Library News

Looking for a place to record your podcast or video project? Need to develop your media production chops? What is good sound design? The expert staff in the Library’s Recording Studios can teach you how in our multi-part workshop series beginning February 4. Click each flyer to enlarge: Use the links below to register for a workshop. Each workshop is offered on multiple dates—click on “Show More Dates” for each workshop to see when it will be offered!

Register:

• Intro to Snell Studios
• Intro to Podcasting
• Intro to Video Recording
• Intro to Sound Design

Questions? Please contact Isaac Schutz, the Recording Studios’ Co-op, at i.schutz@northeastern.edu or 617-373-2465.        

Start your 2019 research off on the right foot with our January series of workshops and webinars! Learn the basics or focus on specific tools to help you manage citations for yourself or your research group.

Registration is now open for ten different workshops. Choose from EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero, or Mendeley, or a session that introduces all of them to help you choose one.

What exactly is citation management? you may be asking.   

Summed up, it’s a clever way to create an automatic list of references (aka bibliography). Instead of spending hours typing and arranging your reference list, you can export book and article information into a program that will autoformat it. You’ll decide on your citation style, decide on placement of your in-text references in the text, and then proofread and edit. It’s generally much quicker than entering all the information by hand into your document.

Building a shared citation library for a group project or with research collaborators? Online citation management tools can help you do that, too.

Librarians at Snell Library are available—by phone, email, in person, and by video chat—to help you use these tools. Sign up for a workshop today!

Have you been up to the 4th floor of Snell Library since the spring semester started? We’ve made some changes! Over the winter break, we refreshed all the furniture on the fourth floor, and some of the 3rd floor furniture as well. This is part of a continuing program of improvements to the library in response to changing user needs.

What’s Changed, and Why?

Much of the furniture previously on the 4th floor was in the building when it opened in 1990, and it showed. It was time to replace it with more modern furniture that can meet the needs of our current student body. For example, we’ve heard feedback from students that you wanted more standing-level workspaces, so you’ll see more of those on the 4th floor. A lot of the new furniture also has built-in power — none of the previous furniture had power. We’ve arranged the furniture to maximize access to power, although we’re still working on getting everything connected to the electricity. Snell Library sees more than 2 million visits a year — so, getting furniture that can withstand high usage as well as be cleaned or repaired easily was really important, too.

Zones for Quiet Study

Before this academic year, the 3rd floor was designated as a quiet study floor, and the 4th floor was a silent study floor. Last year, we freed up quite a bit of space in the building by moving some of our books to off-site storage and consolidating the remaining collection on the 3rd floor. As a result, the entire 4th floor is currently able to be used for study space. Even on the 3rd floor, there is more floor space now dedicated to seating.  The 3rd and 4th floors are now both considered quiet study floors, and the 4th floor is configured in zones that accommodate both quiet group study and silent individual study. So, there are places for study buddies to sit together, where it’s okay to whisper or talk quietly, as well as areas for you to work in solitude.

More Seats

When you come up to the 4th floor, it might look like there’s a lot of open space. Why not fill all that space in with furniture, so even more students can study? First, the fire code limits how many seats we can have on a floor, in order to keep occupancy at a safe level. Even if we didn’t have that limitation, keeping the furniture spaced out helps keep volume level reasonable for everyone using the floor. With the furniture replacement, there are more seats on the 4th floor now than there were even last semester! We’ve increased seating by about 10 percent. And there’s now a wider array of functionality for a variety of uses.

Tell Us What You Think!

We’re planning to observe how the new furniture is used, as well as soliciting constructive feedback from students. We can use that information to rearrange furniture into configurations that might work better for folks. Beyond that, we’re always open to student input, and we definitely consider it seriously when planning any building or service changes. We want Snell Library to be an environment that is shaped by its users, from first-year students to faculty. Send us your feedback!

Have you ever held a vinyl recording in your hand, used a turntable to play music? The opportunity is now yours! More than 100 treasures from Snell Library’s Solomon Jazz Collection and a new turntable are available in Snell Library’ Media Creation Studio 203, outside the Recording Studios.

Donated to Snell Library by former trustee Bernard Solomon, these recordings span a range of genres including bebop, Dixieland, ragtime, and swing. Recording artists include Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney, Fats Waller, Count Basie and Duke Ellington to name a few.

The complete list is here:  https://bit.ly/2zTaXeQ

To listen to these records, book a reservation on LibCal for up to 3 hours. https://northeastern.libcal.com/reserve/AVS

The records are on two shelves adjacent to the turntable and arranged in call number order.If you need assistance using the turntable, please see someone in the Recording Studios. The Solomon Jazz records cannot be checked out or leave the room.



For more information about this collection, please contact Debra Mandel: d.mandel@northeastern.edu        

Finals. Everyone’s favorite time of year. We love it as much as you do. Your friends at Snell Library and the Curry Student Center want you to know you’re not alone and to take some time to take a step back from all the end of semester craziness to de-stress. To help you achieve that, we will have:

Thursday, December 6th to Wednesday, December 12th: Coloring table, Legos, madlibs, and bubble wrap to pop in Snell’s Lobby

Thursday, December 6 at 3pm: Zooniverse activity in Snell’s Lobby – count penguins and more!

Sunday, December 9 at 7pm: Movie night in Snell Library, Room 90

Tuesday, December 11th at 1PM: therapy dog at Snell Library

Tuesday, December 11th at 5PM: pop up “study break” with coffee and snacks in Snell Library

Throughout all of Finals Week, be on the lookout for giveaways, free coffee study breaks, and positive sentiments from library staff!

We love that you love to study in Snell but we understand that sometimes more space is needed. So, our friends at the Curry Student Center have reserved some rooms for you for finals week study.

From 7:30AM to 2AM, rooms 333, 334, 335, 336, and 342 will be open for quiet study. Room 340 will be open for collaborative study.

What’s Poppin’ will also be open for study 9AM to 9PM Monday through Thursday and 9Am to 5PM on Friday.

In addition to extra study space, our friends at Curry will be giving away chocolate covered coffee beans daily at Campus Crossroads as well as:

Thursday, December 6th/Reading Day: Starbucks Nitro at 9PM in the indoor quad until it runs out

Friday, December 7th: Hot Chocolate Bar at Campus Crossroads 11am until it runs out

Saturday, December 8th: Free Starbucks Nitro at 7PM in the indoor quad until it runs out

Monday, December 10th: chocolate covered coffee beans and stress relief activity: make your own buttons.

Tuesday, December 11th: chocolate covered coffee beans and stress relief activity: make your own buttons.

From all of us here at Snell Library and Curry Student Center, we wish you the best of luck on your finals!