In the fall, the Ott celebrates Ottoberfest with a month of competitions and prizes. Our writing-centered revelries culminate in an open house on the last Friday of the month, complete with cake and Ottoberfest/Halloween costumes! We also host an open house in the spring semester either on or near March 20th, which is the Feast of St. Cuthbert, the patron saint of Otters.
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Annually, the Ott also partners with the Marquette University Libraries to bring the Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon to campus. Each year, Douglass Day celebrates American abolitionist and author Frederick Douglass. His birthday has been nationally observed since the turn of the twentieth century, and the Library of Congress has hosted related transcribe-a-thons since 2017. The Ott and the MU Libraries joined the following year, inviting students, faculty, staff, and members of the community to come together and transcribe handwritten documents and other hard-to-access texts important to Black history.
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