Healey Keynotes

The Wall Street Bailout, or the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008: H.R. 1424"

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008: H.R. 1424 is a  bill to provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes.

If you want to trace the Congressional actions, statements, and documents that led to the passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 two good sources of information are Thomas, the U.S. Library of Congress’s legislative information web site and LexisNexis Congressional database. They both serve as gateways to the legislative history of the law. In addition  CQ Weekly reports on Congressional news and provides analysis of public policy issues.

THOMAS
Currently Thomas provides a link to the Act right from the Thomas homepage. On the Act's page, you have links to References to this bill in the Congressional Record and to the Bill Summary and Status page. The Bill Summary and Status page offers easy access to key information about the bill.

LEXISNEXIS CONGRESSIONAL

LexisNexis Congressional also provides you with the text of the act and key information regarding it.  In LexisNexis Congressional select Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws - Get Document and choose the Bill Tracking option.

You will get the text, actions, the sponsors, and the legislative chronology with links to the Congressional Record Digest.  You can also do a separate search of the Daily Congressional Record to read the entire account available in the Congressional Record.

To research House bill H.R. 3997, which failed on September 29, 2008 use the Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws search option as shown above. In addition, the House Rules Committee Report 110-903 includes the text of the House amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 3997. Use the Congressional Publications - Search by Number search option to retrieve it.

CQ WEEKLY

CQ Weekly’s article Financial Rescue Becomes Law covers Congress’s twists and turns as it worked to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

For the bigger picture take a look at the Financial Crisis LibGuide created by Louise Feldman, Business and Economics Librarian at Colorado State University, which covers not only the United States's financial crisis but also the global crisis. 

Accessibility Resources

The Curriculum Resource Center (CRC) has collaborated with the Equity & Excellence in Higher Education committee for the past two years to focus on Universal Course Design. This collaboration has resulted in the CRC obtaining the following resources:

Boardmaker Software

• "The premier software among educators for creating printed symbol-based communication and educational materials”.
• It is a graphics database that can be used to build a Communication Board in any language.

Braille/Print Children’s Books

• The CRC receives 12 Braille / Print children’s books a year, through the National Braille Press book-of-the-month club. Each book has print words and illustrations, with an overlay of Braille.

Kidspiration and Inspiration Software

• "Strengthens critical thinking, comprehension and writing across the curriculum".

Kurzweil 3000 software

• Can convert most PDFs to readable documents (for students with visual impairment or blindness)
• Enlarges words on the screen
• Has sophisticated Screen Reader
• Scans and digitizes print documents, making them screen readable

Math Window

• “Math Window consists of a magnetic board and tiles that allow blind students to build and solve math problems”.

In addition to the tools above, a resource map, Accessibility Resources at UMB, is now available at the Healey Library in print, Braille and large print, thanks to the Equity & Excellence committee (Carol DeSouza, Ginny Perelson, Kirsten Behling, Lori Mateljan, Marilyn Day, Stanley Dick, Tikeon Sealey, Valerie Carroll & Valerie Haven).

Please visit the Equity & Excellence website, to find information about Universal Course Design at UMB, such as:

• Introductory Universal Course Design video (filmed at UMB)
• Tutorials explaining how to incorporate UCD strategy into a course
• UCD instructional tools, technologies, assessment, resources & environmental strategies

Moving forward at the Healey Library

A few weeks ago, University Librarian Daniel Ortiz  was happy to announce that the Healey Library had joined the Fenway Libraries Online (FLO.)

We have already begun to enjoy the fruits of this alliance; recently the staff at FLO regenerated the keyword index for Healey Library's Voyager catalog; upgrading subject headings, author names, and words in titles. 

This will make searches of Voyager faster, more relevant, more robust, and allow you to find what you need on our shelves!

Dr. Ortiz, the staff of Healey Library, and the staff at FLO, are working on many more improvements in the coming months.

Soon, we will soon a new way to access eJournals will be introduced, making finding that important research article that much easier. We will be rolling out a complete upgrade of our Voyager catalog as well!

Summer 2008 is going to be an exciting time at the library, stay tuned for more announcements from Dr. Ortiz!

Morrie Schwartz's library is coming to Healey

The Healey Library is to receive the personal library of Morris Schwartz, the late Brandeis professor made famous by his award winning book, Tuesdays with Morrie.  The book, also made into a successful 1999 film, chronicles the final months of Schwartz's remarkable life.  At the age of 78 he was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal illness commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Rather than fearing death Schwartz faced it as a learning opportunity and shared his experiences with audiences on national television and radio. His appearance on Nightline prompted former student and sportswriter, Mitch Albom, to reconnect with his favorite professor. The two began meeting weekly in Schwartz’s Brookline home and their talks about life and death became rich content for the best selling book.

Schwartz’s library is a life-long academic collection of approximately 2,000 books primarily in the field of sociology and related disciplines. The collection has been generously donated by Schwartz's widow, Charlotte Schwartz, who chose Healey Library because of her friendship with Robert Hutchins, a retired UMB Sociology professor.

Healey Library Joins Fenway Libraries Online

FROM: Daniel Ortiz, University Librarian

---

I am pleased to announce that Healey Library has recently joined Fenway Libraries Online (FLO), a group of academic and special interest libraries in the Boston/ Cambridge area.

For twenty years, FLO has implemented state-of-the-art library systems and provided its member libraries with new opportunities for cooperative collection development, particularly in the acquisition of electronic databases. By joining FLO, the university community will have access to more than a million books and other materials, which will be added to the list of resources in Healey Library.

Additional institutions that are part of the FLO membership include: Emerson College, Emmanuel College, Lesley University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Museum of Fine Arts, New England Conservatory, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Wheelock College.

I want to thank Provost Paul Fonteyn, Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance, Ellen O’Connor, as well as all the UMass Boston deans for providing guidance and support in making this significant decision.

New Name and New Directions

The Healey Library Beacon will now be know as Healey Keynotes. The name change reflects our latest additions to the library resources, Healey Library's Keys to Success. This website contains subject guides which incorporate Facebook, instant messaging, RSS  feeds and other Web 2.0 tools. The blog is also be going in a direction, posts will be written by various library staff members. By including more staff members, we hope to share the diversity of our experience.

Facebook Resources

As part of the Healey Library’s process of reaching out to the students of UMass Boston, we have created discussion groups (called GroupKeys) in FaceBook, that are aligned with the new SubjectKeys that are on LibGuides. The SubjectKeys with a group have a link to the FaceBook page.  So if you are a student in a particular subject, or know someone who is, please have them check out the SubjectKeys and join the GroupKeys on FaceBook!

New Database

We added a new health related subscription to the library's collection. Cochrane Collection Plus provides access to a collection of databases which focus on the effects of health care and evidence based medical practice. It is a comprehensive source of data for anyone in the medical field. The collection of databases, which is provided by EBSCO, includes:

• NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED)
  
  • Information on the costs and effects of drugs, treatments and procedures

• Health Technology Assessments (HTA)
  
  • Information about completed and ongoing health technology assessments (studies of the medical, social, ethical and economic implications of healthcare interventions) from around the world

• Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
  • Full text articles, as well as protocols focusing on the effects of healthcare

• Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE)
  
  • Abstracts of published systematic reviews on the effects of health care from around the world

• Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
  
  • Bibliography of journal articles and conference proceedings as well as other sources on controlled trials

More books online

The Boston Library Consortium (BLC), of which the UMass Boston is a member, will partner with Open Content Alliance (OCA) to build a digital library of its members’ materials. According the BLC press release, “The Consortium will offer high-resolution, downloadable, reusable files of public domain materials. Using Internet Archive technology, books from all 19 libraries will be scanned at a cost of just 10 cents per page.” OCA was created to provide public access to a digital collection of the world’s knowledge and the BLC is their first large-scale consortium partner.

In related news, the New York Times reports on the freedom of access to digital collections. See "Libraries shun deals to place books on web".

How are we doing?

Here your opportunity to tell the library how you feel about our services. The Healey Library has begun using LibQUAL+™, a web based survey on library service quality. This survey was first used at UMass Boston in 2003 and we are asking all Healey Library users to participate again. The survey will run from Monday, October 22^nd to Friday, November 16^th.

Participants who give their email address will to eligible for prizes. The library will award one grand prize of a $500 gift certificate from Amazon.com to a randomly drawn email address from all of the email addresses submitted. There will also be 2 second prizes of a $200 gift certificate from Amazon.com. The prizes will be awarded in December.

Click here to take the survey.