Healey Keynotes

Poet Laureate announced

On July 17th the Library of Congress announced Kay Ryan as this year's poet laureate. Her poems are known for their simplicity and accessibility. Ryan explains, "An almost empty suitcase–that’s what I want my poems to be. A few things. The reader starts taking them out, but they keep multiplying." The New York Times described Ryan, as an "outsider with sly style". She has written six books of poetry and as well as essays. Her poetry is included in 100 essential modern poems and Literature : an introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama at the Healey Library.

You can find Ryan's poetry in Academic Search Premier.

Educational Videos Online

While YouTube offers seemly a endless number of videos, many have little educational value. However, the folks at Open Culture have compiled a list of videos with educational content. They identified 70 collections which are listed under 70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube. Find everything from news broadcasts to science programs.

For those interested in arts, Boston Public Library now subscribes to Dance, Opera and Theatre in Video. These three databases contain close to a thousand performances and documentaries. UMB students and any Massachusetts resident can apply for a Boston Public Library eCard and view these videos for free. 

 

Explore the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Healey Library’s newest database, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB), will be a big plus for all who seek biographical information about noteworthy people who are in some way related to the British Isles. These may be people born there, people who moved there, as well as people from former British territories. The Oxford DNB includes not only the expected kings and queens but also poet laureates, Nobel prize winners, important military figures, musicians, artists and the list goes on.  It even includes an entry on the Piltdown Man (supp. fl. 4 million BC), an archaeological hoax. The biographies are substantial and well researched. Many of the biographies include a painting or photograph of the person. No living people are included in the Oxford DNB. 

Looking for 19^th century artists? Women politicians? You can also use the Oxford DNB to help you find people.  You can search by specific criteria such as sex and field of interest.  You can also search by broad themes such as Armed Forces, Arts and Culture, and Politics: British Isles. Or you can choose to browse the Oxford DNB alphabetically, by birth date order or by death date order.

You will find the Oxford DNB an extremely interesting, rich and powerful resource.

Inspiring Words

"Ideas worth spreading" is the motto of TED: Technology, Entertainment and Design. TED hosts an annual conference in which artists, authors, entrepreneurs, Nobel laureates, politicians, scientists, and more come together to share their ideas. World famous and not so famous speakers are invited to give a short talk during the four days of the conference. There are almost 200 talks are available for free on the TED website. The speakers include, Bono, Jane Goodall, James Watson and many more. Don't miss the talk entitled, "Greening the Ghetto" by environmental activist, Majora Carter.

 

NEW - PubMed with links to UMass Boston holdings

Nursing, medical and allied health researchers take a look at the customized PubMed with links to UMass Boston holdings.

The tabbed search results page makes it easy to locate the full text articles available through Healey Library as well as the free full text articles available in PubMed.

To retrieve an article, switch the display from Summary to Abstract or Abstract Plus. You will see the UMB Online icon. Click on the icon to view the full text article.

To use PubMed with links to UMass Boston holdings from off campus, you will be prompted for your last name and barcode number as you are for the library’s other subscription databases.

The Purpose of Education

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically… Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”
-Martin Luther King Jr.,  The Purpose of Education, 1947.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University is an excellent resource for research and education about Dr. King. The Healey Library also has a number of books about and recordings of Dr. King. Check LibraryThing for a book list or the catalog for a complete list.

Hidden Web: Beyond Google

There is much more information on the web than what can be found through Google. This is often referred to as the Hidden, Invisible or Deep Web. For instance, the Healey Library subscribes to over 80 databases and indexes which are not freely accessible through Google. A recent article from CIO, Six Techniques to Get More from the Web than Google Will Tell You, reccomends several methods to move beyond Google. 
 

Change your life with RefWorks!

Come  to one of the six RefWorks workshops with Frances Schlesinger, Reference Librarian.  Learn how to create a bibliography in seconds and add footnotes with ease. After learning how to use RefWorks, a student said that it changed her life.

"RefWorks -- an online research management, writing and collaboration tool -- is designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies." RefWorks allows users to export citations from many of the Healey Library databases and provides hundreds of citation styles, including  APA, Chicago, and MLA. For more information about RefWorks and how to use it, see http://healeylibrary.wikispaces.com/RefWorks.

Workshop Dates:

· Monday, October 29: 1:30-2:20

· Wednesday, October 31: 2:30-3:45

· Friday, November 2: 11:30-12:20

· Tuesday, November 6: 5:30-6:45

· Thursday, November 8: 10-11:15

· Wednesday, November 14: 4-5:15

Location:

· Center for Library Instruction, Healey Library 4^th floor

Please RSVP to Frances Schlesinger, 617 287.5943

 

Library Field Trips

Outreach Center: Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies
17 Sumner Road; Cambridge, MA 02138 617-495-4078; cmes@fas.harvard.edu

Recently, Marilyn Day (supervisor of the Curriculum Resource Center, Healey Library) and Wijdan Rahman (student working with Marilyn in the CRC) visited the Outreach Center at the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

The Outreach Center is rich with K-12 Middle Eastern educational materials  for teachers such as: fiction and non-fiction books; Curriculum units; Kits; & Videos. The center is open to the public (M-F,  9:00 – 5:00 and Sat. hours by appointment). Educators can borrow the resources.

Paul Beran, Outreach Director and Jaclyn Michael, Curriculum Assistant, gave us a tour of the wonderful resources on Middle Eastern culture, religion, and tradition. Paul and Jaclyn welcome the opportunity to serve UMass/Boston faculty and students by assisting with the planning of Middle East-related courses or units or by gathering materials for class projects.

We will return to the Outreach Center many times in the future, to use the resources and to call upon the expertise of the Paul Beran and Jaclyn Michael.

Note: Paul and Jaclyn mentioned that Harvard has another outreach center, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, as well.

Educator Resource Center and Lyman Library: Museum of Science
Science Park, Boston 617-589-0170; lymanlibrary@mos.org

In August, Wijdan and Marilyn visited the Educator’s Resource Center, an attractive space on the third floor of the Museum of Science/Boston.

Jeffrey Mehigan and Henry Robinson cordially showed us the resources: a treasure trove of K-12 books, curricula and kits focused on Science, Engineering, Technology and Math. The standards-based classroom resources were chosen with educators and curriculum administrators in mind. All educators are welcome to borrow materials from the library. Jeff and Henry mentioned that the center can be reserved for groups. Jeff and Henry welcome the opportunity to assist teachers and pre-service teachers with their curriculum projects.

The Center is open 7 days a week (9:00 to 5:00) and offers free passes and parking to educator visitors. By registering with the Educator Resource Center, educators are notified of Museum of Science workshops and events for teachers.

We were inspired by the visit, and left with many new ideas for enhancing our own Curriculum Resource Center.

Note: Jeff and Henry mentioned another science center, Regional Science Resource Center: K-12 Science, Mathematics & Technology  Education, at UMass Medical School.

Favorite Blogs

Many of us in the Reference department follow both library and non library related blogs. Here are some of our favorites.

Atlantic Free Press: Alternative press

BiblioTechWeb: The intersection of libraries and technology

Digital Reference: News and views on chat, IM, email, video reference, phone, roving, and face-to-face reference

Exploded Library: If libraries, culture, law, politics are just content, exploded onto the internet

Internet Scout Project: Updates on valuable online resources

LibrarianInBlack: Resources and discussion for tech librarians

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: On libraries, services and networks.

Research Buzz: News about search engines, databases, and other information collections

Stephen's Lighthouse

The Oil Drum: Discussions about energy and our future

The Shifted Librarian

Orion Magazine: Nature writing