Library News

Earth Week means parting with old electronics

To celebrate Earth Week, Snell Library is participating in a campus-wide electronics waste collection effort. If you have old chargers, hair dryers, lamps, plugs, cords or other electronics (not phones) please bring them to the collection box on the Circulation Desk in the lobby of Snell Library. For questions about what items are eligible, contact Carol Rosskam, NU Sustainability Program Manager, at 617.373.8730, 617.828.2505 (cell) or c.rosskam@neu.edu. Find out more about e-waste collection on the Sustainability@NU web site.

Top Ten list of most frequently challenged books for 2009

Last July we had a lively and thought provoking discussion about Censorship and the Library as a follow up to that discussion I thought I would post a link to the ALA Top Ten list of most frequently challenged books for 2009. What I find interesting is that the popular Twilight series of books has been added to the list. It seems that the challenges are theme based rather then content based for this series of books. The majority of these books are works of fiction which are challenged because they offend values of the complaining individuals. So the question that all this raises (again) is: should offended individuals prevent others from having general access to works of literature, art, music or film because they may have controversial themes or content? In my opinion taking the time to attempt to censor a particular work just calls attention to it and rather then removing the offending work from general circulation it just promotes that work to those who may indeed find it to be influential. Which is contrary the intent of the censors.

New Photo Exhibit in the DMDS

Laughing--December 2007

The Library’s Digital Media Design Studio is hosting a new exhibit in their 200 Snell Library space, highlighting student work, and starting with the photography of student Sierra Smith. If you’re interested in displaying your work, please contact Thomas Bary (t.bary@neu.edu) or Debra Mandel (d.mandel@neu.edu). Here is a following statement from the photographer: “I don’t know if I’ve been working long enough to develop a style, but my work does tend toward the artistic, rather than the journalistic. It’s often fairly colorful, too. Though I would say I’m pleased with my portfolio, it’s been mostly limited by my camera; I’ve been using the same one for years, and it’s not exactly something a photographer would flaunt. Because of its quality, my work is often narrowed into a single style. However, it also forces me to compensate by looking for things that another photographer with better equipment may not see. While he’s letting the camera dictate his photograph, I’m letting my artistic vision do the honor.” -Sierra Smith Journalism, Class of 2014 Sierra is also the Library’s event photographer and you can see many of her pictures on Snippets as well!

New Reproductive Technology in the Library

Scanner in Snell Lobby My student assistant was wondering if that thing in the lobby of Snell Library was perhaps some kind of medical device? Well, close, but it does have to do with reproduction! It’s actually an overhead scanner called a Book2Net Kiosk which we are testing out this week, to see what we think about expanding scanning options in the library. If you haven’t noticed, our photocopiers are aging, and we’re wondering what to do about replacing them. Does everyone who uses them really need paper? Would a .pdf or .jpg file do as well? Are the Infocommons scanners adequate and convenient? For myself, I feel that sometimes you just need paper, and I’d like us to continue to offer at least one copier even if it means dropping a dime now and then. At the same time, the copiers have a lot of limitations. Unlike the copiers, this scanner offers color reproduction, the ability to copy large items like maps, and it won’t break the spines of our bound periodical volumes. I haven’t experimented with advanced features, but I believe this particular machine can zoom, pan, and rotate in the advanced mode. Try it next time you’re here. It’s very easy to use, just bring a flash drive to save your documents. And let us know what you think! Is it about time for new reproductive technology at Snell?