Category: Community

Karen Wilhoit, University Librarian is Retiring After 32 Years of Service to Wright State University

Image of Karen Wilhoit
Karen Wilhoit, University Librarian

Karen Wilhoit, University Librarian will retire from Wright State University Libraries effective February 29, 2024. Karen has served the libraries in many capacities since March 1992 when she joined our staff as the Head of Cataloging. Prior to her appointment as University Librarian in 2021, she served as Associate University Librarian for Collection Services since 2004. In her various roles in the Libraries, Karen managed the streamlining and automation of technical services operations, guided the merger of the Fordham Health Sciences Library and Dunbar Library collections, and the merger of two units in the Libraries as cost savings measure for the University, helped with the formation of Digital Services which managed the University institutional repository and oversaw the transition of the Libraries’ collections from primarily print to primarily online.

As University Librarian she worked closely with Libraries’ staff to focus on how the various departments within the Libraries can continue to work together to support initiatives focusing on student success and outreach to faculty. She worked with the Division of Inclusive Excellence to prioritize the Libraries’ commitment to being a welcoming and supportive unit for all members of the campus community. Most importantly, she has been committed to ensuring that the Libraries continue to provide outstanding service to Wright State students, faculty and staff.

During her tenure at Wright State, Karen has been active in representing the Libraries in state and national committees and consortia, serving on and chairing the OhioLINK Database Management and Standards Committee and the OhioLINK Cooperative Information Resources Management Committee. She has also been active in the Academic Library Association of Ohio, serving at various times as Chair of the Technical Services interest group, Treasurer, and Vice President/President/Past President. Karen has also served on several technical services committees of the American Library Association.

We thank Karen for her 32 years of dedicated service to Wright State University and wish her all the best in retirement.

University Libraries 2023 – 2024 Book Club

Join us for the 2023 – 2024 Book Club sponsored by the Friends of the Libraries, WSU Alumni Association, and the WSU Retirees Association.

When and Where:

Thursday evenings at 5:30 p.m. on WebEx. Registration is encouraged but not required.

What We’re Reading:

September 21, 2023: The Summers by Ronya Othmann, translated by Dr. Gary Schmidt

Book Cover Image of The Summers

Special guest, Dr. Gary Schmidt, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and translator of The Summers, by Ronya Othmann, will join this discussion.

The Summers narrates the coming of age of Leyla, who spends the school year in her mother’s home country of Germany but travels every summer to her father’s Kurdish village in Syria, near the Turkish border. There, with her grandparents and Yazidi friends, she comes alive. She knows the village’s smells and tastes; she knows the villagers’ stories. She knows where they keep their suitcases hidden, should they need to escape again.

As Leyla grows older, her sexual awakening takes a back seat to her cultural discoveries. She becomes increasingly disenchanted with her German classmates and friends’ indifference when ISIS troops enter the village, threatening the lives of her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

Thoughtful and poignant, The Summers addresses issues of gender, sexuality, cultural difference, politics, and identity. Ronya Othmann draws readers into multiple worlds, ultimately revealing the hopes and dreams that bind us all together when forces threaten to tear us apart. (Description from the publisher).

November 16, 2023: Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah

Book Cover Image of Calling for a Blanket Dance

A moving and deeply engaging novel about a young Native American man as he learns to find strength in his familial identity. 

Told in a series of voices, Calling for a Blanket Dance takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they face myriad obstacles. His father’s injury at the hands of corrupt police, his mother’s struggle to hold on to her job and care for her husband, the constant resettlement of the family, and the legacy of centuries of injustice all intensify Ever’s bottled-up rage. Meanwhile, all of Ever’s relatives have ideas about who he is and who he should be. His Cherokee grandmother urges the family to move across Oklahoma to find security; his grandfather hopes to reunite him with his heritage through traditional gourd dances; his Kiowa cousin reminds him that he’s connected to an ancestral past. And once an adult, Ever must take the strength given to him by his relatives to save not only himself but also the next generation of family.

How will this young man visualize a place for himself when the world hasn’t given him a place to start with? Honest, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, Calling for a Blanket Dance is the story of how Ever Geimausaddle found his way to home.(Description from the publisher).

January 18, 2024: Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens

Book Cover Image of Lucky Red

It’s the spring of 1877 and sixteen-year-old Bridget is already disillusioned when she arrives penniless in Dodge City with only her wits to keep her alive. Thanks to the allure of her bright red hair and country-girl beauty, she’s recruited to work at the Buffalo Queen, the only brothel in town run by women. Bridget takes to brothel life, appreciating the good food, good pay, and good friendships she forms with her fellow “sporting women”.

But as winter approaches, Bridget learns just how fleeting stability can be. With the arrival of out-of-towners – some ominous and downright menacing, others more alluring but potentially dangerous in their own ways, including a legendary female gunfighter who steals Bridget’s heart – tensions in Dodge City run high. When the Buffalo Queen’s peace and stability are threatened, Bridget must decide what she owes to the people she loves and what it looks like to claim her own destiny.

A thoroughly modern reimaging of the Western genre, Lucky Red, is a masterfully crafted, propulsive tale of adventure, loyalty, desire, and love. (Description from the publisher).

March 21, 2024: Horse a Novel by Geraldine Brooks – The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Winner for Fiction

Book Cover for Horse a Novel

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union.

On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse – one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred, Lexington, who became America’s greatest stud sire, Horse is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America. (Description from Publisher)

Book titles are available for borrowing from the WSU Libraries collection, click on book titles above to check current availability. Don’t have a WSU library card? Join our Friends of the Libraries for borrowing privileges and help support the Libraries’ collections and programs.

Summer Reading Recommendations

Image of books on bench at beach

The Book Club recently met at Eudora Brewing Company for a casual conversation about books they’re reading and to share recommendations with others. If you’re looking for a summer read and were not able to make it to the discussion, below are a few of the titles mentioned by fellow clubbers. We’ve linked them to our catalog or the SearchOhio catalog to make it easy for you to request them.

Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan

When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill

The Very Secret Society of  Irregular Witches, by Sangu Mandanna

The Swiss Nurse, by Mario Escobar

The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, by David Grann

The Sky Club, by Terry Roberts

Ma and Me, by Putsata Reang

Tastes Like War, by Grace M. Cho

Trust, by Hernan Diaz

Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver

The Motion Picture Teller, by Colin Cotterill

Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng

We’re also happy to share that registration is now available for our 2023-2024 Book Club discussions. Registration is not required but is encouraged. We’ll kick-off the year on September 21, 2023 with The Summers, by Ronya Othman, translated by Gary Schmidt (translator Dr. Gary Schmidt, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, will be attending). 

More information about our 2023-2024 book discussions can be found at Library News. The Book Club is sponsored by the Friends of the Libraries, the WSU Alumni Association, and the WSU Retirees Association.

We hope you enjoy your summer and happy reading!

The Genius of the Wright Brothers and Construction of the 1903 Flyer

Image of 1903 Flyer Replica in Library
1903 Wright Flyer Replica in Dunbar Library

Thursday, June 15, 2023

11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Room 441 Dunbar Library

Register Now

Join us as Dr. Rubin Battino shares a brief history of powered flight including a discussion of the Wright brothers’ 1903 Flyer, the first machine to achieve controlled powered flight. He also will recount personal histories of the Wright brothers and their families.

Battino, an emeritus professor of chemistry, will present material showing how scientific the Wrights were in their approach to flying, even fabricating wind tunnels and other aerodynamic testing apparatus in their bicycle shop. He also will share what he learned by helping to construct the full-size replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer that now hangs in the atrium of the Dunbar Library.

Battino served on the faculty at Wright State from 1966 to 1995. He has given presentations on the Wright brothers and their mechanic, Charlie Taylor, in the United States and abroad. He was named “Speaker of the Year” by the Royal New Zealand Aeronautical Society and was a special speaker at Farnham in England.

The talk is cosponsored by the Wright State University Retirees Association and the Friends of the Libraries. The presentation is free and open to the public. Registration is required and must be completed by Monday, June 12.