. Rooms are equipped with cutting edge technology, making it easy to present, connect, share and collaborate. The 18th Avenue Library is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and librarians at the Research Commons are available for consultation throughout the week. It is phenomenal resource for researchers at Ohio State, with caring staff and outstanding opportunities to learn.
Westerville Public Library is an amazing community hub focused on innovation and imagination.
In 2017, Library Journal awarded Westerville its highest designation. Only 85 libraries across the country received a five-star rating, ranking the library in the top 1% of the nation’s public libraries. And for good reason. Exemplary outreach includes daily delivery to Westerville City Schools, it was the first Central Ohio library to offer drive through service and new technology gives customers the ability to self-check an entire armload of materials all at once. Partnerships and convenience make Westerville one of the nation’s best libraries.
Library renovations completed in 2006 created an incredible atrium, teen space resembling an Internet cafe with booth seating, a retail-like media space with flat screen TVs and an enlarged youth department providing individualized spaces for different ages.
Westerville Public Library’s Meet the Author series brings stellar luminaries to Central Ohio. Most recently, Ernest Cline, author of the new blockbuster Ready Player One, spoke to a packed house. In April, New York Times best selling author Karen White will speak. Other notable visits have included Pulitzer Prize winning Anthony Doerr (All the Light You Can Not See), NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Newbery Medal winner Matt de la Peña (Last Stop on Market Street). Don’t miss Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give) this September!
In addition to an incredible library, the building also hosts the Anti-Saloon League Museum. For forty years (1893-1933), the league was a major lobbying force that helped bring the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, creating an era of prohibition. The museum’s collection has been instrumental for researchers worldwide, including Ken Burns and his documentary Prohibition. During our visit, we met with Local History Associate Nina Thomas who pointed out the collection’s depth in WWI materials. Check out their online collection that includes cartoons, songs and more here.
In 2017, Executive Director Erin Francoeur joined Westerville. She’s thrilled to be part of such a strong, community-supported library. Erin spoke highly of the library’s amazing staff, making work exciting and fun. She’s eager to further deepen community partnerships, including a recent collaboration with Otterbein University’s Courtright Memorial Library, and begin a new strategic plan.
And we’ve just briefly introduced the Westerville Public Library. We highly encourage you to visit and experience this dynamic community resource!
This feature is dedicated to the memory of Officers Eric Joering and Anthony Morelli. Their service to community and sacrifice will never be forgotten.
Q: Where can you find the largest collection of Ohio newspapers, images of WWI black infantry soldiers and photographs of early 20th Century daily life…online…in one place?
A: Ohio Memory
This month, we had the pleasure of meeting members of the Ohio Memory team. Ohio Memory is managed collaboratively between Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio. The dynamic online resource helps communities share, discover and connect to Ohio’s rich history.
Located in the Ohio History Center, Ohio Memory supports a variety of projects. They partner with 365 institutions across 88 counties in the state and provide a subscription program for 35 members (including many libraries), supporting those organizations in digitizing and sharing historical photos, yearbooks, local newspapers, ephemera and more. In fact, Ohio Memory contains over 700,000 digital images!
Grants fund important digitization projects. Little Stories of the Great War: Ohioans in World War I was made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Through prestigious NEH grant funding, Ohio Memory gives greater awareness to Ohio’s contributions, features content from fifteen cultural heritage institutions across Ohio and provides lesson plans for teachers. Kristen Newby coordinates efforts for this project and told fascinating stories about what she’s learned. She digitized images from Ross County’s Camp Sherman, including images of an all-black military band as well as the camp’s library, the only non-segregated area of the camp. Kristen also uncovered incredible letters from the soldiers, including one that revealed the discovery of a German spy!
The team is working in partnership with Chronicling America to digitize Ohio newspapers as part of a national initiative and have contributed over 400,000 pages to that website by the end of 2018. Jenni Salamon leads the effort and explained reading newspapers from Ohio’s early days gives readers an interesting perspective. Researchers and the curious can learn what the political climate was like then and how much things have and have not changed today. In addition to Chronicling America, Ohio Memory’s newspaper collection contains over 360,000 pages of free-to-access content, many of which came from the Ohio History Connection’s hardcopy and microfilm holdings, which comprise the largest collection of Ohio newspapers in the world!
Lily Birkhimer manages content and outreach for Ohio Memory. She is responsible for training institutional partners, managing metadata, public inquiries and online selection. Lily is currently digitizing glass plate negatives from the Albert J. Ewing Collection. These delicate materials provide a detailed glimpse into our past. Lily records written information on the plates and their sleeves, and she leverages census information to fill in the gaps and create connections that may have otherwise been lost.
Other Ohio Memory projects include preservation of materials from the Zoar community, LGBTQ collections and information for a World Heritage project. The team contributes weekly to their blog, where you can learn more about special items from the collection and read about topics relevant to current events.
There’s so much to explore and discover. As they are always adding new resources, we’ll be taking a closer look at Ohio Memory, and we hope you do too!
Learn more about the State Library of Ohio and Ohio Memory’s Shannon Kupfer at our 2014 feature here.